School of Salamanca

thumb|upright|[[University of Salamanca]]

thumb|upright|17th century classroom at the University of Salamanca

The School of Salamanca () was an intellectual movement of 16th-century and 17th-century Spanish Scholastic theologians rooted in the intellectual and pedagogical work of Francisco de Vitoria. From the beginning of the 16th century, the traditional Catholic conception of man and of his relation to God and to the world had been informed by internal developments in the Italian Renaissance and its humanism, but also been challenged by the Protestant Reformation and the new geographical discoveries and their consequences. These new problems were addressed by the School of Salamanca.

The name is derived from the University of Salamanca (Spain), where de Vitoria and other members of the school were based. The Salamanca School of economic thought is frequently regarded as an early precursor to the Austrian School of Economics. This is due to its development of the subjective theory of value, its advocacy for free-market principles, and its focus on the supply and demand of money—ideas that would eventually contribute to the modern concept of sound money.

Scope of the term

Most properly, the term applies merely to the intellectual movement of the early 16th century at the university of Salamanca led by Francisco de Vitoria. The University of Salamanca (Spain) was founded in 1218 and was one of the homes of Thomisitic theology. More broadly, it comprises the bulk of Iberian Renaissance-Scholastic philosophy. In its broadest application, the notion is sometimes applied to the entirety of Second scholasticism, of which Vitoria's career and legacy are but an early, albeit formative part. This, however, is highly misleading, as there are important strands of Second scholasticism, such as the Baroque Scotism, of which connexion to the Salamancan legacy is rather tenuous.

The term most often connotes developments specifically in the fields of philosophy of law and economics associated with Vitoria's legacy; for Scholastic philosophy and theology of the 16th century in general the term "Renaissance Scholasticism" is now preferred by scholars.

History and leading figures

The intellectual movement started with Francisco de Vitoria (1483–1546) and Domingo de Soto (1494–1560), both Dominican Thomists. The Thomist line was continued by the Carmelites Complutenses and Salmanticenses.

In the latter part of the 16th century, the newly founded Jesuits rose to intellectual prominence, with authors such as the Conimbricenses, Pedro da Fonseca (1528–1599), Luis de Molina (1535–1600), Gabriel Vásquez (†1604), and Francisco Suárez (1548–1617).

With Suárez, however, the intellectual movement had already vastly surpassed its roots and Suárez's legacy defines the transition from Renaissance to Baroque scholasticism of the 17th and 18th centuries, for which the term "School of Salamanca" is no longer appropriate.

Law

Philosophy of law

Many leading figures of the school, such as Francisco de Vitoria, Domingo de Soto, Martín de Azpilcueta (or Azpilicueta), Tomás de Mercado, or Francisco Suárez, were not just philosophers and theologians but also jurists and scholars of natural law and of morality. They undertook the adaptation of the teachings of Thomas Aquinas to the then new political-economic order.

The juridical doctrine of the School of Salamanca represented a profound transformation of medieval concepts of law, with a revindication of liberty not habitual in Europe of that time.

The natural rights of man came to be, in one form or another, the center of attention, including rights as a corporeal being (right to life, economic rights such as the right to own property) and spiritual rights (the right to freedom of thought and to human dignity).

Natural law

The members of the School of Salamanca were the first people to develop a modern approach of natural law.

For Domingo de Soto, the theologian's task is to assess the moral foundations of civil law. That's how he criticized the new Spanish charities' laws on the pretext that they violated the fundamental rights of the poor, or that Juan de Mariana considered that the consent of population was needed in matter of taxation or money alteration.

Except for the earlier Laws of Burgos, the views of the Salamanca school constituted a quasi-novelty in European thought and went counter to those then predominant in Spain, and Europe that people indigenous to the Americas had no such rights. .

Sovereignty

The School of Salamanca distinguished two realms of power, the natural or civil realm and the realm of the supernatural, which were often conflated in the Middle Ages through granting royal control of investiture of bishops, or the temporal powers of the pope.

One direct consequence of the separation of realms of power is that the king or emperor does not legitimately have jurisdiction over souls, nor does the pope have legitimate temporal power. This included the idea that there are limits on the legitimate powers of government.

Thus, according to Luis de Molina a nation is analogous to the mercantile corporations of his time, in that those who govern are holders of power (effectively sovereigns) but a collective power, to which they are subject, derives from them jointly.

Nonetheless, in de Molina's view, the power of society over the individual is greater than that of a mercantile corporation over its members, because the power of the government of a nation emanates from God's divine power (as against merely from the power of individuals sovereign over themselves in their business dealings).

At this time, the monarchy of England was extending the theory of the divine right of kings—under which the monarch is the unique legatee of God's power—asserting that subjects must follow the monarch's orders, in order not to contravene God's design. Counter to this, several adherents of the School sustained that the people are the vehicle of divine sovereignty, which they, in turn, pass to a prince under various conditions. In this, the late scholastics were instrumental in the development of early modern theories of political representation.

Possibly the one who went furthest in this direction was Francisco Suárez, whose work Defensio Fidei Catholicae adversus Anglicanae sectae errores (The Defense of the Catholic Faith against the errors of the Anglican sect 1613) was the strongest contemporary defense of popular sovereignty. Men are born free by their nature and not as slaves of another man, and can disobey even to the point of deposing an unjust government.

As with de Molina, he affirms that political power does not reside in any individual, but he differs subtly in that he considers that the recipient of that power is the people as a whole, not a collection of sovereign individuals—in the same way, Jean-Jacques Rousseau's theory of popular sovereignty would consider the people as a collective group superior to the sum that composes it. is that the natural form of government is either a democracy or a republic, while oligarchy or monarchy arise as secondary institutions, whose claim to justice is based on consent of the governed organized in a political body.

The law of peoples and international law

thumb|upright|right|[[Francisco Suárez]]

Francisco de Vitoria played an important role in the early modern comprehension of ius gentium (the rights of nations). He extrapolated his ideas of legitimate sovereign power to relations between nations, concluding that international society as well ought to be ruled by just forms respecting the rights of all. The common good of the world is of a category superior to the good of each state. This meant that relations between states ought to pass from being justified by force to being justified by law and right. Vitoria has been referred to, along with Grotius, as the “father of international law.”

Francisco Suárez subdivided the concept of ius gentium. Working with already well-formed categories, he carefully distinguished ius inter gentes from ius intra gentes. Ius inter gentes (which corresponds to modern international law) was a just agreement among the majority of countries, although being positive law, not natural law, it was not necessarily universal. On the other hand, ius intra gentes, or civil law, is specific to each nation.

Many scholars have argued for the importance of Vitoria and Suárez as the forerunners and founders of the International law field, and the precursors of the seminal text De iure belli ac pacis by Grotius. Others, such as Koskenniemi, have argued that none of these humanist and scholastic thinkers can be understood to have founded international law in the modern sense, instead placing its origins in the post-1870 period.

Just war

thumb|upright|right|[[Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda]]

The School of Salamanca made significant contributions to just war theory, particularly in the writings of Francisco de Vitoria, Francisco Suárez, and Luis de Molina. Building on Thomas Aquinas and Augustine of Hippo, these scholars developed further the ethics of warfare.

Vitoria argued in his lecture De Indis that a just war requires legitimate authority, a just cause, and proportional means. He opposed wars motivated by religious conversion, territorial expansion, or personal ambition. Additionally, Vitoria held that both Christian and non-Christian societies possessed natural rights, rejecting the concept of natural slavery and affirming the right of indigenous peoples to sovereignty and property.

Francisco de Vitoria began his analysis of conquest by rejecting "illegitimate titles," or illegitimate reasons for conquest. He was the first to dare to question whether the bulls of Alexander VI known collectively as the Bulls of Donation were a valid title of dominion over the newly discovered territories. In this matter he did not accept the universal primacy of the emperor, the authority of the pope (because the pope, according to him, lacked temporal power), nor the claim of voluntary submission or conversion of the Native Americans. One could not dismiss them as sinners or ignorant savages: they were free people by nature, with legitimate property rights. When the Spanish arrived in America they brought no legitimate title to occupy and rule those lands.

Vitoria also analyzed whether there were legitimate claims of title over discovered lands. He elaborated up to eight legitimate titles of dominion. The first and perhaps most fundamental relates to communication between people, who jointly constitute a universal society.

Universal right to travel and conduct commerce

Ius peregrinandi et degendi, developed primarily by Francisco de Vitoria in the 16th century, established the universal right to travel and conduct commerce throughout the world, regardless of territorial governance or religious differences. This concept emerged as a fundamental principle within international law theory during the Age of Discovery.

Vitoria articulated this right in his lectures De Indis (On the Indians), arguing that restrictions on free movement and trade violated natural law. The doctrine encompassed several key elements: the right to travel (ius peregrinandi), the right to dwell in foreign territories (ius degendi), and the right to engage in commerce (ius commercii).

Vitoria also used this principle to justify certain aspects of Spanish colonization. He argued that if indigenous peoples of the Americas denied these natural rights to Spanish travelers and merchants, the denied parties possessed a just cause for war (bellum iustum) and could legitimately claim territories acquired through such defensive actions. This interpretation significantly influenced subsequent colonial legal theory and the development of early modern international law. This doctrine remains relevant to modern debates about migration, international trade, and sovereignty.

The right to preach and proselytize

The second form of legitimate title over discovered lands referred to the right of the Spanish to preach and proselytize. The Indians could voluntarily refuse conversion, but forbidding missionaries would make the matter analogous to the first case. Nonetheless, Vitoria noted that although this can be grounds for a just war, it is not necessarily prudent because of the resulting death and destruction.

The other cases of this casuistry are:

If the pagan sovereigns force converts to return to idolatry.
If there come to be a sufficient number of Christians in the newly discovered land that they wish to receive from the Pope a Christian government.
In the case of overthrowing a tyranny or a government that is harming innocents (e.g. human sacrifice)
If associates and friends have been attacked—as were the Tlaxcaltecas, allied with the Spanish but subjected, like many other people, to the Aztecs—once again, this could justify a war, with the ensuing possibility of legitimate conquest as in the first case.
The final "legitimate title" although qualified by Vitoria himself as doubtful, is the alleged mental incapacity of the foreign population resulting in lack of just laws, magistrates, agricultural techniques, etc. In any case, title taken according to this principle must be exercised with Christian charity and only for the advantage of the Indians.

Emperor Charles V, then ruler of Spain, took offense to this doctrine of "legitimate" and "illegitimate" titles purporting to limit his prerogatives, and he tried without success to stop its promulgation.

Contract law

thumb|upright|right|[[Luis de Molina]]

First movement to systematise contract law, the contractual doctrin of School of Salamanca is based on two pillars : freedom and equity.

The School of Salamanca played a great role in the diffusion of the contractual consensualism. If this idea was already admitted in canon law since the 12th Century and the application of the principle pacta sunt servanda, the civil law only followed this way in the 16th century after the call of famous jurists like Luis de Molina. Moreover, preceded notably by Leonardus Lessius, the jesuit Pedro de Oñate claimed the existence of a "contractual freedom" and an "autonomy of the will" on the grounds that the Man, created by God who made him free, have an autonomy in the management of his goods and of his commitments. However, this liberty isn't complete because it cannot overstep the principle of free consent and because the contrat cannot ignore the formalism required by the authorities, or have an immoral object.

The members of the School of Salamanca also thought, following Luis de Molina, that contracts have been established for common utility and consequently, that natural law can't tolerate a privileged party. To allow the application of this principle of commutative justice, they elaborated the concept of just price. Every violation of this notion constitutes a laesio for one, and an unjust enrichment, an infraction to the seventh Commandments and a sin for the other. Only a restitution of the undue prince enables the absolution and bring back the contractual equilibrium.

Economics

The School of Salamanca has been described as the "first economic tradition" in the field of economics. This put the origins of economic theory on Europe's mainland, prompting a reassessment of the entire history of the discipline.

Antecedents

thumb|upright|right|[[Diego de Covarrubias]]

In 1517, de Vitoria, then at the Sorbonne, was consulted by Spanish merchants based in Antwerp about the moral legitimacy of engaging in commerce to increase one's personal wealth. From today's point of view, one would say they were asking for a consultation about the entrepreneurial spirit. Beginning at that time, Vitoria and other theologians looked at economic matters. They moved away from views that they found to be obsolete, adopting instead new ideas based on principles of natural law.

According to these views, the natural order is based in the "freedom of circulation" of people, goods, and ideas, allowing people to know one another and increase their sentiments of brotherhood. This implies that merchantry is not merely not reprehensible, but that it actually serves the general good.

Private property

The adherents of the School of Salamanca all agreed that property has the beneficial effect of stimulating economic activity, which, in turn, contributed to the general well being. Diego de Covarrubias y Leyva (1512–1577) considered that people had not only the right to own property but—again, a specifically modern idea—they had the exclusive right to the benefit from that property, although the community might also benefit. Nonetheless, in times of great necessity, there, all goods become a commons.

Luis de Molina argued that individual owners take better care of their goods than is taken of common property, a form of the tragedy of the commons.

Money, value, and price

thumb|upright|right|[[Martín de Azpilcueta]]

With their reflexions on Contract law and fairness in exchange, the members of the School of Salamanca were often confronted with the concept of value. Thus observing the effect of American silver and gold arrivals in Spain, namely lessening of their values and augmentation of prices, Martín de Azpilcueta established the idea of a value-scarcity, first form of the quantity theory of money.

The just price of something, which respects the principle of commutative justice, depend on many factors. It has a certain latitude because it's not the result of God's will or of labor but of the common estimation of the people (communis aestimatio hominum). On this Luis Saravia de la Calle wrote in 1544:

<blockquote>Those who measure the just price by the labour, costs, and risk incurred by the person who deals in the merchandise or produces it, or by the cost of transport or the expense of traveling...or by what he has to pay the factors for their industry, risk, and labour, are greatly in error.... For the just price arises from the abundance or scarcity of goods, merchants, and money...and not from costs, labour, and risk.... Why should a bale of linen brought overland from Brittany at great expense be worth more than one which is transported cheaply by sea?... Why should a book written out by hand be worth more than one which is printed, when the latter is better though it costs less to produce?... The just price is found not by counting the cost but by the common estimation.</blockquote>

However, as Friedrich Hayek has written, the school rarely followed this idea through systematically. His members thought that authorities were sometimes required to intervene and to control prices, especially in monopoly cases or for staples. The opportunity of an economic interventionnism, called arbitrism, wasn't unanimously accepted : if somes thought that the prince concerned of public interest is more trustable that greedy merchants, like Domingo de Soto and Tomás de Mercado, others like Luis de Molina, Leonardus Lessius or Juan de Lugo considered that any intervention of the authorities is inopportune owing to the corruption and the clientelism that it'll created.

First group

Pupils of Vitoria and their pupils.

Arias Piñel (1512-1563)
Antonio de Padilla y Meneses (-1580)
Bartolomé de Albornoz (1519-1573)
Bartolomé de Medina (1527-1581)
Diego de Chaves (1507-1592)
Diego de Covarrubias (1512-1577)
Diego Pérez de Mesa (1563-1632)
Domingo Báñez (1528-1604)
Domingo de Soto (1494-1560)
Fernán Pérez de Oliva (1494-1531)
Francisco de Vitoria (1492-1546)
Francisco Sarmiento de Mendoza (1525-1595)
Francisco Suárez (1548-1617)
Gregorio de Valencia (1549-1603)
Jerónimo Muñoz (1520-1591)
Juan de Horozco y Covarrubias (1540-1610)
Juan de la Peña (1513-1565)
Juan de Matienzo (1520-1579)
Juan de Ribera (1532-1611)
Juan Gil de la Nava (-1551)
Leonardus Lessius (1554-1623)
Luis de León (1527-1591)
Martín de Azpilcueta (1492-1586)
Martín de Ledesma (1509-1574)
Melchor Cano (1509-1560)
Pedro de Sotomayor (1511-1564)
Tomás de Mercado (1523-1575)

Second group

Salamanca contemporaries who had no direct relationship with Vitoria.

Alonso de la Vera Cruz (1507-1584)
Cristóbal de Villalón (c.1500-c.1558)
Fernando Vázquez de Menchaca (1512-1569)
Francisco Cervantes de Salazar (1514?-1575)
(1583-1660)
Juan de Salas (1553-1612)
Luis de Molina (1535-1600)
Pedro de Aragón (1545/46-1592)
Pedro de Valencia (1555-1620)

Third group

External figures influenced by this current of thought.

(-1590)
Bartolomé de Carranza (1503-1576)
Bartolomé de las Casas (1484-1566)
(1550-1621)
Domingo de Salazar (1512-1594)
Domingo de Santo Tomás (1499-1570)
Gabriel Vásquez (1549-1604)
Gómez Pereira (1500–1567)
Juan de Mariana (1536-1624)
Juan de Medina (1489-1545)
(1565-1626)
(1490-1549)
(1539-1621)
Pedro da Fonseca (1528-1599)
(1567-1646)
Rodrigo de Arriaga (1592-1667)

References

Bibliography

. Contends that the alleged economic liberalism is based on a misreading of scholastic texts.
Grice-Hutchinson, Marjorie (1952). The School of Salamanca: Readings in Spanish Monetary Theory, 1544–1605
Grice-Hutchinson, Marjorie (1978). Early Economic Thought in Spain, 1177–1740.
Grice-Hutchinson, Marjorie (1993). Economic thought in Spain. Selected Essays of Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson, edited with an introduction by Laurence Moss and Christopher K. Ryan.
Liggio, Leonard P. (Jan & Feb 2000) "The Heritage of the Spanish Scholastics". Religion & Liberty. 10 (1). Grand Rapids, MI: Acton Institute.
Rothbard, Murray, New Light on the Prehistory of the Austrian School Essay originally published in The Foundations of Modern Austrian Economics, edited by Edwin Dolan (Kansas City: Sheed and Ward, 1976), pp. 52–74.
Schumpeter, Joseph (1954). History of Economic Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press.
: Puts into context of truce negotiations 1608–1809. Ittersum (p. 18) notes Grotius' citing of School of Salamanca figures, as well as the Ancient Greek, Roman and early Church Fathers (p. 12).

External links

The School of Salamanca A Digital Collection of Sources and a Dictionary of its Juridical-Political Language.
The School of Salamanca on the History of Economic Thought website.