"Moral Economy"? On the Economic Ethics of the Salamanca School using the Example of Martin de Azpilcueta and Leonardus Lessius

The "Moral Economy" approach has become increasingly popular in the humanities and the social sciences as a result of the recent financial crisis. However, the concept of Moral Economy is not so much tapping its full potential because it offers greater insights than the mere statement that moralists talk about economics but beacuse, rather, the approach helps to investigate how actors refer to older or alternative economic semantics or institutions in describing contemporary economic systems. It underlines the ambivalent coexistence of different ideas of the economy and the context of their discursive construction. Hence, starting from E. P. Thompson, this article discusses the main contributions of Early Modern Studies to the concept of Moral Economy and explores their possibilities for the analysis of economic ethical writings by the "School of Salamanca", using the examples of Martin de Azpilcueta (1492-1586) and Leonardus Lessius (1554-1623). The essay concludes with a brief sketch of the potential of combining the approach of Moral Economy with the concept of historical economic styles.