Exchanging Money for Money: Late-Scholastic Thought in Early Modern Spain

Abstract

Money exchange contracts were at the core of late-scholastic teaching and writing in Spain during the sixteenth century. Any contract of money for money was known as cambios. Under this heading, merchants and theologians articulated how they viewed money and its economic functions. At the University of Salamanca, the lectures and writings by Francisco de Vitoria, Domingo de Soto, and Martín de Azpilcueta Navarro on matters of money and exchange engaged with merchants, fellow theologians, and the clergy. The work of these scholars reveals a new scholastic perspective on current financial practices that taxes prior interpretations. Over the course of the sixteenth century, the understanding of money evolved from the traditional meaning of money as the sign and instrument of the exchange of goods to a quantitative theory of value that understood money in ways similar to those of practicing merchants. Although Vitoria and Soto remained closer to the traditional idea of money as an instrument of exchange, their work led to Navarro’s pragmatic analysis of international exchange and his understanding of trading and banking as reputable professions.