The Virtues of Necessity: Labor, Money, and Corruption in John of Salisbury's Thought

"The Virtues of Necessity: Labor, Money, and Corruption in John of Salisbury's Thought." This paper challenges the widespread view that the emergence of technical economics during the Latin Middle Ages awaited the emergence of university-based scholasticism. Twelfth-century thinkers gauged the temporal impact of the technological, commercial, and fiscal changes experienced by European society. The English churchman and author John of Salisbury (1115/20-1180), for instance, argued that the natural needs of human beings dictate the design and organization of the parts of the community. The body politic ought to be arranged so as to facilitate the intercommunication of economic tasks and functions for mutual advantage. John criticizes commercial activity aimed solely at personal profit, and he associates such commerce with the circulation of money. Money is antithetical to the "natural" circulation of goods and services necessary for the maintenance of human life. Yet ultimately John does not reject the accumulation of liquid wealth, especially by rulers, at least so long as its purpose is clearly understood to be the pursuit of the communal good.