[Footnote 1:  The Living Wage, p. 27.]

[Footnote 2:  Growth of English Industry and Commerce, vol. i. p. 460.]

[Footnote 3:  Endemann, Studien, vol. ii. p. 60.]

[Footnote 4:  Lessius, De Justitia et Jure, II. xx. 1, 21.]

[Footnote 5:  Ibid.]

[Footnote 6:  Langenstein, De Cont.; Biel, op. cit., iv. xv. 11.]

[Footnote 7:  Quoted in Janssen, op. cit., vol. ii. p. 102.]

[Footnote 8:  Roscher, Geschichte, p. 12.]

It must at the same time be clearly kept in mind that the seller was also protected.  All the authorities are unanimous that it was as sinful for the buyer to give too little as for the seller to demand too much, and it is this aspect of the just price which appears most favourable in comparison with the theory of price of the classical economists.  In the former case prices were fixed having regard to the wages necessary for the producer; in the latter the wages of the producer are determined by the price at which he can sell his goods, exposed to the competition of machinery or foreign—­possibly slave—­labour.[1] According to the Catholic Encyclopaedia:  ’To the mediaeval theologian the just price of an article included enough to pay fair wages to the worker—­that is, enough to enable him to maintain the standard of living of his class.’[2] ‘The difference,’ says Dr. Cunningham, ’which emerges according as we start from one principle or the other comes out most distinctly with reference to wages.  In the Middle Ages wages were taken as a first charge; in modern times the reward of the labourer cannot but fluctuate in connection with fluctuations in the utility and market price of the things.  There must always be a connection between wages and prices, but in the olden times wages were the first charge, and prices on the whole depended on them, while in modern times wages are, on the other hand, directly affected by prices.’[3] Dr. Cunningham draws attention to the fact that the labouring classes rejected the idea of the fixing of a just price for their services when, from a variety of causes, a situation arose when they were able to earn by open competition a reward higher than what was necessary to support them according to their state in life.[4] Nowadays the reverse has taken place; unrestricted competition has in many cases resulted in the reduction of wages to a level below the margin of subsistence; and the general cry of the working classes is for the compulsory fixing of minimum rates of wages which will ensure that their subsistence will not be liable to be impaired by the fluctuations of the markets.  What the workers of the present day look to as a desirable, but almost unattainable, ideal, was the universal practice in the ages when economic relations were controlled by Christian principles.

[Footnote 1:  Ashley, op. cit., vol. i. pt. i. p. 129.]