Just Price in the Markets

Just Price in the Markets by Charles R. Geisst offers a concise history of the concept of "just price," spanning from Aristotle to the present day. The question of what constitutes a fair price has been a pivotal aspect of market interactions since Aristotle's time. Should a seller cater to the highest bidder, or is there a moral standard, a just price, that should be applied?

Charles R. Geisst explores how philosophers, religious leaders, and economists have attempted to answer this question, from antiquity through to the modern era. Aristotle's views on usury, which considered money as barren and not to be used for generating more money, significantly influenced pricing ideas well into the Renaissance. As trade expanded, these Aristotelian restrictions on pricing began to diminish, giving way to Roman and common-law concepts of value and interest.

This book traces the evolution of these thoughts, drawing on the works of figures such as Copernicus, Fibonacci, Adam Smith, Marx, Cassel, and Keynes, and it also examines parallel developments in European and Islamic concepts of fair pricing.

In contemporary times, pricing is perceived as an economic inevitability, governed by the laws of supply and demand. However, this was not always the perception. Geisst argues that the idea of a just price was a moral concept long before it evolved into an economic one.