Surprisingly, it is not well known,the Salamanca School was several centuries ahead of classical economists. In 16th and 17th century Spain, Salamancan theologians analyzed many of the principles that would later be adopted in 18th century classical liberalism. Before Adam Smith, David Hume, and John Stuart Mill wrote their books, these thinkers were already pondering values, property, commerce, and justice in exchange. It is no coincidence that Ludwig von Mises (of the Austrian School) said that the Spaniards of Salamanca were “the true pioneers of modern economics.”
influence Members of the School of Salamanca crossed the Spanish border. It is recorded that the Founding Fathers of the United States were inspired to act by ideas rooted in their traditions. The American Revolution shared with her the belief that all men are created equal, that sovereignty rests with the people, and that the power of government must be limited. The principle that there can be no taxation without representation also refers to this moral and legal idea.
The people of Salamanca influencedIt was thus incorporated into the foundations of the North American Constitution through the political philosophy of the second American president, John Adams, and, indirectly, through its reception of the ideas of John Locke, which were taken from that source.
In the Hispanic American world, this tradition is evident in the works of Written by Manuel Belgrano. While studying in Salamanca and Valladolid, he was exposed to an intellectual tradition that integrated moral theology and political economy. Mr. Belgrano maintained that the country’s wealth depends on jobs, education, and respect for private property, and that he intends to continue the Salamanca line. Similarly, it defended freedom of trade and denounced monopoly and corporate privilege, following a vision of the market understood as a space for free and voluntary cooperation between individuals.
thinkers The people of Salamanca reflected on the ethical and economic issues of commerce, property, money, and political power. Already in 1555 Bishop Diego de Covarrubias said: “The value of a thing does not depend on its objective properties, but on man’s subjective evaluation.” Another great thinker, Martín de Azpilcueta (1493-1586), anticipated the quantitative theory of money when he wrote, “Money is worth more when it is scarce than when it is in abundance.” And Juan de Mariana (1535-1624), with his usual audacity, advised the king to reduce public spending and avoid unnecessary wars. “Your Majesty, avoid unnecessary businesses and wars, and cut off your cancerous limbs.”
of Natural law theory focused on dignity and freedom Human beings as rational creatures gave rise to many of the ideas that would be taken up centuries later by classical liberalism centered on Adam Smith. In this sense, liberalism can be said to be partly a secularized version of Salamanca’s ideas.
austrian school Economia, founded by Carl Menger in 1871, collects Salamanca’s heritage And we develop it from a scientific perspective. Its purpose is to explain how markets work and to demonstrate that only respect for free human action makes economic and social progress possible. Whereas classical liberalism considers the market to be a natural and harmonious order in which prices are kept in balance thanks to competition, Salamanca considers the market to be a dynamic process of adjustment and discovery. Furthermore, in contrast to the traditional stream based on rational decisions between given means and ends, i.e. neoclassicalism, the Austrians focus their analysis on human behavior, understood as a dynamic, creative and subjective process of discovery and adjustment.
in Words of Jesus Huerta de Sotothe Austrian School is “the preeminent liberal school of economics because it is the school that best explains how state intervention and coercion in business functions seriously disrupts social processes of creativity and coordination.” The Austrian School begins with the study of human beings as they are: emotional, imperfect, and diverse. It seeks to understand economic processes from the perspective of freedom of action. Its greatest proponent, Ludwig von Mises, defined economics as the science of rational human behavior and called it pragmatism. Therefore, rationality is not measured by the success of the outcome, but by the fact that each person freely makes choices based on his or her own judgment. This ability to choose, err, learn, and act according to one’s own ends is, for Mises, the very expression of human freedom. Ismael Quiles writes: “Freedom is not just one of many capacities, but rather the human condition itself.”
This means that people from Salamanca and Austrians share certain elements. Essential: Freedom and personal responsibility are fundamental to progress. Civilization can only prosper if human freedom of action is respected.
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