The Evolution of Just Price

1 Introduction

The price is the economic core concept. Under the condition of commodity economy, the interest relation of market exchange is adjusted through the price. So “just price” becomes the logic starting point of analyzing economic ethical order. The two problems "what is fairness” and “what is just price” have always been deeply touched thoughtful minds as key problems. This paper will analyze the concept evolution of “just price” to reveal the historical significance of economic fairness. In the history of western economics, from ancient Greece and Rome, through the Middle Ages until eighteenth Century that the production mode of capitalist has been gradually established, “just price” thought roughly experienced three stages: the price concept of ethical “absolute justice”, the price theory of consonant “hierarchical justice” and the price theory of “interest justice” (Katherine, 2012）.

2 the price concept of ethical “absolute justice”

In the period of ancient Greece and Rome, natural economy occupies the absolute advantage. People lives in the moral system based on the rights and obligations. In whole time the price has distinct ethical characteristic, namely pursuing absolute equality and justice of the market exchange. Aristotle (2000) in “ The ethics” directly addressed exchange’s justice: “ the contract between both sides of exchange should be based on the basis of equality. The value of one thing giving a person to use is measured by specific price. Therefore, whether the price is more than the value of item or the opposition, it all lacks of necessary fair.” According to exchange motivation, he divided exchange activities into two categories: reasonably and appropriately using goods is to meet natural needs. If to exchange goods for earning money, so that is secondary and inappropriate application. Rome jurist discussed the formation of price, for example, the jurist Paulus said: “in buying and selling, natural law allows a party to purchase in a price which is lower than goods’ real value, and the other party sells things with a higher value. This is to allow either party to trick on other side (Fabio, 2010).” After collapsing of Western Rome Empire, Western Europe is dominated by the Germanic peoples, and their basic economic organization is the community groups of providing for themselves. It does not allows the exchange treating the profit as purpose between group members, and this idea lasted until the early stage of Christianity’s emergence. In the notes of the book “Genesis”, Augustinus (1993) explained the “fair price” as the basic criterion of commodity exchange: “I know there is such a person, when seeking to buy a copy of transcripts and seeing the seller does not know its value, and he will naturally give the seller at a fair price.”

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