Catholic ethics and the spirit of Capitalism: gift and contract in the School of Salamanca

Abstract

 This article aims to contribute to the debate on the relationship between economy and religion through a deepening of the structure of the caritas in the Catholic tradition of the School of Salamanca. According to We­ber’s famous thesis that relates the Protestant ethic to the spirit of capitalism, the separation between the world of the contract and that of the gift would have allowed the emergence of modern economic institutions —especially the market and the State— and capitalist development. The thesis that is su­ pported here shows how, for the Catholic tradition gift and contract, are not opposed but that one is the foundation of the other; in other words, that the market presupposes the gift. As a corollary, it will be argued that the rejection of usury that is observed in the Salamanca tradition is linked to the defense of the currency as a gift.