, and
feudal and non-feudal, below which price the seller must not give, or
above which the buyer must not demand, however they may desire to do
so. As therefore the price is a kind of measure of the equality to be
observed in contracts, and as it is sometimes difficult to find that
measure with exactitude, on account of the varied and corrupt desires
of man, it becomes expedient that the medium should be fixed according
to the judgment of some wise man.... In the civil state, however,
nobody is to be decreed wiser than the lawgiving authority. Therefore
it behoves the latter, whenever it is possible to do so, to fix the
just price, which may not be exceeded by private consent, and which
must be enforced.'...[1] Biel practically paraphrases this passage of
Gerson, and contends that it is the duty of the prince to fix prices,
mainly on account of the difficulty which private contractors find in
doing so.[2]

[Footnote 1: _De Cont._, i. 19.]

[Footnote 2: _Op. cit._, IV. xv. 11.]

The rules which we find laid down for the guidance of the prince in
fixing prices are very interesting, as they show that the mediaeval
writers had a clear idea of the constituent elements of value.
Langenstein, whose famous work on contracts was considered of high
authority by later writers, says that the prince should take account
of the condition of the place for which the price was to be fixed, the
circumstances of the time, the condition of the mass of the people.
The different kinds of need which may be felt for goods must also
be considered, _indigentice naturae_, _status_, _voluptatis_, and
_cupiditatis_; and a distinction drawn between extensive and intensive
need--the former is greater 'quanto plures re aliqua indigent,' the
latter 'quanto minus de illa re habetur.' The general rule is that the
prince must seek to find a medium between a price so low as to render
labourers, artisans, and merchants unable to maintain themselves
suitably, and one so high as to disable the poor from obtaining the
necessaries of life. When in doubt, Langenstein concludes, the price
should err on the low rather than the high side.[1] Biel gives similar
rules: The legislator must regard the needs of man, the abundance or
scarcity of things, the difficulty, labour, and risks of production.
When all these things are carefully considered the legislator is in a
position to fix a just price.[2] According to Endemann, the labour of
production, the cost and ris