overted by Rambaud, who
remarks that nobody would have been more surprised than Aquinas
himself at the suggestion that he was the forerunner of Karl Marx.[2]

[Footnote 1: Even Ashley states that 'the doctrine had thus a close
resemblance to that of modern Socialists; labour it regarded both as
the sole (human) cause of wealth, and also as the only just claim to
the possession of wealth' (_Op. cit._, vol. i. part ii. p. 393).]

[Footnote 2: _Op. cit._, p. 50.]

The idea that the scholastics traced all value to the labour expended
on production is rejected by many of the most prominent writers on
mediaeval economic theory. Roscher draws particular attention to the
fact that the canonist teaching assigned the correct proportions in
production to land, capital, and labour, in contrast to all the later
schools of economists, who have exaggerated the importance of one or
the other of these factors.[1] Even Knies, who was the first modern
writer to insist on the importance of the cost of production as an
element of value, states that the Church sought to fix the price of
goods in accordance with the cost of production (_Herstellungskosten_)
_and_ the consumption value (_Gebrauchswerte_).[2] Brants takes the
same view. 'The expenses of production are in practice the norm of the
fixing of the sale price in the great majority of cases, above all
in a very narrow market, where competition is limited; moreover, they
can, for reasons of public order, form the basis of a fixing that
will protect the producer and the consumer against the disastrous
consequences of constant oscillations. The vendor can in principle
be remunerated for his trouble. It is well that he should be so
remunerated; it is socially useful, and is used as a basis for fixing
price; but it cannot in any way be said that this forms the _objective
measure of value_, but that the work and expense are a sufficient
title of remuneration for the fixing of the just price of the sale
of a thing. Some writers have tried to conclude from this that the
authors of the Middle Ages saw in labour the measure of value. This
conclusion is exaggerated. We may fully admit that this element
enters into the sale price; but it is in no way the general measure
of value.... The expenses of production constitute, then, _one_ of
the legitimate elements of just price; they are not the _measure_ of
value, but a factor often influencing its determination.'[3] 'Labour,'
according to Dr. Cro