The School of Salamanca: How Spanish Thinkers Invented Modern Economics

Long before Adam Smith, a group of theologians and jurists at the University of Salamanca were wrestling with inflation, exchange rates, and the morality of money. As silver from Potosí flooded Europe, Spanish intellectuals noticed prices rising—and tried to understand why. This episode dives into the School of Salamanca, the early modern thinkers who developed a proto-quantity theory of money, debated just price and usury, and laid groundwork for modern economics. We explore figures like Francisco de Vitoria, Domingo de Soto, Martín de Azpilcueta, and Tomás de Mercado; the moral questions they asked about empire and commerce; and why their ideas were later overshadowed by Enlightenment economists. A story of silver, scholasticism, and the unexpected birth of economic science in sixteenth-century Spain. #SchoolOfSalamanca #HistoryOfEconomics #MartínDeAzpilcueta #FranciscoDeVitoria #TomásDeMercado #DomingoDeSoto #QuantityTheoryOfMoney #JustPrice #Usury #PotosiSilver #SpanishEmpire #SixteenthCentury #Salamanca #Scholasticism #EconomicThought #Inflation #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo