The theory that the just price was objective seems to be accepted by the majority of the best modern students of the subject. Sir William Ashley says: 'The fundamental difference between the mediæval and modern point of view is... that with us value is something entirely subjective; it is what each individual cares to give for a thing. With Aquinas it was entirely objective; something outside the will of the individual purchaser or seller; something attached to the thing itself, existing whether he liked it or not, and that he ought to recognise.'[1] Palgrave's _Dictionary of Political Economy_, following the authority of Knies, expresses the same opinion: 'Perhaps the contrast between mediæval and modern ideas of value is best expressed by saying that with us value is usually something subjective, consisting of the mental determination of buyer and seller, while to the schoolmen it was in a sense objective, something intrinsically bound up with the commodity itself.'[2] Dr. Ryan agrees with this view: 'The theologians of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries assumed that the objective price would be fair, since it was determined by the social estimate. In their opinion the social estimate would embody the requirements of objective justice as fully as any device or institution that was practically available. For the condition of the Middle Ages and the centuries immediately following, this reasoning was undoubtedly correct. The agencies which created the social estimate and determined prices--namely the civil law, the guilds, and custom--succeeded fairly in establishing a price that was equitable to all concerned.'[3] Dr. Cleary says: 'True, the _pretium legale_ is regarded as being a just price, but in order that it may be just, it supposes some objective basis--in other words, it rather declares than constitutes the just price.'[4] Haney is also strongly of opinion that the just price was objective. 'Briefly stated, the doctrine was that every commodity had some one true value which was objective and absolute.'[5] The greater number of modern students therefore who have given most care and attention to the question are inclined to the opinion that the just price was not subjective, but objective, and we see no valid reason for disagreeing with this view, which seems to be fully warranted by the original authorities. [Footnote 1: _Op. cit._, vol. i. pt. i. p. 140.] [Footnote 2: Art. 'Justum Pretium.'] [Footnote 3: 'The Moral Aspect of Monopoly,' by J.A. Ryan, D.D., _Irish Theological Quarterly_, in. p. 275; and see _Distributive Justice_, pp. 332-4.] [Footnote 4: _Op. cit._, p. 193.] [Footnote 5: _History of Economic Thought_, p. 75.] §7. _The Mediæval Attitude towards Commerce_.