Just Price in the Markets by Charles Geisst

Just Price in the Markets: A History

by Charles R. Geisst

A concise history of the "just price" from the time of Aristotle to the present day.

The question of what constitutes a fair price has been at the heart of economic and moral debates for centuries. Should a seller simply charge the highest price a buyer is willing to pay, or is there a moral standard that should apply? In this insightful history, Charles R. Geisst traces the evolution of this idea, exploring how philosophers, religious leaders, and economists have grappled with this question from antiquity to the modern era.

Geisst follows the path of this concept, starting with Aristotle’s influential views on usury, which held that money was barren and should not be used to create more money. As trade expanded, these strictures began to give way to Roman and common-law notions of value and interest. The book charts parallel developments in European and Islamic thought, showing how key figures like Copernicus, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes shaped our understanding of pricing.

Today, price is widely seen as an inevitability, dictated solely by the forces of supply and demand. But as Geisst argues, the idea of a just price was once a profoundly moral concept—long before it became an economic one.