The paper analyzes the economic thought of the late Spanish scholastics and shows that they have made a meaningful contribution to the development of economics. It aims at proving that these authors deserve the name of originators of the scientific economic knowledge. The literary output of the 16th century's Spanish thinkers includes, apart from theological and juridical texts, also reflections on economic problems that, by their substance and nature, have been ahead of many economic conceptions. The reflections developed by the Spanish scholastics make the germ of progressive thoughts and ideas considered today as free-market and liberal. Their reflections also present sometimes very radical appraisal of certain phenomena and suggest a just, from the point of view of moral philosophy, solution to the difficulties that appear in the economic life. The paper starts with considerations that describe this group and bring nearer their times whereas its main part is a presentation of the most important economic ideas of the representatives of the Spanish scholastic economics. Then, the perception and appraisal of their output in the economic literature are presented. The links between the scholastic economics and the Austrian school of economics are discussed as well
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