Martín de Azpilcueta: biography of this theologian and economist.

This was the life of Martín de Azpilcueta, representative of the School of Salamanca.

Martin de Azpilcueta, by many known as the Navarrese Doctor, was a theologian, priest and economist who lived well into the Modern Age, the same year in which America was stepped on by Christopher Columbus.

As a witness to the great importation of valuable metals to the Peninsula, he also witnessed how the massive arrival of gold and silver made the local and European economy change drastically, something that allowed him to put forward several theories that, with the passage of time, would be the basis of basic economics.

We will now take a look at the life and work of this thinker through a biography of Martin de Azpuy. a biography of Martín de AzpilcuetaWe will especially highlight his economic theses, which were truly innovative for the time.

Brief biography of Martín de Azpilcueta.

Martín de Azpilcueta, also known as the Navarrese Doctor, was an important figure in the history of Spain, especially for his innovative ideas on economic theory.. He was, like many men of his time, very versatile: priest, theologian, philosopher and economist. He taught in various institutions in France, Spain and Portugal and was a member of the School of Salamanca, a fact that allowed him to have a great intellectual impact on the cultural scene of the time.

Early years

Martín de Azpilcueta was born in Barásoain, Kingdom of Navarre, on December 13, 1492 in the bosom of a family belonging to the Navarrese nobility. He arrived in the world at a really important time for the history of Spain, at that time the Crown of Castile, the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Navarre. The Middle Ages were coming to an end with the exploration of a new world, and with its end a new era was beginning with new ideas, ideological currents and new visions of how society should be organized.

In 1509 he entered the University of Alcalá to study theology. When he finished his studies, he followed in the footsteps of many of his contemporaries, studying for his doctorate in canons in France. In that country he also began his career as a university professor, first at the University of Cahors and then at the University of Toulouse. In the city of Toulouse he was ordained a priest and began to work as a professor of canon law..

Doctor from Navarre, professor in Salamanca.

Because of his Navarrese origin Martín de Azpilcueta was also known as Doctor Navarro or Doctor navarrus Azpilcueta, and was a productive man in many of the knowledge and intellectual arts of the time. He worked not only as a teacher, but also as a counselor, essayist and prolific writer. The themes of his writings focus on the concerns of the time and, above all, on those of the authors of the well-known School of Salamanca, also known as Late Scholasticism.

In 1524, when he was only 32 years old, Martín de Azpilcueta began his time as a teacher at the University of Salamanca, occupying the chair of Prima en Cánones.. He remained in Tormes until 1537 and, during his time in that city, Azpilcueta became one of the great professors of the University of Salamanca. His classes and lessons greatly influenced the ideas of later thinkers, such as Diego de Covarrubias y Leyva.

Last years

After living in Tormes and teaching in Salamanca, he moved to the University of Coimbra, occupying the same chair he had taught at his previous university. In 1556 he returned to Spain but, after about ten years, he embarked on a new journey, this time to Rome. His mission was to defend the archbishop of Toledo, Bartolomé de Carranza, who had been accused of heresy. Martín de Azpilcueta's oratory attracted much attention at the tribunal, which earned him the confidence of the papal power.

After that event he managed to carry out an important task as advisor to Popes Pius V, Gregory XIII and Sixtus Vas well as being widely recognized as a great canonist during his time. He was also a trusted man of nobles, including Charles I of Spain himself, although he had more than one disagreement with his successor Philip II, the monarch who in fact vetoed his appointment as cardinal.

He resided in Rome until the day of his death on June 21, 1586, at the age of 93.a milestone for any person of his time. He was buried in that same city, as he wished, specifically in the Church of San Antonio de los Portugueses.

Thought, works and contributions to economic theories.

The subject matter of the writings of Dr. Navarro responded to the concerns of the time, a society that had just overcome the Middle Ages and discovered all kinds of new resources outside the Old Continent, the topics dealt with by the authors of the School of Salamanca..

Among his most important works we can highlight the following:

• Manual de Confessores y Penitentes (1553) and its Adittiones.
• Comentario Resolutorio de Usuras (1556).
• De redditibus beneficiorum Ecclesiasticorum (1566).
• Compendium horum omnium Navarri operum (1598).

One of the most striking themes of Martín de Azpilcueta's work is how he expounds the idea of the fair price and the the idea of the fair price and the value-scarcity theory.. In discussing these topics, very advanced for his time, the Navarrese doctor is considered by many as the father of the quantitative theory of money, a theory which states that the value of money varies in inverse relation to its supply or the amount of money available, ideas also discussed by the Frenchman Jean Bodin in 1568.

The historical context in which he lived made him see this phenomenon first hand. In the 16th century, the Hispanic Monarchy together with Portugal were expanding worldwide. The conquest and exploitation of new territories created an extensive commercial network between distant territories, increasing the resources in Europe thanks to their importation from the Americas, among them precious metals. This had an impact on the availability and prices of goods.

In his 1556 work "Comentario resolutorio de Usuras" he analyzed how the arrival of precious metals to the Iberian Peninsula put upward pressure on prices.. In this work he argues that prices respond to the amount of money in circulation in a country. Therefore, the more precious metals there are, the more prices increase and, also, this situation is the other way around, that is, if there are few minerals, prices tend to be low.

As precious metals arrived en masse in Europe, the quantity of precious metals increased faster than other goods. This caused the metals to lose value in relation to the latter, causing strong inflation. Later, Azpilcueta himself pointed out that prices were also altered by the speed of money circulation. According to his theory, the speed of economic movements influences the increase in prices.

One of the most advanced and surprising ideas of Martín de Azpilcueta is his defense of the legitimacy of applying interest in lending operations. This opinion was based on his idea that money could be just another commodity with which to trade, ideas that he defended both in his "Comentario resolutorio de cambios" and in "De usuris". This view clashed with that of the Church centuries earlier, which considered the charging of interest an act of usury.

Azpilcueta argued that the price of money, i.e. interest, was easily determinable if financial transactions were carried out in a single country.. Since within a state money was just another commodity, its price was based on the law of supply and demand. However, this was more complicated if the transaction was an international operation. If the supply of money was different between the two countries, its price was also going to be different.

Bibliographical references:

• Arigita y Lasa, M. (1998) El doctor navarro don Martín de Azpilcueta y sus obras: estudio histórico crítico. Analecta Editorial. Pamplona.
• Martínez Tapia, R. (1997) Filosofía política y derecho en el pensamiento del siglo XVI: el canonista Martín de Azpilcueta. Colegio Notarial de Granada. Granada.
• Muñoz de Juana, R. (1998) Moral y economía en la obra de Martín de Azpilcueta. Eunsa. Ediciones Universidad de Navarra, S.A. Barañáin.
• Olóriz Azparren, H. (1998) New biography of the Navarrese doctor D. Martín de Azpilcueta and enumeration of his works. Analecta Editorial. Pamplona.
• Pardo Fernández, R. (2011) Martín de Azpilcueta y su época. Pamplona, Government of Navarra.