Copernicus as Economist

Abstract

In Europe the early 16th century was marked by a rapid rise of capitalism within the bosom of the feudal system of production. Productivity grew, the capitalist type of ownership of the means of production flourished and became consolidated while some of the small producers in the towns and even in the villages transformed into a proletariat. The natural economy disintegrated apace, products became commodities, the money economy expanded vigorously, the domestic market gained importance and the last vestiges of the old economic isolation of towns, regions and districts vanished. The substantial increase in internal and foreign trade was directly related to the growth of productivity, to the development of the social division of labor, to the erosion of the feudal system of village industries and to an increase in the volume of marketable agricultural produce. Production became the production of commodities, that means that the goods produced become articles of commerce sold on the market.

Erat administrator episcopae. Vita incolumi…

The essay appeared in Polish in Mikołaj Kopernik. Szkice monograficzne (Nicolaus Copernicus. Monographic Studies). Warsaw 1965.