The medieval church as an economic firm?

Abstract

A school of economic historians argues that the medieval church was an economic firm: not metaphorically, but literally. Their work has been virtually ignored by professional medieval historians, but it has been published by Oxford University Press and the University of Chicago Press, so it does deserve attention. Conversely, it would be healthy for economists and public choice scholars to get reactions from a historian. There appears to have been a wall between the two disciplines, an unhealthy situation. The economists discussed here see the medieval Church as a “multi-divisional firm”, “characterized by a central office [the papacy] that controls overall financial allocations and conducts strategic, long-range planning, but allows divisions (usually regional) a high degree of autonomy in day-to-day operations” (ST 1996: 20). In fact, the medieval church was a multitude of discrete systems within a common legal framework. It was certainly not an “economic firm”.