Al-Ġazālī e il “buon mercante”

Abstract Medieval economic thought broke down the boundaries set by the natural economy and placed the merchant on a higher level than the farmer or the artisan. Rich merchants represented a powerful and respected class in Islamic world, near power without ever acquiring the capacity to manage or condition it. Merchant behaviour was considered the correct (or at least partially correct) way to use money. Trading meant putting money (and wealth in general) in circulation; so like charity and alms, it guarantees the virtuous circulation of goods within the community. Taking clearly stimulus from Abū Ṭālib al-Makkī (d. 996), al-Ġazālī (d. 1111) represents the moral weakness and ambiguity of the merchant and his constant hovering in society as a figure lying between selfish greed and public usefulness. This is not the author’s aversion to earnings and trade; on the contrary he considered the merchant to be part of the “natural order” of things. Only through “exchange” can man satisfy all his needs, and the market/merchant is the link between the producer (farmer and artisan) and consumer. In this way a complex society is created in which the accumulation of wealth is essential for further development and where the market itself – the law of supply and demand – defines the “fair price”. Thus al-Ġazālī recognises the importance of trade in the economy of the Muslim world and, like Abū Ṭālib al-Makkī, he dictates the rules for behaviour for a “good merchant”.