The history of ideas is full of attempts to construct a conceptual apparatus to facilitate discussions of the workings of economic structures and of justice in interpersonal relations, cultural institutions and the social order. The aim of this volume is to provide up-to-date summaries of such ideas on economic issues and social justice which have been brought forward in each historic period from antiquity to early modern times. The emphasis is on the Near Eastern and Mediterranean background of western European culture from the world of the Old Testament and the ancient Greeks through to...