Global Journal of Human Social Science, E: Economics, Volume 22 Issue 2

Others, less sensually oriented, see happiness in being honored and appreciated by others. Real happiness, however, can be achieved for oneself and one's own only through good, righteous and virtuous works. The latter are those in which there is no suspicion, no involvement of anything dishonorable . 23 Only in passing should we mention the Protestant and Calvinist economists who, against the background of the doctrine of predestination, cultivated Puritanism, in which occupational success justified the assumption of the divine redemption of the believer in the hereafter, whereby the Lutheran had to prove himself in the respective occupation and in Calvinism occupational changes were possible. In Puritanism, secular thinking is imbued with religious considerations, as when, for example, John Milton makes the rise and fall of civil societies dependent on the virtue of discipline: "Discipline is not merely the removal of disorder, but, if divine things can somehow be given visible form, so as the visible embodiment of virtue." Virtue, then, for Alberti, is the basis of happiness, whereby the dominion of the mind over the body avoids waste. The "domestic fathers' literature", as the economists of the 16th to 18th centuries are also called, since they describe the cosmos of the early modern whole house, proceeds equally from humanistic approaches such as Alberti's and Christian sermons. Here, alongside religious and moral duties, there is advice on farming, viticulture and gardening as well as animal husbandry, weather rules, astrological explanations and epistolary formulations. Popular in Germany was the priest Johannes Coler (1593-1603) with Oeconomica ruralis et domestica , which rejects the widespread disdain for agriculture and refers to the home as a monarchy in miniature, where wife, servants and children should follow the landlord. The Georgica curiosa (1682) by the landed noble Wolf Helmhardt von Hohberg demands reason, justice and kindness from the landlord instead of excessive harshness. He discusses in detail how the householder should behave towards God, his own passions, his wife, his children and his servants. Only then does he discuss agriculture, animal husbandry, bees, forestry and hunting. A late work is Der Hausvater by O. von Münchhausen (1764- 1773). Characteristic of these texts is that they start from man and deal with the objects of nature only after they have presented his values and attitudes. 24 Discipline means the avoidance of wasting time. Inner- worldly asceticism is what Max Weber calls the Puritan and Calvinist intensity of work, modesty of demands, and frugality combined with the rejection of pleasures such as going to the theater, dancing, and gambling. Diligence, moderation and self-control appear here as the main virtues . 25 This ascetic lifestyle, a rational shaping of the whole of existence oriented to God's will, attempts to transform everyday life into a rational life in the world and yet not of this world or for this world, although chrematism, rejected since Aristotle, with its hunger for economic gain then awakens in the Puritan context as an economic virtue to a new flowering . 26 In Spain, the genre of domestic fathers' literature is divided into two parts: On the one hand, there are texts that orient the figure of the householder to that of the prince in the princely mirrors; on the other hand, one finds morally and politically oriented texts on agriculture. To the former genre belongs El perfecto señor (1626, 1653) by Antonio López de Vega. Love of God and fear of God come first in his explanations of the spirit of the householder. This is followed by disciplines of knowledge such as rhetoric, history and philosophy, which he is supposed to deal with without becoming conceited. Moral philosophy and practice, however, seem more important to him . But here, too, the reason of the subject dominates when the object world is met with virtue and discipline. 27 In dealing with subordinates, he is to consider "que la comodidad, i riqueza de los vassallos, haze ricos à los señores; i su maltratamiento, i pobreza los empobreze. " 28 "En la Economica de su familia, " 29 he said, great caution was needed. "Cuide, cuide, i sepa del orden, con que en su casa se procede: la cantidad, i calidad de sus rentas: quando, i como se cobran, i destribuyen: si estan quixosos los criados (en cuya informacion consiste gran parte de la reputacion de los Señores) i si cada uno acude con cuidado, i suficiencia, a lo essencial de su ministerio." 30 He said that less important tasks should be entrusted to the care of his superintendents. When he hires new personnel, he should first pay attention to their virtues, since only tyrants prefer vicious persons. In hiring servants, it is said, "la nobleza del alma estime, i busque sobre la del cuerpo." 31 After the order of the house, the area outside comes into view. In the first place there is the prince, to whom loyalty and zeal for Volume XXII Issue II Version I 46 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 © 2022 Global Journals E Economy between Necessity and Luxury. Business Ethics from Antiquity to Early Modern Times 25 Cf. Erich Egner, Der Verlust der alten Ökonomik. Seine Hintergründe und Wirkungen, Berlin Duncker & Humblot, 1985, p.115-118 26 Cf. Erich Egner, Der Verlust der alten Ökonomik. Seine Hintergründe und Wirkungen, Berlin Duncker & Humblot, 1985, p. 122-125 27 Carlos Vaillo, La formation culturelle de la personne chez Antonio López de Vega, in: Marie Roig Miranda (ed.), La transmission du savoir dans l’Europe des XVI e et XVII e siècles, Classiques Garnier, Paris, 2000, p. 69-79, hier p. 76 28 Antonio López de Vega, El perfecto señor, Madrid, Imprenta Real, 1653, p. 18 29 Antonio López de Vega, El perfecto señor, Madrid, Imprenta Real, 1653, p. 19 30 Antonio López de Vega, El perfecto señor, Madrid, Imprenta Real, 1653, p. 20 31 Antonio López de Vega, El perfecto señor, Madrid, Imprenta Real, 1653, p. 24 23 Leon Battista Alberti, Della Famiglia. Über das Hauswesen, Artemis, Zürich, Stuttgart 1963, p. 171f 24 Cf. Erich Egner, Der Verlust der alten Ökonomik. Seine Hintergründe und Wirkungen, Berlin Duncker & Humblot, 1985, p. 114