John Calvin: The Unknown Economist

Abstract

John Calvin (1509–64), the most influential economist of his time, was a reformer and a novel economist, in line with Erasmo. He postulated economic dynamics prior to those of the Scottish philosophers David Hume and Adam Smith. Among his many writings, we can infer a set of conjectures about an individual that we can term the Calvinian economic individual. This individual, whom he describes with impeccable French logic, emerges with his theological outlook after 1533. Human life encompasses different spheres, with the economy being one of them. Satisfying needs and wants requires labour and effective time management in the Garden of Eden, as in the world today. Nevertheless, the key difference now is the fallen nature. Adam and Eve’s disobedience triggers scarcity and a distorted mindset in all human beings. While the former is relevant in the economy, the latter is a problem in all spheres of life. Furthermore, this is the heart of Calvin’s economic outlook. Hence, it is important to disentangle the very nature of the individual from the theological dimension. It is impossible to comprehend the spirit of his economic thought without describing the genesis of this problem. Thus, the objective of this paper is to describe the Calvinian economic individual, seeing Calvin as a scientific movement, as Kuyper does. This lawyer, humanist, and investigator, with his French mind, has to say many interesting things that have remained hidden.