Abstract
This paper deals with economic aspects of Puritan life using Puritan practical tracts ("Cases of Conscience," etc.) as its main point of reference. The paper aims to demonstrate the Puritan origins of modern modes of production and exchange. First, as Richard Baxter's A Christian Director)'(1673) shows, Puritans strived to lead a systematic life. Life was understood as a calling from God; thus Puritans involved themselves totally in their particular businesses. In economic terms, Puritans were "independent producers." As one's calling was thought necessarily to be useful to others, a particular social divison of labor developed, often expressed in terms of "clockwork." Each trade, moreover, required "diligence" and "prudence,"and thus these "independent producers" gradually acquired features of modern capitalism in terms of "efficiency" and "rationality." Secondly; as concerns exchange, Puritans devised an "equal contract" which aimed to bring about equal gain realized by equal bargaining-in effect, free competition in d market. They rejected monopolistic forms of exchange and regarded a competetive "common estimate" as the basis of "market price,"accepting "public rating" in non-competetive items such as foodstuffs. Thus; because of (not inspite of) its religious orientation, Puritans were a rising petit-bourgeoise, gradually developing a modarn market economy in the midst of the traditional.
