Economy, Wealth, and Ethics in Bartolomé de las Casas and José de Acosta

The new economic realities that arose from the Spanish presence in America produced a lively debate as part of the Indian Controversies of the sixteenth century. Two important theoreticians, the Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas (1484-1566) and the Jesuit José de Acosta (1540-1600) differed from one another in important ways, but nonetheless they coincided in subordinating the economy and the use of wealth to ethics. Their knowledge of the mercantile practices and uses established in America permitted them to evaluate those practices with a powerful realism.