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Merchants DBQ Essay

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Merchants DBQ Essay
Merchant activity sustained the livelihood of all major civilizations throughout history. These activities went great distances in the fact that they supported governments and economies throughout the world in ancient and present civilizations. Even though merchant activity sustained life and the livelihood of strong civilizations, different religions from around the world viewed these activities differently. Typically, throughout the post-classical civilizations, negativity would be the best word to describe the feelings most religions had towards merchants and the actions these people underwent. In the early decades after the B.C. era finished, Christians began developing their own ideas on merchants and their proceedings. Within the New …show more content…
On behalf of Reginald, a monk of Durham (Document 3) it was stated that people ought to spread wealth and goods, one shall not maintain high riches, for they should instead, furnish for charity-give rather than receive. Reginald, lettering on behalf of his colleague St. Godric, says that in order to serve the Lord and Jesus Christ, one ought to give up all possessions, lead a more simple life and give to those less-fortunate. Thomas Aquinas, a leading Scholastic theologian (Document 4) states that people shall not “sell what is not his, and though he may charge for the loss of his suffers.” He states that people of the earth and of God shunt sell things for more than they are worth, which is exactly the activity merchants practice, for they need to make profit by raising the price on what they paid for merchandise. A similar phenomenon was occurring in the Islamic religion during this era. Ibn Khaldun, a leading Muslim scholar in the fourteenth century, announced that men shouldn’t pay more for what an item is worth and that they shunt raise prices of goods for people, just so merchants can bathe in higher riches (Document 5). In the later centuries, particularly the 14th-17th, views on the prosperous merchants of the world did not change. Not only were religious views on merchants negative, nevertheless mother’s views of their child merchants were of poor quality (Document

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