MERCANTILE ACTIVITY. —
I. Concept
Mercantile activity, in general, is any exchange of goods or values. Among the various forms of exchange, buying and selling prevails.Three main types of mercantile activity are distinguished: the lucrative, the economic, and the industrial. Lucrative mercantile activity is a purchase inspired exclusively by the desire for gain. Two elements therefore distinguish it: the intention to resell at a higher price what was bought; and moreover, to resell it without first making any modification that would in any way increase its economic value. If instead one buys not to resell at a higher price, but to satisfy one’s own needs, even if it later proves more convenient to resell—whether merely due to a rise in prices—this is economic mercantile activity. Finally, buying with the intention of reselling at a higher price what was acquired, but after having increased its value through appropriate processing, constitutes industrial mercantile activity. In this case, the excess of the selling price over the purchase price represents not only profit but also remuneration for the labor of the modifications made, whether this labor was personally developed by the buyer or by others at his expense. In practice, the three forms of mercantile activity can coexist or combine in various ways with one another and with any other economic, productive, industrial, or commercial activity.
II. Moral Aspects
All three forms of mercantile activity are, in themselves, morally licit; however, lucrative mercantile activity, being dominated exclusively by the desire for gain that is never satisfied, is not entirely consonant with human dignity. Moreover, it exposes one to grave dangers when the thirst for profit is not contained within the bounds of higher purposes, for example, the sustenance of one’s family. It is also certain that lucrative mercantile activity is foreign to the work of sanctification of oneself and others to which clerics and religious dedicate their lives. Therefore, the Church, in accordance with very ancient traditions, prohibits the former (can. 142) and the latter (can. 593 and 679§1) within the following limits.The prohibition extends to every form of lucrative mercantile activity. This includes stock exchange speculation (v.) or speculation in any case on commercial shares and bonds; it remains licit, however, to invest one’s own capital in such securities for the purpose of receiving the related income (Holy Office, Apr. 13, 1885). The prohibition also applies to industrial mercantile activity, but only when a cleric or religious uses wage labor to transform the goods to be resold at a higher price. This is the unanimous interpretation of canonists and moralists, based moreover on the analogy of such activity with lucrative mercantile activity. The prohibition is grave; not, however, against isolated operations, but against the exercise of such activity, constituted by their multiplicity, under the influence of a single decision. This exercise remains always gravely illicit, whether its execution is entrusted to laypersons or whether the profits realized are destined for the benefit of others, whether for pious or secular causes. By decree of the Congregation of the Council, Mar. 22, 1950, the transgression of this law is punished with a latae sententiae excommunication specially reserved to the Holy See (AAS, 42 [1950], pp. 330-31).
For reasons that are evident in themselves, certain exceptions escape this ecclesiastical prohibition. If a cleric co-owns an economic activity based on lucrative mercantile activity, he may exploit it by exercising it through the co-owners; he is not obliged to renounce or alienate his own share. The exercise of lucrative mercantile activity is also tolerated when it presents itself as the sole means of sustenance for oneself and one’s family. In this case, however, so that everything may be conducted in a manner befitting the clerical or religious state and only within the limits of necessity, the Ordinary shall grant permission, at least with regard to non-Italian territories (Clement XIII, *Cum primum*, Sept. 17, 1759). Probably also for Italy, after the promulgation of the new Code of Canon Law, the permission of the Ordinary is sufficient and that of the Holy See is no longer necessary, as the cited document prescribed. Lucrative mercantile activity is also licit when it develops in an accessory manner alongside another principal economic activity (v. COMMERCE).
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