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The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that there is a gigantic difference in political philosophy between earlier and later Catholic theology, regarding free trade.

The paper compares statements on free trade made in the earlier period by adherents of the School of Salamanca, and in the later period by Populorum Progressio.

The paper finds that early theologians favored free trade unreservedly, while later ones were either ambivalent, or in opposition.

Catholicism is not an unchanging philosophy, at least insofar as the economics of free trade is concerned. Catholic social thought on other economic issues, price controls, profits, usury, ought to be studied to see if there has been a similar sea change in perspective from earlier to later theologians.

It might be harsh to characterize what has occurred in this dimension as the “high‐jacking” of a political economy. On the other hand, it is not clear that this is not an accurate characterization.