Chrematistics

[1] Chrematistics for Aristotle, was the accumulation of money for its own sake, especially by usury, an unnatural activity that dehumanizes those who practice it.

According to Aristotle, the "necessary" economy is licit if the sale of goods is made directly between the producer and buyer at the right price; it does not generate a value-added product.

[3] Saint Thomas Aquinas accepted capital accumulation if it served for virtuous purposes as charity.

Max Weber argued that Protestant sects emphasized frugality, sobriety, deferred consumption, and saving.

[4] In Karl Marx's Das Kapital, Marx developed a labor theory of value inspired by Aristotle's notions of exchange[5] and highlighting the consequences of what he also calls auri sacra fames (damned thirst for gold), a Latin reference of Virgil to the passion of money for money itself.