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The Political Economy of Juan De Mariana

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The Political Economy of Juan De Mariana THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF JUAN DE MARIANA 3Jmprimi tlottS't. E J KELLY S.J., . LAWRENC.. York Pro11lnce. PrOVincUll Maryland-New . CANLAN S.T.D., ARTHUR J. S, Censor LibrorUln. 3Jmprimatur. INAL HAYES. • PATRICK CARD Archbishop, New York. NEW YORK, April 19, 1928. THE POLITICAL ECONOMY of JUAN DE MARIANA BY JOHN LAURES, S.J., PH.D. Professor designate·of Economics Jochi University, Tokyo, Japan With a Foreword By EDWIN R. A. SELIGMAN MeVickar Professor of Political Economy Columhia University NEW YORK FORDHAM UNIVERSITY PRESS 1928 Copyright, 1928, by Fordham University Pres. FOREWORD I N the field of the history of Economics there are still vast tracts untilled and even uncleared. Among the more im­ portant of these unreclaimed stretches is the economic lit­ erature of Spain. We forget that Spain was at one time the foremost European country in both wealth and politics and it would be surprising if there had not been an active dis­ cussion at the time of the many important problems which arose out of its economic life. This economic literature is almost wholly unknown in foreign countries. For many years I have been interested in this Spanish literature, and have been eager to find some one who might be competent to, and disposed for, the undertaking of its study. In Father Laures I finally discovered a scholar who was exceptionally well qualified, with his careful training in mediaeval lore, his unusual linguistic accomplishments, and his thorough command of Economics. I accordingly urged and abetted him in the present treatise, rather regretfully, I must now admit, for Mariana and his times from an economic standpoint have always greatly attracted my interest. Mariana's fame, or rather his notoriety, as a monarch­ omach, has caused the modern world entirely to overlook his substantial achievements in the field of Economics. Mariana, however, was only one of a group of Spanish scholars who v FOREWORD made noteworthy contributions to the field of Public Finance as well. Accordingly I urged Father Laures to broaden his researches in order to be able to make a comparison between Mariana and the other Spanish Jesuits who attained prom­ inence in this field. Father Laures has attacked his problem with commend­ able zeal and enthusiasm and has made good use of the original sources. He has in my opinion given us a distinct contribution and has enriched the history of economic doc­ trines with a noteworthy study which will, I trust, before long lead to equally noteworthy successors. EDWIN R. A. SELIGMAN, McVickar Professor of Political Economy Columbia University. New York, February, 1928 vi AUTHOR'S PREFACE ERTAIN names in history cannot he mentioned with­ C out arousing a sense of indignation. The Spanish J esuit, Juan de Mariana, is, for example, considered hy many the typical representative of that "Jesuitical teach­ ing" which threatens the lives of sovereign princes and rulers. For these people Mariana and regicide are insep­ arahly connected ideas. Until recently very few, even among scholars, took the trouhle to inquire further ahout this strange man who caused such a stir in his own day. That he was one of the greatest of Spanish historians and that he wrote learned treatises on divers other suhjects was seldom noticed. Mariana taught one false and fatal doctrine and that has sufficed to condemn him; he did one wrong, and so all the good he accomplished has been overlooked. Prantl, in J. K. Bluntschli's Deutsches Staatsworterbuch, goes so far as to sum up Mariana's political philosophy in these words: "... to put it briefly, the conclusion is that a tyrant can be deprived of his power and of his life hy anyone." 1 Nor is Ranke's judgment much fairer. He con­ fines himself to saying that Mariana shows a "manifest pre­ dilection" to decide all questions concerning ruler and ruled "without reserve to the advantage of the people and the prejudice of the princely authority, and that he pronounces encomiums replete with pathetic declamation" on Jacques 1 Kurz, das Resultat ist. ceDer Tyrann kann von Jedwedem der Herrschaft und de!! Lebens beraubt werden." Deutsches Staatsworterbuch, Bd. 6, p. 539. vii PREFACE Clement, the assassin of his king. Ranke also helieves that "the fanaticism of the murderer had without douht been inflamed hy these very doctrines." 1 A modern scholar who is neither a Jesuit nor a Roman Catholic offers an explanation of the matter. He says: "Prej­ udice has above all the effect that one does not or cannot understand a person because one does not listen or want to listen to him. This is the spirit in which Mariana is usually treated." 2 Within recent years, however, Mariana has been studied by impartial critics. Until about sixty years ago he was mentioned only for his teaching on tyrannicide; then sud.. denly in 1870 the French writer, Pascal Duprat, surprised everyone by ranking the ill-famed Jesuit among those great men who had developed the principles of Political Econ­ omy nearly two centuries before the classical economists made it an independent science. 8 Referring to the then recent republication of Mariana's treatise on money, which had been forgotten completely during more than 200 years, Duprat wrote: "One knows Mariana today for little more than his General History of Spain, which is still cited occasionally, and for that hold hook on royalty which at the time had the honor of being burned by the public executioner. The Spanish Jesuit has, however, left other writings more or less noteworthy, and among these is one which deserves a place in the history of economic thought. It is a treatise on money in which the author, preceding the masters of a science which did 1 The History of the Popes, by Leopold von Ranke, translated by E. Foster, Vol. 2, p.8. II "Dnd was insbesondere die Eingenommenheit gege11l jemand mit sieh zieht, ist, dass man ihn nieht versteht nnd nieht verstehen kann, weil man ihn nieht hort nnd nieht horen will. So verf1ihrt man gewohnlieh mit Mariana...." B. Antoniades, Die Staatslehre des Mariana, in Archiv fur Geschichte der PhilosoPhie, Berlin, 1908, Band XXI, p. 168. 8 Journal des Ecanomistes, V. 17, 1870, p. 85. viii PREFACE not as yet exist, knew how to discover and to develop true principles bearing on the subject." 1 Then in a short article Duprat gave a summary and re­ view of Mariana's treatise on money, coming to the con­ clusion that it was an independent development of the same subject which had interested Nicholas Oresme and Nicholas Copernicus and urged them to win their places among great authors on the principles of money. Duprat did not, how­ ever, enter into a discussion of the many other econonlic ideas contained in this and other works written by the famous Spanish Jesuit. This was undertaken to a very limited extent by the Spaniard Pedro Urbano Gonzalez de la Calle in Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos. Here the political and moral ideas of Mariana were treated in full. Somewhat earlier there had appeared Die Staatslehre des Mariana, by Basilius Antoniades. Accordingly, there is now room for a complete and ex­ haustive treatment of Mariana, the economist. This the present volume hopes to supply. Since Political Economy is a branch of Political Science, and since a full under­ standing of the originality of our author is thereby greatly facilitated, his contributions to Political Theory and the Art of Government will first be briefly discussed. Although this part of our monograph is based entirely upon original sources, it does not claim to be exhaustive for the reason that ample development of this material would change the character of the treatise as a whole, which aims to consider Mariana primarily as an economist. 1 "On ne connait guere aujourd'hui Mariana que par son Histoire generale d'Espagne, qui est encore citee Quelquefois, et pard ce livre hardi sur la royaute, qui e:ut I'honneur dans Ie temps d'etre brule par la main du bourreau. Le jesuite espagnol a cependant laisse d'autres ecrits plus ou moins dignes de remarque et parmis ces ecrits, it s'en trouve un qui merite d'occuper une place dans I'histoire des idees economiques. C'est un traite de la monnaie, dans lequel I'auteur, devanGcant les maitres de la science qui n'existait pas encore, a su decouvrir et exposer les veritables principes sur la matiere." Pascal Quprat, Un ]esuite economiste, in Journal des Economistes, V. 17, 1870, page 85. ix PREFACE The chief sources utilized are De Monetae Mutatione, De Rege et Regis lnstitutione, De Ponderibus et Mensuris, De Spectaculis and De Morte et lmmortalitate. Mariana rightly termed himsel£ a theologian of the Society of Jesus, for he taught this subject in both Rome and Paris; but his great­ ness lies rather in his ability as an historian, his principal work being his Historia General de Espana. Even in his political writings he is an historian rather than a philosopher or a theologian; and this bent of mind explains both his strength and his weakness. Nevertheless, our investigation confines itsel£ in Ithe main to the writings of Mariana, and resorts to other Jesuit authors only in order to correct his views whenever he differs from his brethren, and to give a fuller treatment to those topics on which he merely touches. It has seemed appropriate, therefore, to supplement his ideas with references to those great contemporary Spanish Jesuits who attained fame as philosophers and theologians. This method was likewise suggested by the circumstance that Mariana differs on not a few points from his Spanish brethren and that his opinions cannot be taken without re­ serve as those of the Spanish Jesuit school.
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