Further, it may happen so that not only a commerce which brings in nothing shall be useful, but even a losing trade shall be beneficial. I have heard it affirmed in Holland that the whale fishery in general does not answer the expense; but it must be observed that the persons employed in building the ships, as also those who furnish the rigging and provisions, are jointly concerned in the fishery. Should they happen to lose in the voyage, they have had a profit in fitting out the vessel. This commerce, in short, is a kind of lottery, and every one is allured with the hopes of a prize. Mankind are generally fond of gaming; and even the most prudent have no aversion to it, when the disagreeable circumstances attending it, such as dis- sipation, anxiety, passion, loss of time, and even of Hfe and for- tune, are concealed from their view.
7. — The Spirit of England zvith respect to Commerce The tariff or customs of England are very unsettled with respect to other nations; they are changed, in some measure, with every parliament, either by taking off particular duties, or THE SPIRIT OF LAWS 321 by imposing new ones. They endeavor by these means still to preserve their independence. Supremely jealous with re- spect to trade, they bind themselves but little by treaties, and depend only on their own laws.
Other nations have made the interests of commerce yield to those of politics; the English, on the contrary, have ever made their political interests give way to those of commerce.
They know better than any other people upon earth how to value, at the same time, these three great advantages — religion, commerce, and liberty.
8. — In what Manner economical Commerce has been sometimes restrained In several kingdoms laws have been made extremely proper to humble the states that have entered into economical com- merce. They have forbidden their importing any merchandise, except the product of their respective countries; and have permitted them to traffic only in vessels built in the kingdom to which they brought their commodities.
It is necessary that the kingdom which imposes these laws should itself be able easily to engage in commerce; otherwise it will, at least, be an equal sufiferer. It is much more ad- vantageous to trade with a commercial nation, whose profits are moderate, and who are rendered in some sort dependent by the affairs of commerce; with a nation whose larger views and whose extended trade enable them to dispose of their super- fluous merchandise; with a wealthy nation, who can take ofif many of their commodities, and make them a quicker return in specie; with a nation under a kind of necessity to be faithful, pacific from principle, and that seeks to gain, and not to con- quer: it is much better, I say, to trade with such a nation than with others, their constant rivals, who will never grant such great advantages.
9. — Of the Prohibition of Commerce It is a true maxim that one nation should never exclude an- other from trading with it, except for very great reasons. The Japanese trade only with two nations, the Chinese and the Dutch. The Chinese/^ gain a thousand per cent, upon sugars, h Du Halde, vol. ii, p. 170.
322 MONTESQUIEU and sometimes as much by the goods they take in exchange. The Dutch make nearly the same profits. Every nation that acts upon Japanese principles must necessarily be deceived; for it is competition which sets a just value on merchandise, and establishes the relation between them.
Much less ought a state to lay itself under an obligation of selling its manufactures only to a single nation, under a pre- tence of their taking all at a certain price. The Poles, in this manner, dispose of their corn to the city of Dantzig; and sev- eral Indian princes have made a like contract for their spices with the Dutch.i These agreements are proper only for a poor nation, whose inhabitants are satisfied to forego the hopes of enriching themselves, provided they can be secure of a cer- tain subsistence; or for nations whose slavery consists either in renouncing the use of those things which nature has given them, or in being obliged to submit to a disadvantageous com- merce.
10. — An Institution adapted to economical Commerce In states that carry on an economical commerce, they have luckily established banks, which by their credit have formed a new species of wealth: but it would be quite wrong to intro- duce them into governments whose commerce is founded only on luxury. The erecting of banks in countries governed by an absolute monarch supposes money on the one side, and on the other power: that is, on the one hand, the means of procur- ing everything, without any power; and on the other, the power, without any means of procuring at all. In a govern- ment of this kind, none but the prince ever had, or can have, a treasure; and wherever there is one, it no sooner becomes great than it becomes the treasure of the prince.
For the same reason, all associations of merchants, in order to carry on a particular commerce, are seldom proper in abso- lute governments. The design of these companies is to give to the wealth of private persons the weight of public riches. But in those governments this weight can be found only in the prince. Nay, they are not even always proper in states en- gaged in economical commerce; for, if the trade be not so great as to surpass the management of particular persons, it » This was first established by the Portuguese.— Fr. Pirard's " Voyages," chap. XV. part II.
THE SPIRIT OF LAWS 323 is much better to leave it open than, by exclusive privileges, to restrain the liberty of commerce.
II. — The same Subject continued A free port may be established in the dominions of states whose commerce is economical. That economy in the govern- ment which always attends the frugality of individuals is, if I may so express myself, the soul of its economical commerce. The loss it sustains with respect to customs it can repair by drawing from the wealth and industry of the republic. But in a monarchy a step of this kind must be opposite to reason; for it could have no other effect than to ease luxury of the weight of taxes. This would be depriving itself of the only advantage that luxury can procure, and of the only curb which, in a con- stitution like this, it is capable of receiving.
12. — Of the Freedom of Commerce The freedom of commerce is not a power granted to the merchants to do what they please; this would be more properly its slavery. The constraint of the merchant is not the constraint of commerce. It is in the freest countries that the merchant finds innumerable obstacles; and he is never less crossed by laws than in a country of slaves.
England prohibits the exportation of her wool; coals must be brought by sea to the capital; no horses, except geldings, are allowed to be exported; and the vessels of her colonies trading to Europe must take in water in England.; The Eng- lish constrain the merchant, but it is in favor of commerce.
1-3. — What it is that destroys this Liberty Wherever commerce subsists, customs are established. Commerce is the exportation and importation of merchandise, with a view to the advantage of the state: customs are a certain right over this same exportation and importation, founded also on the advantage of the state. Hence it becomes necessary that the state should be neutral between its customs and its com- merce, that neither of these two interferes with the other, and then the inhabitants enjoy a free commerce.
f Act of Navigation, 1660. It is only Boston and Philadelphia send their in time of war that the merchants of vessels directly to the Mediterranean.
324 MONTESQUIEU The farming of the customs destroys commerce by its injus- tice and vexations, as well as by the excess of the imposts: but independent of this, it destroys it even more by the difficulties that arise from it and by the formalities it exacts. In England, where the customs are managed by the king's officers, business is negotiated with a singular dexterity: one word of writing accomplishes the greatest affairs. The merchant needs not lose an infinite deal of time; he has no occasion for a particular commissioner, either to obviate all the difficulties of the farmers, or to submit to them.
14. — The Laws of Commerce concerning the Confiscation of Merchandise The Magna Charta of England forbids the seizing and con- fiscating, in case of war, the effects of foreign merchants, ex- cept by way of reprisals. It is an honor to the English nation that they have made this one of the articles of their liberty.
In the late war between Spain and England, the former made a law which punished with death those who brought English merchandise into the dominions of Spain; and the same pen- alty on those who carried Spanish merchandise into England.^ An ordinance like this cannot, I believe, find a precedent in any laws but those of Japan. It equally shocks humanity, the spirit of commerce, and the harmony which ought to subsist in the proportion of penalties; it confounds all our ideas, making that a crime against the state which is only a violation of civil polity.
15. — Of seizing the Persons of Merchants Solon made a law that the Athenians should no longer seize the body for civil debts.^ This law he received from Egypt. It had been made by Boccoris, and renewed by Sesostris.w This law is extremely good with respect to the generality of civil affairs; but there is sufficient reason for its not being observed in those of commerce.^ For as merchants are obliged to intrust large sums, frequently for a very short time, and to pay money as well as to receive it, there is a necessity that the k Published in Cadiz in March, 1740. in preventing the arms and plough of /Plutarch, in his treatise against any man from being taken in pledge, lending upon usury. and yet permitting the taking of the m Diodorus, book I. part II. chap. iii. man himself. — Diodorus, book I. part n The Greek legislators were to blame II. chap. iii.
k THE SPIRIT OF LAWS 325 debtor should constantly fulfil his engagements at the time pre- fixed; and hence it becomes necessary to lay a constraint on his person.
In affairs relating to common civil contracts, the law ought not to permit the seizure of the person; because the liberty of one citizen is of greater importance to the public than the ease or prosperity of another. But in conventions derived from commerce, the law ought to consider the public prosperity as of greater importance than the liberty of a citizen; which, how- ever, does not hinder the restrictions and limitations that hu- manity and good policy demand.
16. — An excellent Law Admirable is that law of Geneva which excludes from the magistracy, and even from the admittance into the great coun- cil, the children of those who have lived or died insolvent, except they have discharged their father's debts. It has this effect: it creates a confidence in the merchants, in the magistrates, and in the city itself. There the credit of the individual has still all the weight of public credit.
The inhabitants of Rhodes went further. Sextus Empiricus observes that among those people a son could not be excused from paying his father's debts by renouncing the succession. This law of Rhodes was calculated for a republic, founded on commerce. Now I am inclined to think that reasons drawn from commerce itself should make this Hmitation, that the debts contracted by the father since the son's entering into com- merce should not affect the estate or property acquired by the latter.. A merchant ought always to know his obligations, and to square his conduct by his circumstances and present fortune.
18. — Of the Judges of Commerce Xenophon, in his book of Revenues,/* would have rewards given to those overseers of commerce who despatched the causes brought before them with the greatest expedition. He was sensible of the need of our modern jurisdiction of a consul.
0 Hypotiposes, book I. chap. xiv. p " De Proventibus," III.
326 MONTESQUIEU The affairs of commerce are but little susceptible of formal- ities. They are the actions of a day, and are every day followed by others of the same nature. Hence it becomes necessary that every day they should be decided. It is otherwise with those actions of life whice have a principal influence on futurity, but rarely happen. We seldom marry more than once; deeds and wills are not the work of every day; we are but once of age.
Plato Q. says that in a city where there is no maritime com- merce there ought not to be above half the number of civil laws: this is very true. Commerce brings into the same coun- try different kinds of people; it introduces also a great number of contracts and species of wealth, with various ways of acquir- ing it.
Thus in a trading city there are fewer judges, and more laws.
19. — That a Prince ought not to engage himself in Commerce Theophilus,*' seeing a vessel laden with merchandise for his wife Theodora, ordered it to be burned. " I am emperor," said he, " and you make me the master of a galley. By what means shall these poor men gain a livelihood if we take their trade out of their hands? " He might have added, Who shall set bounds to us if we monopolize all ourselves? Who shall oblige us to fulfil our engagements? Our courtiers will follow our example; they will be more greedy and more unjust than we: the people have some confidence in our justice, they will have none in our opulence: all these numerous duties, the cause of their wants, are certain proofs of ours.
20. — The same Subject continued When the Portuguese and Castilians bore sway in the East Indies, commerce had such opulent branches that their princes did not fail to seize them. This ruined their settlements in those parts of the world.
The viceroy of Goa granted exclusive privileges to particular persons. The people had no confidence in these men; and the commerce declined, by the perpetual change of those to whom it was intrusted; nobody took care to improve it, or to leave it entire to his successor. In short, the profit centred in a few hands, and was not sufficiently extended.
q "On Laws," book VIII. r Zonaras.
THE SPIRIT OF LAWS 327 21. — Of the Commerce of the Nobility in a Monarchy In a monarchical government, it is contrary to the spirit of commerce that any of the nobility should be merchants. " This/' said the Emperors Honorius and TheodosiuSj-y " would be pernicious to cities; and would remove the facility of buying and selling between the merchants and the plebeians."
It is contrary to the spirit of monarchy to admit the nobility into commerce. The custom of suffering the nobility of Eng- land to trade is one of those things which have there mostly contributed to weaken the monarchical government.
Persons struck with the practice of some states imagine that in France they ought to make laws to engage the nobility to enter into commerce. But these laws would be the means of destroying the nobility, without being of any advantage to trade. The practice of this country is extremely wise; mer- chants are not nobles, though they may become so. They have the hopes of obtaining a degree of nobility, unattended with its actual inconveniences. There is no surer way of being ad- vanced above their profession than to manage it well, or with success; the consequence of which is generally an affluent fortune.
Laws which oblige every one to continue in his profession, and to devolve it upon his children, neither are nor can be of use in any but despotic kingdoms; where nobody either can or ought to have emulation.^ Let none say that every one will succeed better in his profes- sion when he cannot change it for another: I say that a person will succeed best when those who have excelled hope to rise to another.
The possibility of purchasing honor with gold encourages many merchants to put themselves in circumstances by which they may attain it. I do not take it upon me to examine the justice of thus bartering for money the price of virtue. There are governments where this may be very useful.
In France the dignity of the long robe, which places those 5 Leg. " Nobiliorfcs," Cod. "de t This is actually very often the case Comm," et leg. " ult. de rescind, ven- in such governments, dit."
328 MONTESQUIEU who wear it between the great nobility and the people, and with- out having such shining honors as the former, has all their priv- ileges; a dignity which, while this body, the depositary of the laws, is encircled with glory, leaves the private members in a mediocrity of fortune; a dignity in which there are no other means of distinction but by a superior capacity and virtue, yet which still leaves in view one much more illustrious: the war- like nobility, likewise, who conceive that, whatever degree of wealth they are possessed of, they may still increase their for- tunes; who are ashamed of augmenting, if they begin not with dissipating, their estates; who always serve their prince with their whole capital stock, and when that is sunk make room for others, who follow their example; who take the field that they may never be reproached with not having been there; who, when they can no longer hope for riches, live in expectation of honors; and when they have not obtained the latter, enjoy the consolation of having acquired glory: all these things together have necessarily contributed to augment the grandeur of this kingdom; and if for two or three centuries it has been inces- santly increasing in power, this must be attributed not to Fortune, who was never famed for constancy, but to the goodness of its laws.
23. — To what Nations Commerce is prejudicial Riches consist either in lands or in movable effects. The soil of every country is commonly possessed by the natives. The laws of most states render foreigners unwilling to purchase their lands; and nothing but the presence of the owner im- proves them: this kind of riches, therefore, belongs to every state in particular; but movable effects, as money, notes, bills of exchange, stocks in companies, vessels, and, in fine, all mer- chandise, belong to the whole world in general; in this re- spect, it is composed of but one single state, of which all the societies upon earth are members. The people who possess more of these movable effects than any other on the globe are the most opulent. Some states have an immense quantity ac- quired by their commodities, by the labor of their mechanics, by their industry, by their discoveries, and even by chance. The avarice of nations makes them quarrel for the movables of the whole universe. If we could find a state so unhappy as THE SPIRIT OF LAWS THE SPIRIT OF LAWS to be depfived of the effects of other countries, and at the same time of almost all its own, the proprietors of the lands would be only planters to foreigners. This state, wanting all, could ac- quire nothing; therefore, it would be much better for the in- habitants not to have the least commerce with any nation upon earth, for commerce in these circumstances must necessarily lead them to poverty.
A country that constantly exports fewer manufactures or commodities than it receives will soon find the balance sinking; it will receive less and less, until, falling into extreme poverty, it will receive nothing at all.
In trading countries the specie, which suddenly vanishes, quickly returns; because those nations that have received it are its debtors. But it never returns into those states of which we have just been speaking, because those who have received it owe them nothing.
Poland will serve us for an example. It has scarcely any of those things which we call the movable effects of the universe, except corn, the produce of its lands. Some of the lords pos- sess entire provinces; they oppress the husbandmen, in order to have greater quantities of corn, which they send to strangers, to procure the superfluous demands of luxury. If Poland had no foreign trade, its inhabitants would be happier. The grandees, who would have only their corn, would give it to their peasants for subsistence; as their too extensive estates would become burdensome, they would divide them amongst their peasants; every one would find skins or wool in their herds or flocks, so that they would no longer be at an immense expense in providing clothes; the great, who are ever fond of luxury, not being able to find it but in their own country, would en- courage the labor of the poor. This nation, I affirm, would then become more flourishing, at least if it did not become bar- barous; and this the laws might easily prevent.
Let us next consider Japan. The vast quantity of what they receive is the cause of the vast quantity of merchandise they send abroad. Things are thus in as nice an equilibrium as if the importation and exportation were but small. Besides, this kind of exuberance in the state is productive of a thousand ad- vantages; there is a greater consumption, a greater quantity of those things on which the arts are exercised; more men 330 MONTESQUIEU employed, and more numerous means of acquiring power; ex- igencies may also happen that require a speedy assistance, which so opulent a state can better afford than any other. It is difficult for a country to avoid having superfluities; but it is the nature of commerce to render the superfluous useful, and the useful necessary. The state will be, therefore, able to af- ford necessaries to a much greater number of subjects.
Let us say, then, that it is not those nations who have need of nothing that must lose by trade; it is those who have need of everything. It is not such people as have a sufficiency within themselves, but those who are most in want, that will find an advantage in putting a stop to all commercial inter- course.
faortjlirraliuf.yo fir unpij mm tanipluie mif ^rirummfi a to imt, Tntottonrffiirgi f hnpiunmDiflornfgj ^mfofilioiuitoii QJnomrDne CHOICE EXAMPLES OF EARLY PRINTING AND ENGRAVING.
Fac-similes from Pare and Curious Books.
A PAGE FROM THE PSALMORLM CODEX.
Printed 111 i^>y hv Fust and Schoeffer, being the first printed Psalter and the first printed book with a printed date.
It is generally conceded that this famous Psalter carried the intricacies of print- ing much further than had been dreamed of by its first projector. It should be noted that the credit so long accorded to Schoeffer as the invent<jr and producer ol the initials printed in colors, which render this Psalter so remarkable, may after all belong (like the glory of printing the first Bible) to Gutenberg alone, for it is a well-established fact that he had been preparing a large Gothic type lor the pur- pose of producing a great church-service Psalter; and it appears probable that he prepared at the same time a series of colored initials, which he used by way ot essay in the " Doixittis." But even allowing this to be the case, the perfect manner in which the printing itself is executed, in the first serious attempt to produce in a printed book the effects hitherto produced by the hand of the illuminator, is suffi- cient to secure to Schoeffer's name a place among the greatest masters of his art. The best preserved copy of this interesting monument of the early days of printing is that in the Imperial Library of Vienna. Other copies are preserved in the British Museum and the French National Library.
1 sss^ •i^nine Dirte pofi (rOii tnnttatis •Inuitatmuinu ftmfmaffnu Dnrauraitr aOO2fmu0^p8*Bmitr* ^nittB Dirte pft feflu ^^lelnwrattRiunonabijtin lEtioDar- conftlio impiom irtn DtapcrotinoMtrtm rat^(Dmpt(h(rdrnofr^ ,tiit,j9^eDilEgfDnitio luma ei^ittmlrge mi$ mrDttadtf btr ar nodr, 6[t rrit tan$ iignu tfi platatu illr frma tmirfud amti6 fruilu fuu Dabittn ijf fmi6(tfblmci9no trBuftnofa nm fadftjfirmbuf.l^ofirinipijnorir frD tan^pluis mif jntitimme a fm tm, Ijira nonrffurgft hiipff in luDiaornf^ p(CO2r0tncDfiltoiu(hii| QLmnotutOna Dmtu(loi|:ittrrinipioi|]Ribit,0ild^ BOOK XXI ■ Docuit quee maximus Atlas, — ViRGiL, yEneid, OF LAWS IN RELATION TO COMMERCE, CON- SIDERED IN THE REVOLUTIONS IT HAS MET WITH IN THE WORLD I. — Some general Considerations THOUGH commerce be subject to great revolutions, yet it is possible that certain physical causes, as the quality of the soil, or the climate, may fix its nature forever.
We at present carry on the trade of the Indies merely by means of the silver which we send thither. The Romans carried annually thither about fifty millions of sesterces; a and this sil- ver, as ours is at present, was exchanged for merchandise, which was brought to the West. Every nation that ever traded to the Indies has constantly carried bullion and brought merchandise in return.^ It is nature itself that produces this effect. The Indians have their hearts adapted to their manner of living. Our luxury cannot be theirs; nor theirs our wants. Their climate demands and permits hardly anything which comes from ours. They go in a great measure naked; such clothes as they have the coun- try itself furnishes; and their religion, which is deeply rooted, gives them an aversion for those things that serve for our nourishment. They want, therefore, nothing but our bullion to serve as the medium of value; and for this they give us merchandise in return, with which the frugality of the people and the nature of the country furnish them in great abundance. Those ancient authors who have mentioned the Indies describe them just as we now find them, as to their policy, customs, and marners.c The Indies have ever been the same Indies they a Pliny, lib. VI. cap. xxiii. c See Pliny, book VI. chap, xix., and h See Pausanias, " Laconia," sine III. Strabo, book XV. cap. xii.
332 MONTESQUIEU are at present; and in every period of time those who traded with that country carried specie thither and brought none in return.
2. — Of the People of Africa The greatest part of the people on the coast of Africa are savages and barbarians., The principal reason, I believe, of this is, because the small countries capable of being inhabited are separated from each other by large and almost uninhabit- able tracts of land. They are without industry or arts. They have gold in abundance, which they receive immediately from the hand of nature. Every civilized state is, therefore, in a condition to traffic with them to advantage, by raising their es- teem for things of no value, and receiving a very high price in return.
3. — That the Wants of the People in the South are different from those of the North In Europe there is a kind of balance between the southern and northern nations. The first have every convenience of life, and few of its wants: the last have many wants, and few con- veniences. To one nature has given much, and demands but little; to the other she has given but little, and demands a great deal. The equilibrium is maintained by the laziness of the southern nations, and by the industry and activity which she has given to those in the North. The latter are obliged to un- dergo excessive labor, without which they would want every- thing, and degenerate into barbarians. This has neutralized slavery to the people of the south: as they can easily dispense with riches, they can more easily dispense with liberty. But the people of the North have need of liberty, for this can best procure them the means of satisfying all those wants which they have received from nature. The people of the North, then, are in a forced state, if they are not either free or bar- barians. Almost all the people of the South are, in some meas- ure, in a state of violence, if they are not slaves.
THE SPIRIT OF LAWS 4. — The principal Difference between the Commerce of the Ancients and the Moderns