Author's Preface

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. It will be noted, however, that in treating purely economic questions no reference is made to other Spanish Jesuits. These rarely deal with such topics, on which Mariana's views are far superior. Fiscal problems, on the other hand, are treated much more thoroughly by Suarez, de Lugo and above all by Molina. For this reason these authors have been utilized extensively in the third section of the second part. The author of this monograph has likewise drawn with profit on two recent' publications of scholarly interest, Die Steuer in der Rechtsphilosophie der Scholastiker by R. Am berg, and H. Rommen's Die Staatslehre des Franz Suarez, S.J. His indebtedness to numerous other writers in his x PREFACE own and cognate fields is duly acknowledged in notes and text.

The present writer is especially grateful to Professor Edwin R. A. Seligman, under whose direction he has writ ten this book and whose kind encouragement has been of untold value. Mr. Chevalier and Mr. Tewksbury of the Boston Public Library gave very generously and eourteously of their time and labors in securing photostats of the only copy obtainable in the United States of the author's most valuable source of information, Mariana's De Monetae Mutatione. Through the kindness of his friend, Capt. Eugene Diaz Torreblanca, the author was so fortunate as to obtain from Europe two copies of Tractatus VII, one complete, the other expurgated. As a European, the author has felt the handicap of writing in a language which is not his native tongue. Kind American friends, particularly Mr. George N. Shuster, Mr. Pierre Marique, Jr., and Miss Georgiana McEntee, have, however, helped him with points of style and diction, and he wishes to express his sincere gratitude to them for their valuable assistance.

New York, February, 1928. xi J. Laures, S. J.