Part II. Economic Ideas

ne ex pestilenti loco venientes in urbem admittantur: neque satis excusar~t si singulorum culpa dicerent, et audacia evenire mala. Peponibus aliisque fructibus aut hausta fri~ida ne intemperantes pereant, cavere quis possit? cum usus sit saepe salutaris ad mitlgandol aestus, praesertim per aestatem. De Specfacltlis, cap. 20, p. 180. 83 MARIANA:-POUTICAL ECONOMY Mariana considers the unequal distrihution of private property one of the greatest social problems. It almost seems as if he were a communist or socialist, as P. U. Gonzalez de la Calle appears to helieve. 1 Such an assumption can not, all things considered, he termed justifiahle. Mariana makes some utterances which, taken as they stand, seem to imply that he deplores the institution of private property and that he wishes to aholish it. In the very beginning of his hook on royalty appears the assertion that in the first stage of humanity men possessed everything in common. In the same place Mariana remarks mournfully and with ap parent displeasure "that as yet greedy and furious avarice had not laid its hands upon the divine gifts and claimed everything for itself." 2 This remark Mariana repeats in the third hook of De Rege, where he discusses the duty of the State to take care of the poor. In De Morte et lmmor talitate it is averred that "nature has made all men equal and that all were horn in the same condition. But hy chance and the tyranny of the powerful, it happened that some took from the supply which all possessed, as it were, in com mon, many things for themselves; the others, who were born under equal conditions, heing deprived of all." S Nevertheless one must not hastily conclude· from these texts that Mariana rejects the institution of private property.

Directly after repeating his apparent condemnation of this institution he tells us that "the corrupt nature of man made 1 EI P. Mariana niega que sea legitima la propiedad individual y desconosce, por tanto, e1 progreso que la misma representa en la historia de la cultura en general y de las concepciones en particular. No ignora que 10 propiedad se organizo co1ectivamente en un principio; pero sin razon supone que solo la avaricia produjo fenomeno tan natural como e1 de la propiedad privada. Ideas polftico-morales del P. Juan de Mariana in Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Muscos, Vol. 30, 1914, p. 201. 1I Nondum rabida et furens avaritia divina beneficia interceperat, sibique omnia vendicarat, sed ut quidam ait: Mallebant tenui contenti vivere cultu: Ne signare quidem, aut partiri limite campum. Fas erato De Rege, Lib. I, cap. 1, p. 13. 8 Natura cunctos homines exaequavit. Una est omnibus conditio nascendi. Fortunae seu potentiorum tyrannide factum est, ut ex communi quasi cumulo multa occuparint aliis nudatis, qui pari conditione erant nati. De Morte et Immorto.litate, Lib. I, cap. 8, page 382.

84 PRIVATE PROPERTY a division of (all) things necessary." He seems, then, to deplore the system of private property hut to admit its necessity under the present condition of humanity. Re signed to consider it as a great though necessary evil, he con soles himself with the thought of heaven where there will he perfect communism, and where no one will have anything for himself alone hut all will possess everything equally in God, their common Father.! Plato, the great philosopher, had heen so impressed hy this heavenly vision that he wrongly helieved that it might he realized even in this life. 2 Mariana, then, cannot he called a socialist or a communist. Nevertheless, he maintains that earthly goods would suffice for all if they were rightly distributed. According to him, the rich are under ohligation to help their less fortunate brethren. Holy Scripture accordingly strongly insists on helping the poor. It would bring no real hardship upon the rich to cut down their superfluous expenditures in order that their starving fellowmen might benefit. They would make much hetter use of their money if they ransomed slaves instead of huying horses, fed the poor instead of feeding dogs, gave to the needy what they spend on articles of adornment.

3 If the rich should neglect their duty of charity and by heaping up treasures oppress and exterminate the poor, the king would he ohliged to set a limit to their ever-growing 1 Beati quoque nihil sejunctum ab aliis habent, quoniam divino omnes inflantur et inspirantur numine, in bonis suis numerant singuli, quae ab omnibus possidentur, praec1ara via ad immensas construendas opes, aliena vendi cant sibi, Dei ipsius infinitas opes sibi adscribunt verissime, qui est supremus laetitiae et copiarum cumulus. De Morte et ImmortaUtate, Lib. III, cap. 2, page 421. 1I Tentavit earn reipublicae formam inrlucere rerum omnium inter dyes communionem suis praeceptis Plato, sola tanti boni deceptus imagine: quam terra certe 110n caperet, sibi caelum vendicaret. Ibid. 8 Hoc est verum humanitatis officium, copiarum promptuaria benigne omnibus patefacere, quas Deus omnibus voluit esse communes. quippe terram cunctis proposuit, ut fruges, cibos promiscue animantium in usum funderet. ... Non ergo mirum si tantopere in divinis libris, pauperllm cura commendatllr: si praecipimus ut saltern partem aliquam rei familiaris, quae in supervacua impenditur, ad meliora convertas: si unde equos emis, hinc capto!

redimas, un de canes pascis, hinc pauperes alas, quae inani cultu consumis, ea ad sublevandos e~enos convertas. De Rege, Lib. III, cap. 14, p. 321. ' 85 MARIANA:-POLITICAL ECONOMY fortunes. 1 Mariana helieves that one's gain necessarily means others' loss, and that consequently no one can amass a great fortune without injustice to others. He likewise considers it injurious to the welfare of the State that some he extremely rich and the rest wretchedly poor; for the rich will no longer exert themselves and will grow idle, whereas the poor will lack the means to devote themselves to the various profitable trades. 2 The result will be general stagnation in all trades, and disaster for the whole· people. It is, therefore, best for the general good that citizens he neither too rich nor too poor. A golden mean for all would he the ideal. .Our author is so firmly convinced of the possibility and desirahility of hridging the gap hetween the rich and the poor that he proposes a number of schemes to hring it about with the help of the State. The tax on luxuries should he very high, whereas the necessaries of life should hear only a slight charge. In this way, the ·poor would he relieved of a heavy tax hurden and the rich would either ahstain from extravagance or contribute a greater share to the public treasury. Wealthy people attaining to high offices in the State ought to serve the community without any financial remuneration and he content Wlith :the honor attendant upon their position. Such a practice would tend to make these offices less desirable and so protect the people from avaricious men. Highly salaried officials, on the other hand, should he ohliged to spend part of their revenues for public buildings and other civic improvements, as well as to arm military forces. S 1 Ergo ut ad rem redeamus, quod Deo placet, id sit Principi propositum, ne in republica quosdam divitiis et potentia crescere immensum sinat, extenuari, quod ex eo necesse est supra modum aliquos. Ibid., p. 322.

1I Placetque quod Plato ait, ut in artibus contingit, ut divitiis et inopia deserantur, cum neque dives artem amplius exercere velit partis copiis et otio contentus, neque inops possit, parandi instrumenta sublata propter indigentiam facultate. Ibid., p. 322. a Princeps ergo vectigalia populis moderata imperabit, commercio serviet et agriculturae, 86 PRIVATE PROPERTY From what has heen said, it appears that Mariana does not identify the State with an institution existing merely to afford protection as did Adam Smith, hut recognizes also some of its social functions. The socialists reject private property as being the achievement of theft and robbery, and advocate ownership of all productive goods by the State. The modern State has learned from the had con sequences of extreme individualism that socialism, though unacceptable as a whole, calls for remedial action against social evils. Graduated taxation and social legislation are intended to serve this end.

artes ut in pretio sint diligenter curabit, potentioribus magistratus aut procuratione!l publicas ipsorum sumptu demandabit: ut specie honoris objecta partem divitiarum cogantur consumere. singulis eos annis in bellum producet, cogetque certum militum numerum armare, quasi hostis laces sat de finibus, aut bello ultro inferendo. Eo denique curas et cogitationes referat, ne ulli potentia nimium crescant: quod reipublicae noxium sit, illis exitiale. De Rege, Lib. III, cap. 14, p. 322. 87 Chapter II The Promotion of Agriculture T HE State as a social organization must encourage every thing that tends to increase national prosperity, and must remove or remedy all that is detrimental to it. Mariana believes that agriculture is the backbone of the national economic life because it supplies food for the people. It must therefore be one of the principal duties of the king to care for this industry. Mariana's views on this subject are similar to those later held by the French Physiocrats, who taught that land is the ultimate source of all wealth.