V. Public Charities

voluptatem, sed ad multorum salutem: non ad praesentem suum fructum, sed ad justittam quae sola non interit. Hoc est verum humanitatis officium, copiarum promtuaria benigne omnibus patefacere, quas Deus omnibus voluit esse communes. quippe terram eunctis proposuit, ut fruges, cibos, promiscue anirr:l;ltium in usum funderet. De Rege. Lib. III, cap. 14, p. 321. 113 MARIANA:-POUTICAL ECONOMY His intention that the earth should feed all. Its produce is never too limited to suffice for all. 1 At the same time Mariana indicates clearly enough how charity may be practised without burdening anyone, and urges that useless and luxurious expenditures should be avoided and the money thus saved given to the poor. This remark is covertly intended for the king himself. For, with the money used for vain and foolish purposes he could relieve an immense number of needy and poor. This woU;ld he a better use of public funds than wasting them in costly vestments, for the sake of show, or for rich food which irritates the palate and causes disease, for packs of expensive hunting dogs, or finally for feeding flatterers and parasites.

2 Let the king, therefore, take up the' care of the poor. Let him set limits to the amassing of excessive fortunes lest the rich, in their boundless ambition to pile up money, ex terminate the poor. Let him force the wealthy to contribute a part of their goods to a common fund for the relief of the needy.3 Mariana dares not hope to reintroduce the practice of the primitive Church, when the faithful divided all they had among the poor, but he does maintain that the community itself must aid the poor. This it could do in various ways. 4 1 Nunquam tam maligne terra fruges et necessaria suppeditat, ut non omnibus sufficiant, si cumuli frumenti et pecuniarum a potentioribus constructi, in commune ad alendosque inopes conferantur. Id enim Deus vult, id ejus lege sancitum est: ut quando corrupta hominum natura, rerum divisio necessaria invecta est, ne omnia pauci occupent, sed partem aliquam ad communes usus convertant. De Rege, Lib. III, cap. 14, p. 321.

.II 0 quantum pauperum ali potuit, quantis miseriis succurri, eo quod in republica male atque in usus inanes consumitur, vestem pretiosam qua alitur superbia, cupedias quibus irritatur palatum, et nexiorum morborum causae existunt: quod in venaticis canibus et eorum alimenta consumitur, quod parasitis et assentoribus datur. Ibid. S Atque ea prima ratio sit inopiae succurrendi, sublevandi plebem. si copiosi effundere cogantur quae sine modo acervarunt, ad plures eae copiae pertinebunt: neque deerit annona ulIi, quae omnibus nascitur. Atque utinam, a utinam tanta esset beneficentia civium, tanta liberalitas ut quod nascentis ecc1esiae temporibus memoratur, et inter Judaeos divino praecepto susceptum erat, nulli existerent in populo Christiano mendici, qui porrecta ad stipem manu vitam miseram 'Sustentarent, multo illustrior nostrae professionis et gentis facies esset. De Rege, Lib. III, cap. 14, p. 323.

4. Sed quando nostri id mores non recipiunt in tanta praesertim gentium colluvione, quanta Christiana sacra populariter suscepit, detur opera diligenter, ut ii de publico Vivant. Quod trifariam fortassis accedat. Primum si antiquum institutum revocetur in mores, quod 114 PUBLIC CHARITIES In the first place, the good old custom of feeding the poor from Church revenues should be reintroduced. Mari ana wonders why this salutary custom has been abandoned. Formerly, when churches were few and had only small revenues, they took upon themselves the entire duty of relieving the poor. It is surprising that now when they are extremely wealthy, they can no longer do the same work. The hlame for this situation rests upon the ministers of the Church, who use their revenues in a less orderly way than was formerly the rule. Mariana does not wish them to be deprived of Church property, but he insists that they must spend their revenues in the good old fashion. So doing, they could relieve communities from the whole support of the poor. Then, there would be no need of other charitable institutions for the sick, the poor and the homeless. Even if this program might not he feasihle in small places where the churches are less wealthy, let the king try it at least in the principal cities of the country where no difficulty exists. Our author realizes, however, that it is dangerous to say more, and so contents himself with pointing to the source of the evil and the remedy to he applied.!

Another way of helping the poor would be to employ the method that has been recommended by several Councils of the Church, and have the various cities take care of their own poor lest the whole country be Hooded with beggars. 2 nescio cur fuerit antiquatum, nisi quod praec1are sancita passim collabuntur, in pejull nostri mores quotidie ruunt ut sacris templorum reitibus' alantur egeni. quod si primis temporibus fieri poterat in tanta tenuitate, cur modo non fiat, cum jam non magis mole sua et vetustate quam copiis templa laborant fatiscuntque? Ibid. 1 Ego sane nunquam ea mente sim, ut putem convenire rebus communibus, sacrato ordini opes a majoribus traditas detrahi. ilIud tamen contendo, saluberrimum fore, si ipsis sacerdotibus administris curetur, ut ad meliores usus magis antiquis consentaneos con ferantur. et quis dubitat multo majori fructu rei publicae atque sacrati ordinis quam nunc fiat, in pauperum usum collocari et quasi postliminio veris dominis restitui? . . • Verum desperatae curationis vulnera, rei publicae vetera carcinomata stylo amplius contrectare, non vacat periculo et invidia: locum indicare intento in fontes digito satis habeam. De R~geJ Lib. III, cap. 14, p. 324.

2 Admonere etiam non semel a Patribus recentiori memoria fuisse ad minuendam mendicorum multitudinem excogitatum atque praeceptum, ut unaquaeque civitas et oppidum suos inopes alat, ne tanta erronum turba sine fructu tota provincia vagetur, sine ope sine lare familiari. Ibid. 115 MARI~A:-POL1TICAL ECONOMY Some may reply that this is impossible because a number of districts are too poor to support their needy. Then, too, the high cost of living and the scarcity of food make it im perative that the poor travel from place to place to seek help where there is a greater abundance of food. Mariana admits that there may be some serious difficulties in his scheme but he thinks that the plan might be tried with a slight modification so that each city would feed its own poor and allow beggars from abroad to wander about from city to city, if they are unwilling to settle down and work. In this case they should not be permitted to stay longer than three days in one place, unless they decide to change their mode of life. This might be a better way of solving the problem both for the poor and the various cities; the last would not be burdened forever with a heavy poor relief, and the first would not be tied to a destiny of contempt and wretchedness.

A third suggestion to solve the charity problem is to erect charitable institutions in all the larger cities of the country. Unless this is done, private charity will prove unable to give help to the endless number of beggars scattered about at present. These institutions should he endowed with annual revenues by the authorities, and there should be various classes of them, each with a different sphere of activity, and, if possible, separate buildings and an independent ad ministration.! Strangers (hospites ) should be lodged in lodging houses, the poor should be fed in poor houses, the sick should be nursed in hospitals, orphans should be kept in orphan asylums, old people should reside in homes for 1 Atqui haec ratio si teneretur, quod saepe tentatum est, saepe intermissum, quominus hospitia generalia praesertim in praecipuis tota ditione urbibus constitui possint, nihil vetabit. • . . Ac praesertim velim annuos reditus designari, et constitui uncle sumptuum pars certe ali qua toleretur. Alioqui quotidianis eleemosynis publice collectis non facile omnes inopes alantur.Quos tamen proderit in classes esse distinctos, ac vero si facultas adsit domiciliis etiam discretis. De Rege, Lib. III, cap. 14, p. 325.

116 PUBLIC CHARITIES the aged, and exposed children should he taken care of in foundling-hospitals. Mariana realizes that the State or, at all events, the com munity, has an obligation to attend to charities. It is im possible to give effective help to all the helpless by means of private charity. The modern State has taken up this social function and developed a system of charitable insti tutions that would doubtless meet with the heartiest approval of our author. The progress of the social sciences has ad vanced this function of the State to a considerable degree, and what formerly was an almost exclusive domain of the Church is now also one of the most important and most beneficent activities of the State. So much the more credit must we give a man who three hundred years ago outlined a detailed scheme of the social obligation of the State. As was said above,l Mariana radically differs from those who would restrict the sphere of the State to protection against domestic and foreign violence, as do Adam Smith and other individualists. He still adheres to the old custom of price fixing, although he practically ahandons it hy ex empting the poor peasants from selling at the legal price.

Mariana is convinced that the State has, in addition to its other duties, many social obligations. Those who are un ahle to defend themselves against the wealthy and powerful look to the State to espouse their cause. Since the State was founded to supply the common wants, it is only right that it should devote special care to the economically weak. For it is fatal for the commonweal if some are extremely rich and others are wretchedly poor. Various schemes are proposed by our author to bridge the gap hetween the wealthy and the needy: restriction of private fortunes, enforced charity, implicit and direct con1 Page 87. 117 MARIANA:-POLITICAL ECONOMY tribution on the part of the wealthy toward the satisfac tion of common needs. The State should also promote national welfare by making trades remunerative and by encouraging commerce. If commerce and trade flourish, the country as a whole enjoys prosperity which, like pro tection, is one of the most important functions of civil society. Those who can contribute more than their pro portionate share toward the defrayment of public expendi tures without suffering material impairment of their eco nomic position, should be called upon for additional taxes.

This summons can be carried out best if articles of luxury are heavily taxed. Public improvements and charitable institutions are other fields for the social activity of the State. Our author sees that the Church alone can no longer properly attend to them, and that therefore Church and State should co-op erate. Here again Mariana has anticipated what in our days is taken as a matter of course. The Industr.ial Revo lution, industrial capitalism and its reaction in socialism have directed the attention of the government in the eco nomic and social problems for whose solution Mariana pro posed various schemes. Our author thus deserves credit for emphasizing duties of the State which were little at tended to in his age, but which are in a very special way connected with that common weal which is the· end of civil society. 118 Section II PROBLEMS AND PRINCIPLES OF MONEY Chapter I Summary of De Monetae Mutatione O NLY one of Mariana's works can he called an economic treatise in the strict sense. It is number four of Trae tatus VII and hears the title De Monetae Mutatione or the "alteration of money." The Spanish title is clearer, in dicating as it doe~ more in detail the intention of the pamphlet. It reads: "Tratado y Diseurso sobre la Moneda de Vellon que al presente se labra en Castilla y de algunos Desordones y Abusos," which means in English, "A treatise and discussion on the copper coins struck at present in Castille, and on some disorders and abuses (connected with it). "