The Spirit Of Laws Part 16
79 The sea to which we give this name was called by the ancients the Gulf of Arabia; the name of Red Sea they gave to that part of the ocean which borders on this gulf.
80 Strabo, lib. XVI.
81 Ibid. Artemidorus settled the borders of the known coast at the place called Austricornu; and Eratosthenes, Cinnamomiferam.
82 Lib. I. cap. vii.; lib. IV. cap. ix. table 4 of Africa.
83 This Periplus is attributed to Arrian.
84 Ptol. lib. IV. cap. ix.
85 Lib. IV. cap. vii. and viii 86 See what exact descriptions Strabo and Ptolemy have given us of the different parts of Africa. Their knowledge was owing to the several wars which the two most powerful nations in the world had waged with the people of Africa, to the alliances they had contracted, and to the trade they had carried on with those countries.
87 Lib. VII. cap. iii.
88 See his "Periplus," under the article of Carthage.
89 See Herodotus, in "Melpomene," on the obstacles which Sataspes encountered.
90 See the charts and relations in the first volume of "Voyages that contributed to the establishment of an East India company," part 1. p. 201. This weed covers the surface of the water in such a manner as to be scarcely perceived, and ships can only pa.s.s through it with a stiff gale.
91 Pliny tells us the same thing, speaking of Mount Atlas: "Noctibus micare crebris ignibus, tibiarum cantu timpanorumque sonitu strepere, neminem interdiu cerni.'
92 Mr. Dodwell. See his Dissertation on Hanno's "Periplus."
93 "Of Wonderful Things."
94 Diodorus speaks of the Phnicians in this relation, and not of the Carthaginians.-Ed.
95 Lib. III.
96 Lib. VI.
97 "Mons Argentarius."
98 He had some share in their management.
99 See Festus Avienus.
100 Strabo, lib. III., towards the end 101 He was rewarded by the senate of Carthage.
102 Montesquieu has been found fault with in this construction, as though he were giving the impression that there was more than one North Star.-Ed.
103 Frenshemius's Supplement to Livy, 2d Decad.
104 In the parts subject to the Carthaginians.
105 Justin, lib. XLIII. cap. v.
106 See Strabo, lib. X.
107 He confirmed the liberty of the city of Amisus, an Athenian colony which had enjoyed a popular government, even under the kings of Persia. Lucullus having taken Sinone and Amisus, restored them to their liberty, and recalled the inhabitants, who had fled on board their ships.
108 See what Appian writes concerning the Phanagoreans, the Amisians, and the Synoplans, in his treatise of the Mithridatic war.
109 See Appian, in regard to the immense treasures which Mithridates employed in his wars, those which he had buried, those which he frequently lost by the treachery of his own people, and those which were found after his death.
110 See Appian on the Mithridatic war.
111 Ibid.
112 He lost at one time 170,000 men, yet he soon recruited his armies.
113 In the "Considerations on the Causes of the Rise and Declension of the Roman Grandeur."
114 As Plato has observed, lib. IV., of Laws.
115 Polybius, lib. V.
116 See the "Considerations on the Causes of the Rise and Declension of the Roman Grandeur."
117 Ibid.
118 Leg. v. ff. "de Captivis."
119 Quae mercimoniis public praefuit.-Leg. v. cod. "de natural. liberis."
120 Leg. ad barbaric.u.m cod. quae res exportari non debeant.
121 Leg. 2 cod. de commerce. et mercator.
122 Leg. 2 quae res exportari non debeant, and Procopius, "War of the Persians," book I.
123 See the Chronicles of Eusebius and Cedrenus.
124 See the "Considerations on the Causes of the Rise and Declension of the Roman Grandeur."
125 Pliny, lib. VI. cap. xxviii., and Strabo, lib. XVI.
126 Ibid.
127 The caravans of Aleppo and Suez carry thither annually to the value of about two millions of livres, and as much more clandestinely; the royal vessel of Suez carries thither also two millions.
128 Lib. II. p. 81.
129 Lib. VI. cap. xxiii.
130 He says, in his 12th book that the Romans employed a hundred and twenty ships in that trade; and in the 17th book, that the Grecian kings scarcely employed twenty.
131 Lib. I. cap. ii.
132 Lib. I. cap. xiii.
133 Our best maps place Peter's tower in the hundredth degree of longitude, and about the fortieth of lat.i.tude.
134 Suet. in "Claudio," leg. 8 cod. Theodosis. "de Naviculiariis."
135 Lib. VIII. t.i.t. 4, sec. 9.
136 Toto t.i.tulo ff. de incend. ruin. et naufrag. and cod. de naufragiis, and leg. 3 ff. ad leg. Cornel. de sicariis.
137 Leg. I cod. de naufragiis.
138 Lib. II. t.i.t. 3, sec. 2.
139 See Aristot. "Polit." lib. I. cap. ix. and x.
140 See in "Marca Hispanica," the const.i.tutions of Aragon, in the years 1228 and 1231; and in Brussel, the agreement, in the year 1206, between the King, the Countess of Champagne, and Guy of Dampierre.
141 Stowe's "Survey of London," book III. p. 54.
142 The edict pa.s.sed at Baville, 4th of April, 1392.
143 In France the Jews were slaves in mortmain, and the lords their successors. Mr. Brussel mentions an agreement made in the year 1206, between the King and Thibaut, Count of Champagne, by which it was agreed that the Jews of the one should not lend in the lands of the other.
144 It is known that under Philip Augustus and Philip the Long, the Jews were chased from France took refuge in Lombardy, and that there they gave to foreign merchants and travellers secret letters, drawn upon those to whom they had intrusted their effects in France, which were accepted.
145 See the 83d novel of the Emperor Leo, which revokes the law of Basil his father. This law of Basil is in Hermenopulus, under the name of Leo, lib. III. t.i.t. 7, sec. 27.
146 See the "Relation of Fr. Pirard," part II. chap. xv.
147 This, in the language of the ancients, is the state which founded the colony.
148 Except the Carthaginians, as we see by the treaty which put an end to the first Punic war.
149 Polyb. lib. III.
150 The King of Persia obliged himself by treaty not to sail with any vessel of by war beyond the Cyanean rocks and the Chelidonean isles.-Plutarch, in the "Life of Cimon."
151 Aristotle on "Wonderful Things"; Livy, lib. VII. dec. 2.
152 Tom. ii. p. 170.
153 This has been already shown in a small treatise written by the author about twenty years ago; which has been almost entirely incorporated in the present work.
154 See Frezier's "Voyages."
155 According to Lord Anson, Europe receives every year from Brazil two millions sterling in gold, which is found in sand at the foot of the mountains, or in the beds of rivers. When I wrote the little treatise mentioned in the first note of this chapter the returns from Brazil were far from being so considerable an item as they are at present.
156 Voltaire deplores the insufficiency of Montesquieu's knowledge upon finance and commerce, saying that these principles were not then discovered, or, at least, had not been developed in his time.-Ed.
157 Voltaire holds that the Spaniards had no manufactures of their own, and that they were obliged to draw such and supplies from abroad.-Ed.
Book XXII
Of Laws in Relation to the Use of Money 1.-The Reason of the Use of Money PEOPLE who have little merchandise, as savages, and among civilized nations those who have only two or three species, trade by exchange. Thus the caravans of Moors that go to Timbuctoo, in the heart of Africa, have no need of money, for they exchange their salt for gold. The Moor puts his salt in a heap, and the Negro his dust in another; if there is not gold enough, the Moor takes away some of his salt, or the Negro adds more gold, till both parties are agreed.
But when a nation traffics with a great variety of merchandise, money becomes necessary; because a metal easily carried from place to place saves the great expenses which people would be obliged to be at if they always proceeded by exchange.
As all nations have reciprocal wants, it frequently happens that one is desirous of a large quant.i.ty of the other's merchandise, when the latter will have very little of theirs, though with respect to another nation the case is directly opposite. But when nations have money, and proceed by buying and selling, those who take most merchandise pay the balance in specie. And there is this difference, that in the case of buying, the trade carried on is in proportion to the wants of the nation that has the greatest demands; whilst in bartering, the trade is only according to the wants of the nation whose demands are the fewest; without which the latter would be under an impossibility of balancing its accounts.
2.-Of the Nature of Money Money is a sign which represents the value of all merchandise. Metal is taken for this sign, as being durable1 because it consumes but little by use; and because, without being destroyed, it is capable of many divisions. A precious metal has been chosen as a sign, as being most portable. A metal is most proper for a common measure, because it can be easily reduced to the same standard. Every state fixes upon it a particular impression, to the end that the form may correspond with the standard and the weight, and that both may be known by inspection only.
The Athenians, not having the use of metals, made use of oxen,2 and the Romans of sheep; but one ox is not the same as another ox in the manner that one piece of metal may be the same as another.
As specie is the sign of the value of merchandise, paper is the sign of the value of specie; and when it is of the right sort, it represents this value in such a manner that as to the effects produced by it there is not the least difference.
In the same manner, as money is the sign and representative of a thing, everything is a sign and representative of money; and the state is in a prosperous condition when on the one hand money perfectly represents all things, and on the other all things perfectly represent money, and are reciprocally the sign of each other; that is, when they have such a relative value that we may have the one as soon as we have the other. This never happens in any other than a moderate government, nor does it always happen there; for example, if the laws favor the dishonest debtor, his effects are no longer a representative or sign of money. With regard to a despotic government, it would be a prodigy did things there represent their sign. Tyranny and distrust make everyone bury their specie;3 things therefore are not there the representative of money.
Legislators have sometimes had the art not only to make things in their own nature the representative of specie, but to convert them even into specie, like the current coin. Caesar, when he was dictator, permitted debtors to give their lands in payment to their creditors, at the price they were worth before the civil war.4 Tiberius ordered that those who desired specie should have it from the public treasury on binding over their land to double the value.5 Under Caesar the lands were the money which paid all debts; under Tiberius ten thousand sesterces in land became as current money equal to five thousand sesterces in silver.
The Magna Charta of England provides against the seizing of the lands or revenues of a debtor, when his movable or personal goods are sufficient to pay, and he is willing to give them up to his creditors; thus all the goods of an Englishman represented money.
The laws of the Germans const.i.tuted money a satisfaction for the injuries that were committed, and for the sufferings due to guilt. But as there was but very little specie in the country, they again const.i.tuted this money to be paid in goods or chattels. This we find appointed in a Saxon law, with certain regulations suitable to the ease and convenience of the several ranks of people. At first the law declared the value of a sou in cattle;6 the sou of two tremises answered to an ox of twelve months, or to a ewe with her lamb; that of three tremises was worth an ox of sixteen months. With these people money became cattle, goods, and merchandise, and these again became money.
Money is not only a sign of things; it is also a sign and representative of money, as we shall see in the chapter on exchange.
3.-Of ideal Money There is both real and ideal money. Civilized nations generally make use of ideal money only, because they have converted their real money into ideal. At first their real money was some metal of a certain weight and standard, but soon dishonesty or want made them retrench a part of the metal from every piece of money, to which they left the same name; for example, from a livre at a pound weight they took half the silver, and still continued to call it a livre; the piece which was the twentieth part of a pound of silver they continued to call a sou, though it is no more the twentieth part of this pound of silver. By this method the livre is an ideal livre, and the sou an ideal sou. Thus of the other subdivisions; and so far may this be carried that what we call a livre shall be only a small part of the original livre or pound, which renders it still more ideal. It may even happen that we have no piece of money of the precise value of a livre, nor any piece exactly with a sou, then the livre and the sou will be purely ideal. They may give to any piece of money the demonmination of as many livres and as many sous as they please, the variation may be continual, because it is as easy to give another name to a thing as it is difficult to change the thing itself.
To take away the source of this abuse, it would be an excellent law for all countries who are desirous of making commerce flourish, to ordain that none but real money should be current, and to prevent any methods from being taken to render it ideal.
Nothing ought to be so exempt from variation as that which is the common measure of all.
Trade is in its own nature extremely uncertain; and it is a great evil to add a new uncertainty to that which is founded on the nature of the thing.
4.-Of the Quant.i.ty of Gold and Silver While civilized nations are the mistresses of the world, gold and silver, whether they draw it from among themselves, or fetch it from the mines, must increase every day. On the contrary, it diminishes when barbarous nations prevail. We know how great was the scarcity of these metals when the Goths and Vandals on the one side, and on the other the Saracens and Tartars, broke in like a torrent on the civilized world.
5.-The same Subject continued The bullion drawn from the American mines, imported into Europe, and thence sent to the East, has greatly promoted the navigation of the European nations; for it is merchandise which Europe receives in exchange from America, and which she sends in exchange to the Indies. A prodigious quant.i.ty of gold and silver is therefore an advantage, when we consider these metals as merchandise; but it is otherwise when we consider them as a sign, because their abundance gives an alloy to their quality as a sign, which is chiefly founded on their scarcity.
Before the first Punic war7 copper was to silver as 960 to 1;8 it is at present nearly as 73 to 1. When the proportion shall be as it was formerly, silver will better perform its office as a sign.