Chapter II
1 A Lecture on the Study of History, delivered at Cambridge, June 11, 1895, by Lord Acton, p. 9.
2 W. Sombart (Der moderne Kapitalismus, 1916, vol. i, pp. 524-6) gives facts and figures. See also J. Strieder, Studien zur Geschichte kapitalistischer Organisationsformen, 1914, kap. i, ii.
3 E. R. Daenell, Die Blütezeit der Deutschen Hanse, 1905; Schanz, Englische Handelspolitik gegen die Ende des Mittelalters, vol. i; N. S. B. Gras, The Early English Customs System, 1918, pp. 452-514.
4 E.g., The Fugger News-Letters, 1568-1605, ed. V. von Klarwill, trans. P. de Chary, 1924.
5 E. Albèri, Le Relazione degli Ambasciatori Veneti al Senato, serie I, vol. iii, 1853, p. 357 (Relazione di Filippo II Re di Spagna da Michele Soriano nel 1559): “Questi sono li tesori del re di Spagna, queste le miniere, queste l’Indie che hanno sostentato l’imprese dell’ Imperatore tanti anni.”
6 The best contemporary picture of the trade of Antwerp is that of L. Guicciardini, Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi (1567), of which part is reprinted in a French translation in Tawney and Power, Tudor Economic Documents, vol. iii, pp. 149-173. The best modern accounts of Antwerp are given by Pirenne, Histoire de Belgique, vol. ii, pp. 399-403, and vol. iii, pp. 259-72; Ehrenberg, Das Zeitalter der Fugger, vol. ii, pp. 3-68; and J. A. Goris, Étude sur les Colonies Marchandes Méridionales à Anvers de 1488 à 1567 (1925).
7 The Meutings had opened a branch in Antwerp in 1479, the Hochstetters in 1486, the Fuggers in 1508, the Welsers in 1509 (Pirenne, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 261).
8 Pirenne, op. cit., vol. iii, pp. 273-6.
9 Ehrenberg, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 7-8.
10 A short account of international financial relations in the sixteenth century will be found in my introduction to Thomas Wilson’s Discourse upon Usury, 1925, pp. 60-86.
11 Erasmus, Adagia; see also The Complaint of Peace.
12 For the Fuggers, see Ehrenberg, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 85-186, and for the other German firms mentioned, ibid., pp. 187-269.
13 See Goris, op. cit., pp. 510-45, where the reply of the Paris theologians is printed in full; and Ehrenberg, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 18, 21. For Bellarmin, see Goris, op. cit., pp. 551-2. A curious illustration of the manner in which it was still thought necessary in the later sixteenth century, and in Protestant England, to reconcile economic policy with canonist doctrine, will be found in S.P.D. Eliz., vol. lxxv, no. 54 (printed in Tawney and Power, Tudor Economic Documents, vol. iii, pp. 359-70). The writer, who is urging the repeal of the Act of 1552 forbidding all interest whatever, cites Aquinas and Hostiensis to prove that “trewe and unfayned interest” is not to be condemned as usury.
14 Ashley, Economic History, 1893, vol. i, pt. ii, pp. 442-3.
15 Bodin, La Response de Jean Bodin aux Paradoxes de Malestroit touchant l’enchérissement de toutes choses et le moyen d’y remédier.
16 See Max Neumann, Geschichte des Wuchers in Deutschland, 1865, pp. 487 seqq.
17 Calvin’s views will be found in his Epistolæ et Responsa, 1575, pp. 355-7, and in Sermon xxviii in the Opera.
18 Bucer, De Regno Christi.
19 Third Decade, 1st and 2nd Sermons, in The Decades of Henry Bullinger (Parker Society), vol. iii, 1850.
20 Luther, Kleiner Sermon vom Wucher (1519) in Werke (Weimar ed.), vol. vi, pp. 1-8; Grosser Sermon vom Wucher (1520), in ibid., pp. 33-60; Von Kaufshandlung und Wucher (1524), in ibid., vol. xv, pp. 279-322; An die Pfarrherrn wider den Wucher zu predigen, Vermahnung (1540), in ibid., vol. li, pp. 325-424.
21 “Hie müsste man wahrlich auch den Fuckern und der geistlichen Gesellschaft einen Zaum ins Maul legen” (quoted by Ehrenberg, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 117 n.)
22 See pp. 114-15.
23 Luther, Wider die räuberischen und mörderischen Rotten der Bauern (1525), in Werke, vol. xviii, pp. 357-61.
24 Latimer, Sermons; Ponet, An Exhortation, or rather a Warning, to the Lords and Commons; Crowley, The Way to Wealth, and Epigrams (in Select Works of Robert Crowley, ed. J. M. Cowper, E.E.T.S., 1872); Lever, Sermons, 1550 (English Reprints, ed. E. Arber, 1895); Becon, The Jewel of Joy, 1553; Sandys, 2nd, 10th, 11th, and 12th of Sermons (Parker Society, 1841); Jewel, Works, pt. iv, pp. 1293-8 (Parker Society, 1850). Citations from less well-known writers and preachers will be found in J. O. W. Haweis, Sketches of the Reformation, 1844.
25 Gairdner, Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, vol. xvi, no. 357.
26 Bossuet, Traité de l’Usure. For an account of his views, see Favre, Le prêt a intérêt dans l’ancienne France.
27 Brief Survey of the Growth of Usury in England with the Mischiefs attending it, 1673.
28 For an account of these changes see K. Lamprecht, Zum Verständnis der wirthschaftlichen und sozialen Wandlungen in Deutschland vom 14. zum 16. Jahrhundert, in the Zeitschrift für Sozial-und Wirthschaftsgeschichte, Bd. i, 1893, pp. 191 seqq.
29 Lamprecht, op. cit., and J. S. Schapiro, Social Reform and the Reformation, 1909, pp. 40-73.
30 Schapiro, op. cit., pp. 20-39, and Strieder, op. cit. (see note 2), pp. 156-212.
31 For the so-called Reformation of the Emperor Sigismund see Chap. I, note 24, and for the Peasants’ Articles, ibid., note 108.
32 For Geiler von Kaiserberg and Hipler see Schapiro, op. cit., pp. 30, 126-31. For Hutten see H. Wiskemann, Dartstellung der in Deutschland zur Zeit der Reformation herrschenden Nationalökonomischen Ansichten, 1861, pp. 13-24.
33 Quoted W. Raleigh, The English Voyages of the Sixteenth Century, 1910, p. 28.
34 Troeltsch, Protestantism and Progress, 1912, pp. 44-52.
35 Schapiro, op. cit., p. 137.
36 See citations in Wiskemann, op. cit., pp. 47-8, and, for a discussion of Luther’s social theory, Troeltsch, Die Soziallehren der Christlichen Kirchen, 1912, pp. 549-93.
37 Luther, An den christlichen Adel deutscher Nation (1520), in Werke, vol. vi, pp. 381 seqq.
38 Schapiro, op. cit., p. 139.
39 Luther, Ermahnung zum Frieden auf die zwölf Artikel der Bauerschaft in Schwaben (1525), in Werke, vol. xviii, p. 327.
40 Von Kaufshandlung und Wucher, in ibid., vol. xv, p. 295.
41 An den christlichen Adel, in ibid., vol. vi, p. 466 (quoted by R. H. Murray, Erasmus and Luther, 1920, p. 239).
42 Von Kaufshandlung und Wucher, in ibid., vol. xv, pp. 293-4, 312.
43 Concerning Christian Liberty, in Wace and Buchheim, Luther’s Primary Works, 1896, pp. 256-7.
44 Grosser Sermon vom Wucher, in Werke, vol. vi, p. 49.
46 Printed in Neumann, Geschichte des Wuchers in Deutschland, Beilage F, pp. 618-19.
47 Concerning Christian Liberty, in Wace and Buchheim, op. cit., pp. 258-9.
48 Von Kaufshandlung und Wucher, in Werke, vol. xv, p. 302.
49 Zwingli, Von der göttlichen und menschlichen Gerechtigkeit, oder von dem göttlichen Gesetze und den bürgerlichen Gesetzen, printed in R. Christoffel, H. Zwingli, Leben und ausgewählte Schriften, 1857, pt. ii, pp. 313 seqq. See also Wiskemann, op. cit., pp. 71-4.
50 “Quid si igitur ex negociatione plus lucri percipi possit quam ex fundi cuiusvis proventu? Unde vero mercatoris lucrum? Ex ipsius inquies, diligentia et industria” (quoted by Troeltsch, Die Soziallehren der Christlichen Kirche, p. 707).
51 Bucer, De Regno Christi.
52 Roger Fenton, A Treatise of Usurie, 1612, p. 61.
53 Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. by J. Allen, 1838, vol. ii, p. 147 (bk. iii, ch. xxiii, par. 7).
54 Ibid., vol. ii, pp. 128-9 (bk. iii, ch. xxi, par. 7).
55 Gerrard Winstanley, A New-Yeer’s Gift for the Parliament and Armie, 1650 (Thomason Tracts, Brit. Mus., E. 587 (6), p. 42).
56 The Works of William Laud, D.D., ed. Wm. Scott, vol. vi, pt. i, 1857, p. 213.
57 De Subventione Pauperum.
58 “Quod ad maiores natu spectat, a nobis quotannis repetitur inspectio cuiusque familiæ. Distribuimus inter nos urbis regiones, ut ordine singulas decurias executere liceat. Adest ministro comes unus ex senioribus. Illic novi incolæ examinantur. Qui semel recepti sunt, omittuntur; nisi quod requiritur sitne domus pacata et recte composita, num lites cum vicinis, num qua ebrietas, num pigri sint et ignari ad conciones frequentendas” (quoted by Wiskemann, op. cit., p. 80 n.). For his condemnation of indiscriminate almsgiving, see ibid., p. 79 n.
59 De non habendo Pauperum Delectu (1523), and De Erogatione Eleemosynarum (1524). See K. R. Hagenbach, Johann Oekolampad und Oswald Myconius, die Reformatoren Basels, 1859, p. 46.
60 Carl Pestallozzi, Heinrich Bullinger, Leben und ausgewählte Schriften, 1858, pp. 50-1, 122-5, 340-2.
61 Wiskemann, op. cit., pp. 70-4.
62 Quoted by Preserved Smith, The Age of the Reformation, 1921, p. 174.
63 Calvin, Inst., bk. iv, ch. xii, par. 1.
64 Printed in Paul Henry, Das Leben Johann Calvins, vol. ii, 1838, Appx., pp. 26-41.
65 R. Christoffel, Zwingli, or the Rise of the Reformation in Switzerland, trans. by John Cochran, 1858, pp. 159-60.
66 Printed in Paul Henry, op. cit., vol. ii, Appx., pp. 23-5.
67 E. Choisy, L’Etat Chrétien Calviniste à Genève au temps de Théodore de Bèze, 1902, p. 145. I should like to make acknowledgments to this excellent book for most of the matter contained in the following paragraphs.
68 Paul Henry, op. cit., pp. 70-5. Other examples are given by Preserved Smith, op. cit., pp. 170-4, and by F. W. Kampschulte, Johann Calvin, seine Kirche und sein Staat in Genf, 1869. Statistical estimates of the bloodthirstiness of Calvin’s régime vary; Smith (p. 171) states that in Geneva, a town of 16,000 inhabitants, 58 persons were executed and 76 banished in the years 1542-6.
69 Knox, quoted by Preserved Smith, op. cit., p. 174.
70 Calvin, Inst., bk. iii, ch. vii, par. 5.
71 Choisy, op. cit., pp. 442-3.
72 Ibid., pp. 35-37.
73 Ibid., pp. 189, 117-19.
74 Ibid., pp. 35, 165-7.
75 Ibid., pp. 119-21.
76 Ibid., pp. 189-94.
77 Paul Henry, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 70 n.
78 See the description of the Church given in Calvin, Inst., bk. iv, ch. i, par. 4: “Quia nunc de ecclesia visibili disserere propositum est, discamus vel matris elogio, quam utilis sit nobis eius cognitio, immo necessaria, quando non alius est in vitam ingressus nisi nos ipsa concipiat in utero, nisi pariat, nisi nos alat suis uberibus, denique sub custodia et gubernatione sua nos tueatur, donec excuti carne mortali, similes erimus angelis. Neque enim patitur nostra infirmitas a schola nos dimitti, donec toto vitæ cursu discipuli fuerimus. Adde quod extra eius gremium nulla est speranda peccatorum remissio nec ulla salus.”
79 John Quick, Synodicon in Gallia Reformata: Or the Acts, Decisions, Decrees and Canons of those famous National Councils of the Reformed Churches in France, 1692, vol. i, p. 99.
80 Ibid., vol. i, p. 9 (pirates and fraudulent tradesmen), pp. 25, 34, 38, 79, 140, 149 (interest and usury), p. 70 (false merchandize and selling of stretched cloth), p. 99 (reasonable profits), pp. 162, 204 (investment of money for the benefit of the poor), pp. 194, 213 (lotteries).
81 The Buke of Discipline, in Works of John Knox, ed. D. Laing, vol. ii, 1848, p. 227.
82 Scottish History Soc., St. Andrews Kirk Session Register, ed. D. H. Fleming, 1889-90, vol. i, p. 309; vol. ii, p. 822.
83 W. B. Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, 1890, vol. i, p. 11. The words are Governor Bradford’s.
84 Winthrop’s Journal “History of New England,” 1630-49, ed. J. K. Hosmer, 1908, vol. i, pp. 134, 325; vol. ii, p. 20.
85 Weeden, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 125, 58.
86 Winthrop, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 20.
87 J. A. Doyle, The English in America, vol. ii, 1887, p. 57; the price of cattle “must not be judged by urgent necessity, but by reasonable profit.”
88 Roger Williams, The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, 1644, chap. lv.
89 Winthrop, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 315-18. A similar set of rules as to the conduct of the Christian in trade are given by Bunyan in The Life and Death of Mr. Badman, 1905 ed., pp. 118-22.
90 I owe this phrase to the excellent book of J. T. Adams, The Founding of New England.