Chapter XII The Portuguese Prohibition of Trade Has No Foundation in Equity
From what has been said thus far it is easy to see the blind cupidity of those who in order not to admit any one else to a share in their gains, strive to still their consciences by the very arguments which the Spanish jurists, interested too in the same case, show to be absolutely empty.168 For they intimate as clearly as they can that as regards India all the pretexts employed, are far fetched and unjust. They add that this right was never seriously approved by the swarm of theologians. Indeed, what is more unjust than the complaint made by the Portuguese that their profits are drained off by the number of their competitors? An incontrovertible rule of law lays down that a man who uses his own right is justly presumed to be contriving neither a deceit nor a fraud, in fact not even to be doing any one an injury. This is particularly true, if he has no intention to harm any one, but only to increase his own property.169 For what ought to be considered is the chief and ultimate intent not the irrelevant consequence. Indeed, if we may with propriety agree with Ulpian, he is not doing an injury, but he is preventing some one from getting a profit which another was previously enjoying.
Moreover it is natural and conformable to the highest law as well as equity, that when a gain open to all is concerned every person prefers it for himself rather than for conveniens, ut lucrum in medio positum suum quisque malit quam alterius, etiam qui ante perceperat.170a Quis ferat querentem opificem quod alter eiusdem artis exercitio ipsius commoda evertat? Batavorum autem causa eo est iustior, quia ipsorum hac in parte utilitas cum totius humani generis utilitate coniuncta est, quam Lusitani eversum eunt.171a Neque hoc recte dicetur ad aemulationem fieri, ut in re simili ostendit Vasquius: aut enim plane hoc negandum est, aut asseverandum non ad bonam modo, verum etiam ad optimam aemulationem fieri, iuxta Hesiodum:172a ἀγαθὴ δ’ Ἔρις ἥδε βροτοῖσι ‘bona lis mortalibus haec est’. Nam etiam si quis pietate motus, inquit ille, frumentum in summa penuria vilius venderet, impediretur improba duritie eorum hominum, qui saeviente penuria suum carius fuerant vendituri. Verum est talibus modis minui aliorum reditus: nec id negamus, ait, ‘sed minuuntur cum universorum hominum commodo: ET VTINAM omnium PRINCIPVM et TYRRANORVM ORBIS reditus ita minuerentur’.
Quid ergo tam iniquum videri potest, quam Hispanos vectigalem habere Terrarum Orbem, ut nisi ad illorum nutum nec emere liceat nec vendere?173a In cunctis civitatibus dardanarios odio atque etiam poenis prosequimur; nec ullum tam nefarium vitae genus videtur, quam ista annonae flagellatio.174a Merito quidem. Naturae enim faciunt another, even if that other had already discovered it.170 Who would countenance an artisan who complained that another artisan was taking away his profits by the exercise of the same craft? But the cause of the Dutch is the more reasonable, because their advantage in this matter is bound up with the advantage of the whole human race, an advantage which the Portuguese are trying to destroy.171 Nor will it be correct to say, that this is done in rivalry, as Vasquez shows in a similar case. For clearly we must either deny this or affirm that it is done not only in honorable but in most honorable rivalry, for, as Hesiod says, ‘This rivalry is honorable for mortal men’.172 For, says Vasquez, if any one should be so moved by love for his fellow man as to offer grain at a time of great scarcity for a lower price than usual, he would be prevented by the wicked and hardhearted men who had the intention of selling their grain at a higher price than usual, because of the pinch caused by the scarcity. But, some one will object, by such methods the profits of others will be made less. ‘We do not deny it’, says Vasquez, ‘but they are made less to the corresponding advantage of all other men. And would that the profits of all Rulers and Tyrants of this world could be thus lessened’!
Indeed can anything more unjust be conceived than for the Spaniards to hold the entire world tributary, so that it is not permissible either to buy or to sell except at their good pleasure?173 In all states we heap odium upon grain speculators and even bring them to punishment; and in very truth there seems to be no other sort of business so disgraceful as that of forcing up prices in the grain market.174 That is not iniuriam, quae in commune fecunda est:175a neque vero censeri debet in usus paucorum reperta negotiatio, sed ut quod alteri deest alterius copia pensaretur, iusto tamen compendio omnibus proposito, qui laborem ac periculum transferendi in se suscipiunt.
Hoc ipsum igitur quod in republica, id est, minore hominum conventu, grave et perniciosum iudicatur, in magna illa humani generis societate ferendumne est? ut scilicet totius mundi monopolium faciant populi Hispani? Invehitur Ambrosius in eos qui maria claudunt,176a Augustinus in eos qui itinera obstruunt; Nazianzenus in177a coemptores suppressoresque mercium, qui ex inopia aliorum soli quaestum faciunt, et ut ipse facundissime loquitur καταπραγματεύονται τῆς ἐνδείας. Quin et divini sapientis sententia publicis diris devovetur sacerque habetur, qui alimenta supprimendo vexat annonam: ὅ συνέχων σῖτον δημοκατάρατος.
Clament igitur Lusitani quantum, et quam diu libebit: ‘Lucra nostra deciditis’. Respondebunt Batavi: ‘Immo nostris invigilamus. Hocne indignamini in partem nos venire ventorum et maris? Et quis illa vobis lucra mansura promiserat? Salvum est vobis, quo nos contenti sumus’.
to be wondered at, for such speculators are doing an injury to nature, who, as Aristotle says, is fertile for all alike.175 Accordingly it ought not to be supposed that trade was invented for the benefit of a few, but in order that the lack of one would be counterbalanced by the oversupply of another, a fair return also being guaranteed to all who take upon themselves the work and the danger of transport.
Is the same thing then which is considered grievous and pernicious in the smaller community of a state to be put up with at all in that great community of the human race? Shall the people of Spain, forsooth, assume a monopoly of all the world? Ambrose inveighs against those who interfere with the freedom of the sea;176 Augustine against those who obstruct the overland routes; and Gregory of Nazianzus177 against those who buy goods and hold them, and thus (as he eloquently says) make profits for themselves alone out of the helplessness and need of others. Indeed in the opinion of this wise and holy man any person who holds back grain and thus forces up the market price ought to be given over to public punishment and be adjudged worthy of death.
Therefore the Portuguese may cry as loud and as long as they shall please: ‘You are cutting down our profits’! The Dutch will answer: ‘Nay! we are but looking out for our own interests! Are you angry because we share with you in the winds and the sea? Pray, who had promised that you would always have those advantages? You are secure in the possession of that with which we are quite content’.