con mayor fuerza e inequivocidad por esta su discrepancia con los hechos. Es tanto más evidentemente una expresión competente de la tendencia que el sentido común inglés seguía en este tiempo, puesto que esta doctrina de un derecho «natural» de propiedad basado en el trabajo productivo arrasa con todo, a pesar de los hechos. En este asunto el pensamiento inglés, o más bien el sentido común inglés, ha tomado la delantera; y los pueblos continentales avanzados han seguido el liderazgo inglés a medida que la forma de organización económica ejemplificada por las comunidades de habla inglesa ha ido prevaleciendo entre estos pueblos continentales.
Semejante concepto pertenece al régimen de la artesanía y el pequeño comercio, y es desde, o a través de, la era de la artesanía que ha llegado hasta el presente.
Encaja en el esquema de la artesanía, y concuerda menos plenamente con los hechos de la vida en cualquier otra situación que no sea la de la artesanía. Asociado con el sistema de artesaní-
■ What appears to be necessary to the development of such a sentiment is that neither slavery nor the machine system shall be present in sufficient force to give a pronounced bias to the community’s habit of thought, at the same time that each member of the community, or each minor group of persons, habitually carries on its own work at its own discretion and for its own ends.
Such a situation may or may not involve handicraft as that term is specifically understood.
A presumption of similar import, but less pronounced and less defined, seems to prevail in an uncertain degree among many peoples on a low stage of culture. The tenet, accordingly, has some claim to stand as an expression of "natural" right, even when "natural" is taken in an evolutionary sense.
craft, as its correlate, was the syBtem of petty trade ; and as the differentiation of occupations was carried to a high degree, purchase and sale came to prevail very generally, and the commiuiity acquired a commercial complexion and commercial habits of thought.
Under these circumstances , the natural right of ownership came to comI prise an extreme freedom and facility in the disposal of property.
The whole sequence of growth of this natural right is, of course, to be taken in connection with the general growth of individual rights that culminated in the eighteenth-century system of Natural Liberty.
How far the English economic development is to be accounted the chief or fundamental factor in the general growth of natural rights is a question that cannot be taken up here.
The outcome, so far as it immediately touches the present topic, was that by the time of the industrial revolution a fairly consistent standardization of economic life had been reached in terms of workmanship and price.
The writings of Adam Smith and his contemporaries bear witness to this. And this eighteenth-century standardization stands over as the dominant economic institution of later times.'
Such, in outline, seem to be the histori-
' Taken by and lai^e, the stondiu'dizaUon of conduct, knonledfn, and Ideals current in the eighteenth century, and coDsonant with th« elgbteenth-century economic situation, is in the last analysis reducible to terms of workmanlike efBcieuc; rather than terma ol material cal antecedents and the spiritual basis of the modern institution of property, and therefore of bufiiness enterprise as it prevails in the present.'
This sketch of the genesis of the modern institution of property and of modern business principles may seem dubious to those who are inclined to give it a more substantial character than that of a habit of thought, — that is to say, those who still adhere to the doctrine of natural rights with something of the eighteenth-century naivete.
But whatever may be accepted as the ulterior grounds of that cultural movement which culminated in the system of Natural Liberty, it is plain that tlie industrial and commercial experience of western Europe, and primarily of England, from the fifteenth to tlie eighteenth century, had much to do with the outcome of the movement in so far as natural liberty touches economic matters.
It is as an outcome of this recently past phase of economic development that we have incorporated in the law, cause and effect. Thia leaning to personal, workmanlike efficiency aa an ultimate term sbows itself even in the science of that time, e.g. la the quaai-personal character imputed to tba so-called "natural laws" wbieh then largely occupied scientific speculation ; similarly In the Romantic literature and political philosophy.
1 As tale as the close of the sixteenth century English law and nsage In the matter of loans for Inlerest and other contracts of a pecuniary character were In a less advanced state, admitted a less full and free discretion, than the correaponding development on the Continent ; but from abont that time the English rapidly gains on the Cuntinenlal oommuolty in the habitual acceptance and application of these " business principles," and it lias since then held the lead in this respect. VI. Ashley, Economic Bittory, vol. 11. ch. VL equity, and common sense of to-day, these peculiarly free and final property rights and obligations, that ia to say, those peculiar principles that control current business and industry. We owe to the eighteenth century a very full discretion and free awing in all pecuniary matters. It has given freedom of contract, together with security and ease of credit engagements, whereby the competitive order of business has been definitively installed.'
El tema sobre el cual gira esta moderna discreción pecuniaria, con toda su libertad e inviolabilidad de contrato, son los valores monetarios.
En consecuencia, subyace a todos los contratos pecuniarios el supuesto de que la unidad de valor del dinero no varía. La inviolabilidad de los contratos implica este supuesto. Se acepta sin cuestionamientos como punto de partida en todas las transacciones comerciales.
En la celebración y ejecución de los contratos, es un punto fundamental de la ley y la costumbre que el dinero no varía.' Tanto la capitalización como los contratos se realizan en sus términos, y los planes de los hombres de negocios que controlan la industria consideran la unidad monetaria como la base estable de todas sus transacciones.
Es bien sabido que los hombres de negocios celan cualquier intento de alterar el valor o disminuir la estabilidad
1 Cf. Sombort, Kapitalismua. vnl. II. ch. II.
• On the putative atabiliiy of tlie moiipy unit, cf. W. W. CarlUe, The £volti{fon 0/ Modern Money, pi. II. cli, IV.