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Summary

Introduction

Throughout history, societies have chosen to own and operate some economic enterprises on a collective basis. “State-owned enterprises are nothing new in the market economies of the world. The historians of the Roman Empire and the chronicles of the Old Testament offer ample evidence of their ancient origins.” The sixteenth century religious Reformation gave moral weight to the free-enterprise process for organizing production and consumption, and the rise of industrial capitalism extended the concept of individual ownership and private decision making. Yet even with the growth of capitalism, societies continued to choose collective ownership and operation for certain activities. Of particular importance were transportation systems. Private investments in roads, canals, and railways exhibited weaknesses or shortcomings of free enterprise, and societies frequently rejected that decision mode in favour of collective ownership.

For the transportation infrastructure, one could argue that the marginal cost of an additional user was negligible. Yet to set price equal to the negligible marginal costs, as efficiency would require, would not yield enough revenue to make the project financially viable. Roads, of course, had the peculiar difficulty that a private owner could not easily exclude use for non-payment of tolls. Tollgates were built, particularly for costly bridges, but individuals could gain access to most private roads quite readily. This pricing issue was made even more difficult because many such projects were in a monopoly position. One road, one canal, or one railway could provide adequately for all the needs of the populace within the geographical area being served. Being a monopolist, the owner would set a price above the marginal cost. Other members of society perceived such monopoly pricing as unfair and inefficient. Rapidly acquired fortunes were seen as concrete evidence of the inappropriateness of free enterprise. Many believed that only government ownership and operation could provide for appropriate pricing.

Transportation infrastructures also demonstrated the problems associated with externalities and private contracts. With a new transportation system, the costs of many products would fall. Local producers could sell their goods over a larger geographical area, and because of scale economies they could experience a reduction in production costs.

Summary

1. Consent of subjects is required to constitute any legitimate government, but it is not always and everywhere elicited in the same way. Sometimes men are compelled by military force to consent to a conqueror's rule; sometimes Citizens acquiesce of their own accord in the appointment of their prince.

2. Acquisition of authority by military force, which is usually called conquest [occupatio], occurs when a man relying upon a just cause for going to war and having been successful by force of arms and fortune reduces a people to the point that they are compelled thenceforth to submit to his authority. The legitimate title of his power is partly drawn from the fact that if he had wished as victor to take advantage of the strict rights of war, he might simply have taken the lives of the vanquished; and thus, by allowing them to get off with a lesser misfortune, he also earns a reputation for clemency. But it is also drawn from the fact that his enemy in going to war with one whom he had previously wronged, and to whom he has refused reasonable satisfaction, has placed all his fortunes on the gaming tables of Mars; he has thus already given tacit consent to whatever condition the event of war may assign him.

3. A kingdom is acquired by the free consent of a people when an election takes place by which a people (whether in process of formation or already formed) freely designates a specific man as in their opinion capable of holding power. The decision [decretum] of the people is signified to him; he accepts; the people promise obedience; power is conferred.

4. An election in a State already formed occurring after the death of the previous king is usuaJly preceded by an Interregnum. During this time the State recedes into an imperfect form, as the Citizens are then bound together only by the first contract. But a high degree of stability is provided by the love of their common country and its name, and by the fact that for most of the Citizens their fortunes are settled there. These motives constrain good Citizens to maintain peace with each other of their own accord and to make every effort to restore perfect government as soon as possible.

Summary

1. The third of the duties owed by every man to every man, to be performed for the sake of common sociality, is: everyone should be useful to others, so far as he conveniently can. For nature has established a kind of kinship among men. It is not enough not to have harmed, or not to have slighted, others. We must also give, or at least share, such things as will encourage mutual goodwill.

We are useful to others, either in an indefinite way or in a definite way; and it either costs us something, or it costs us nothing.

2. Someone is being useful to others in an indefinite way when he develops his mind and body to be a source of actions useful to others, or if he makes discoveries by the acuteness of his intellect for the betterment of human life. Hence they are thought to sin against this duty who learn no honest skill but passing their lives in silence, regard their mind as no more than salt to preserve them from decay, mere numbers ‘born to consume the fruits of the earth'. So do they who are content with their ancestral wealth, and believe they are justified in devoting themselves to idleness, because the industry of others has already assured their livelihood. So too do they ‘who hoard the wealth they have won not setting aside a portion for their kin\ Likewise those who, like pigs, give no one pleasure except by dying, and others of that sort, useless burdens on the earth.

3. To those who set themselves to do good to the human race, others owe duty not to be grudging nor to put obstacles in the way of their splendid endeavours. Then, even if they have no other way of repaying them, they will at least be extolling their memory and advancing their fame, which is the chief reward of toil.

4. It is thought to be a particularly odious act of ill will and inhumanity not to make freely available to others those good things which we can offer them without loss, labour or trouble to ourselves. Such things are normally recognized as beneficial and harmless; that is, things that help the recipient without burdening the giver.

Summary

1. The following are the duties which have arisen from the introduction of ownership in things:

Summary

1. So far as man's duty to God can be traced out on the basis of natural reason, it has no more than two articles: first, to have right notions of God, and secondly, to conform our actions to His will. Hence natural religion consists of theoretical propositions and practical propositions.

2. Of all the notions which everyone must hold about God, the first is a settled conviction that God exists, that is, that there really is a supreme and first being on whom this universe depends. This has been most plainly demonstrated by philosophers from the Subordination of causes which must find an end in some first thing, from motion, from reflection on the fabric of the universe, and by similar arguments. Claiming not to understand these arguments is no excuse for atheism. For since this conviction has been a constant possession of the whole human race, anyone who wished to overthrow it would not only have to produce a solid refutation of all the arguments which prove God's existence, but also come forward with more convincing reasons for his own position. At the same time, since the salvation of the human race has been believed hitherto to depend on this conviction, he would also have to show that atheism would be better for the human race than to maintain a sound worship of God. Since this cannot be done, we must heartily detest and severely punish the impiety of all who make any attempt whatever to shatter that conviction.

3. The second notion is that God is the Creator of this universe. For since it is self-evident that all this world did not come into existence of itself, it must have a cause and that cause is what we call God.

It follows from this that it is an error to prattle about nature (as people do from time to time) as the final cause of all things and all effects. For if the word ‘nature’ is meant to be taken as the causal efiicacy and power of action which is observed in things, it surely gives evidence itself of its author, God; so far is nature's power from lending support to any argument in denial of God. If, however, by ‘nature’ is meant the supreme cause of all things, it is a kind of fastidious profanity to avoid the plain, accepted term, God.

Summary

To the benevolent reader - greetings.

It would seem superfluous, if the practice of so many learned men had not made it almost mandatory, to write a preface explaining the purpose of this work. It is immediately clear that I have done no more than expound to beginners the principal topics of natural law in a short and, I hope, lucid compendium. I would not want students to be put off at the beginning by a massive accumulation of difficult questions, as would happen if they were to set out on the wide expanses of this subject without a knowledge of what one might call the elements. I also believe it to be in the public interest to steep their minds in a moral doctrine whose usefulness in civil life is accepted as obvious. In any other case I would naturally take it to be too trivial a task to reduce an extensive work to the form of a compendium, particularly a work of my own; but I think that in this case no sensible person will blame me for spending so much labour on a task which is uniquely useful to young people, particularly as I undertook it at the behest of my superiors. One's Obligation to the young is such that no work undertaken for their benefit should be thought to be below anyone's dignity even if it gives no opportunity for brilliant or profound thought. Besides, no one with even a grain of sense will deny that such basic principles are better suited to the universal discipline of law than are the elements of any particular System of civil law.

So much might have seemed sufficient, but certain people have advised me that it would be pertinent to make some remarks directed towards understanding the character of natural law in general and towards a careful delineation of its boundaries. I am the more happy to do this as I may in this way remove the excuse for men of misplaced subtlety to apply their feverish criticism to the discipline of natural law. It is quite distinct from their province; there is a line of demarcation between them.

Summary

Introduction

For each society, the choice of an economic system is affected by that society's relationships with other economic systems. This can be seen clearly in cases of military or political domination, where both the ruler and the ruled adjust their economic systems in accordance with the realities of the domination. The existence of the British Empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries meant that, for the many member societies, the choice of economic system was severely circumscribed. The Soviet Union extended its power over Eastern Europe after the Second World War in a manner which limited the options facing societies there. In recent decades, the United States has actively sought to influence the choices of many societies throughout the world, particularly in Central and South America. These cases of military and political intervention illustrate the necessity, when comparing economic systems, to consider each society's choices in the context of that society's relationships with other economic systems.

Relationships that are not military or political can also affect a society's choices. Of special importance are trade and investment. The development of trade relationships can strongly influence a society's economic system, particularly as the domestic structure adjusts to the provision of exports. The characteristics of a principal export, and its production requirements, may affect many features of the economic system and its decision modes, including the nature of employment relationships. The staple theory, for example, describes the reliance of some colonial societies in the nineteenth century on exports of wheat, timber, and cotton, and it explains how their economic systems were shaped by these exports. Even in recent decades, many societies continue to rely on the export of a narrow range of natural resources, with significant repercussions on their economic system.

As earlier chapters have indicated, the New World economy has facilitated the mobility of labour and capital, and this has also restricted each society's options. People and corporations may move away from a particular society if its economic system becomes significantly different.

Summary

1. We must next inquire into the duties which fall to man to perform as a result of the different states in which we find him existing in social life. By ‘state’ [status] in general, we mean a condition in which men are understood to be set for the purpose of performing a certain class of actions. Each State also has its own distinctive laws [jura].

2. Men's State is either natural or adventitious. Natural State may be considered, in the light of reason alone, in three ways: in relation to God the Creator; or in the relation of each individual man to himself; or in relation to other men.

3. Considered from the first point of view, the natural State of man is the condition in which he was placed by his Creator with the intention that he be an animal excelling other animals. It follows from this State that man should recognize and worship his Creator, admire His works, and lead his life in a manner utterly different from that of the animals. Hence this State is in complete contrast with the life and condition of the animals.

4. From the second point of view, we may consider the natural State of man, by an imaginative effort, as the condition man would have been in if he had been left to himself alone, without any support from other men, given the condition of human nature as we now perceive it. It would have been, it seems, more miserable than that of any beast, if we reflect on the great weakness of man as he comes into this world, when he would straight away die without help from others, and on the primitive life he would lead if he had no other resources than he owes to his own strength and intelligence. One may put it more strongly: the fact that we have been able to grow out of such weakness, the fact that we now enjoy innumerable good things, the fact that we have cultivated our minds and bodies for our own and others’ benefit - all this is the result of help from others. In this sense the natural State is opposed to life improved by human industry.

Summary

1. An oath is held to lend conspicuous support to our speech and to all acts which involve speech. For it is a religious affirmation, by which we give up our claim to God's mercy or call down divine punishment if we shall not speak truth. An oath raises a presumption of truth by invoking an omniscient and omnipotent witness and avenger, because we find it hard to believe that anyone would be so impious as boldly to call down upon himself God's most heavy wrath. This is the reason why the duty of those who swear is to take the oath with reverence and to observe scrupulously what they have sworn.

2. Now the most important use and purpose of swearing is to bind men more strongly to tell the truth or to keep a promise or agreement, through fear of God who is omniscient and omnipotent. If they knowingly deceive Him, they invoke His vengeance upon themselves by swearing, when otherwise the fear that threatens them from men would not have been effective, since they would expect to be able to disregard or deflect men's devices or elude detection.

3. Since God alone is omniscient and omnipotent, it is absurd to take an oath by any object which is not believed to be divine in the sense of invoking it as witness and avenger of perjury. It often happens, however, that in taking an oath a certain object is named by which one will swear in the sense that if the swearer breaks his oath, God is to take particular vengeance on that object, since it is something very dear and valuable to the swearer.

4. In oaths, the formula by which God is described in the invocation to Him as witness and avenger must be adapted to the conviction or religious belief which the oath-taker has of God. For there is no compulsion in an oath by a god in whom he does not believe and therefore does not fear. But no one believes he is swearing by God except in the formula or under the name contained in the precepts of his own religion, which is in his view the true one.

Summary

1. The first of the adventitious states in which a man is set by some prior human act is marriage. Marriage may be called the first example of social life and at the same time the seed-bed of the human race.

2. And first of all it is a settled point that the burning attraction of the sexes to each other has not been designed by the Creator in His great wisdom for the satisfaction of empty pleasure; for taken by itself it was bound to generate extreme nastiness and disorder in the human race. But it has been given to enhance relations between man and wife and to encourage them to put themselves to the trouble of having children and of bearing the difficulties which attend their birth and upbringing.

It follows from this that any employment of the genital members which deviates from these purposes is repugnant to natural law. Under this heading come forbidden lust directed towards a different species or towards persons of the same sex; any kind of filthy impurity; and all extra-marital intercourse, whether by mutual consent or against the woman's will.

3. The Obligation to contract marriage may be considered either with respect to the human race as a whole or with respect to individuals.

In the first respect the Obligation is that the propagation of the human race must absolutely not proceed by way of casual and promiscuous intercourse. It should always be bound by the laws of matrimony and therefore only practised within marriage. Without this a decent and well-ordered society among men and the development of civil life are inconceivable.

In the second respect individuals are obliged to enter into marriage when a suitable opportunity occurs. This is determined not only by age and the capacity to beget, but also by the chance of a suitable match and the capacity to support the wife and any children there may be; also by whether the man is fit to take on the role of head of the family. An exception is made for anyone who has the temperament to lead a chaste life as a Single person, and feels that he can achieve more good for the human race or for his country by not marrying than by marrying, especially when there is no fear of a shortage of children.

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Chronology of Pufendorf's life and publications

ON THE DUTY OF MAN AND CITIZEN ACCORDING TO NATURAL LAW

7 - Taxation

9 - Public enterprises

Summary

10 - On the ways of acquiring authority, particularly monarchical

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8 - On the common duties of humanity

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PART II - Decision modes

Index

13 - On the duties arising from ownership in itself

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Main works by Pufendorf and abbreviations

4 - On man's duty to God, or on natural religion

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Author's preface

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PART III - Choosing objectives and decision modes

11 - Constraints imposed by the new world economy

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1 - On men's natural state

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Index

Notes

11 - On the duties involved in taking an oath

Summary

2 - On the duties of marriage

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Translator's note

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