CITATIONS FROM WRITINGS OF JURISTS AND ECONOMISTS. 621 



Vattel, Law of Nations, 7 th Amer. ed. 1849, sec. 86, p. 37. 



§ 86. Nations are obliged to cultivate the borne trade, — first, because it 

 is clearly demonstrated from the law of nature, that mankind ought 

 mutually to assist each other, and as far as in their power, contribute 

 to the perfection and happiness of their fellow-creatures ; whence arises, 

 after the introduction of private property, the obligation to resign to 

 others, at a fair price, those things which they have occasion for, and 

 which we do not destine for our own use. Secondly, society being 

 established with the view that each may procure whatever things are 

 necessary to his own perfection and happiness — and a home trade being 

 the means of obtaining them — the obligations to carry on and improve 

 this trade are derived from the very compact on which the society was 

 formed. Finally, being advantageous to the nation, it is a duty the 

 people owe to themselves, to make this commerce flourish. 



§ 87. For the same reason, drawn from the welfare of the state, 

 and also to procure for the citizens everything they want, a nation is 

 obliged to promote and carry on a foreign trade. Of all the modern 

 states, England is most distinguished in this respect. The parliament 

 have their eyes constantly fixed on this important object; they effect- 

 ually protect the navigation of the merchants, and, by considerable 

 bounties, favor the exportation of superfluous commodities and mer- 

 chandises. In a very sensible production l maybe seen the valuable 

 advantages that kingdom has derived from such judicious regulations. 



§ 88. Let us now see what are the laws of nature and the rights of 

 nations in respect to the commerce they carry on with each other. 

 Men are obliged mutually to assist each other as much as possible, and 

 to contribute to the perfection and happiness of their fellow- creatures; 

 whence it follows, as we have said above, that after the introduction of 

 private property, it became a duty to sell to each other at a. fair price 

 what the possessor himself lias no occasion for, and what is necessary 

 to others; because, since that introduction of private property, no oue 

 can, by any other means, procure the. different things that may be 

 necessary or useful to him, and calculated to render life pleasant and 

 agreeable. Xor, since right springs from obligation, the obligation 

 which we have just established gives every man the right of procuring 

 the things he wants, by purchasing them at a reasonable price from 

 those who have themselves no occasion for them. 



We have also seen that men could not free themselves from the 

 authority of the laws of nature by uniting in civil society, and that 

 the whole nation remains equally subject to those laws in its national 

 capacity; so that the natural and necessary law of nations is no other 

 than the law of nature properly applied to nations or sovereign states. 

 from all which it follows that a nation has a right to procure, at an 

 equitable price, whatever articles it wants, by purchasing them of 

 other nations who have no occasion for them. This is the foundation 

 of the right of commerce between different nations, and in particular, 

 of the right of buying. 



Sergeant Stephen's New Commentaries on the Laws of England. Vol. 

 I, Bk. 11, pp. 159-165, 6th ed. 1868. 



In the beginuiug of the world, as we are informed by the Holy Writ, 

 the All Bountiful Creator gave to man " dominion over all the earth ; and 

 over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air. and over every 

 living thing that moveth upon the earth ". 



1 Remarks on the Advantages and Disadvantages of France and Great Britain with 

 respect to Commerce. _j 



