Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles - The Ludwig von Mises ...

Historical Violations of the Legal PrinciplesGoverning the Monetary Irregular-Deposit Contract 91In his book, Suma de tratos y contratos (Compilation of dealsand contracts) (Seville 1571), Tomás de Mercado performs ananalysis of the banking business very much in the same line asthe studies by the preceding authors. He begins by correctlystating that depositors should pay bankers for the work ofsafeguarding their monetary deposits, concluding thatit is a common, general rule among all bankers to be able totake wages from those who deposit money in their bank, acertain amount each year or for each thousand, becausebankers serve depositors and safeguard their assets. 89Nevertheless, Tomás de Mercado ironically points out thatbankers in Seville are so “generous” they charge nothing forguarding deposits: “those of this city, it is true, are so regal andnoble they ask for and take no wage.” 90 Tomás de Mercadoobserves that these bankers have no need to charge anything,since the large amount of currency they obtain from depositsearns them substantial profits in personal business deals. Wemust emphasize that, in our opinion, Tomás de Mercado simplyverifies a fact here and does not imply that he considersthese actions in any way legitimate, as various modernauthors (among others, Restituto Sierra Bravo and FranciscoG. Camacho) appear to suggest. 91 Quite the opposite is true.From the standpoint of the purest Roman doctrine and theessential legal nature of the monetary irregular-deposit contractanalyzed in chapter 1, Tomás de Mercado is the scholasticwriter who most clearly demonstrates that the transfer ofproperty in the irregular deposit does not imply a concomitant89 We quote the Instituto de Estudios Fiscales edition published inMadrid in 1977, edited and prefaced by Nicolás Sánchez Albornoz, vol.2, p. 479. Restituto Sierra Bravo has another edition, published by theEditora Nacional in 1975. The above excerpt appears on page 401 of thisedition. The original edition was published in Seville in 1571 “en casa deHernando Díaz Impresor de Libros, en la calle de la Sierpe.”90 Mercado, Suma de tratos y contratos, vol. 2, p. 480 of the Instituto deEstudios Fiscales edition and p. 401 of the Restituto Sierra Bravo edition.91 See the writings by Restituto Sierra Bravo, Francisco Belda, and FranciscoGarcía Camacho cited in footnote 76.