The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 03 (of 11) — Thomas Hobbes — John Shaqi
The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 03 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
assembly have right, to impose a mulct upon any of their members, that
shall break the laws they make; yet out of the colony itself, they have
no right to execute the same. And that which is said here, of the rights
of an assembly, for the government of a province, or a colony, is
appliable also to an assembly for the government of a town, an
university, or a college, or a church, or for any other government over
the persons of men.
And generally, in all bodies politic, if any particular member conceive
himself injured by the body itself, the cognizance of his cause
belongeth to the sovereign, and those the sovereign hath ordained for
judges in such causes, or shall ordain for that particular cause; and
not to the body itself. For the whole body is in this case his
fellow-subject, which in a sovereign assembly, is otherwise: for there,
if the sovereign be not judge, though in his own cause, there can be no
judge at all.
[Sidenote: Bodies politic for ordering of trade.]
In a body politic, for the well ordering of foreign traffic, the most
commodious representative is an assembly of all the members; that is to
say, such a one, as every one that adventureth his money, may be present
at all the deliberations, and resolutions of the body, if they will
themselves. For proof whereof, we are to consider the end, for which men
that are merchants, and may buy and sell, export, and import their
merchandize, according to their own discretions, do nevertheless bind
themselves up in one corporation. It is true, there be few merchants,
that with the merchandize they buy at home, can freight a ship, to
export it; or with that they buy abroad, to bring it home; and have
therefore need to join together in one society; where every man may
either participate of the gain, according to the proportion of his
adventure; or take his own, and sell what he transports, or imports, at
such prices as he thinks fit. But this is no body politic, there being
no common representative to oblige them to any other law, than that
which is common to all other subjects. The end of their incorporating,
is to make their gain the greater; which is done two ways; by sole
buying, and sole selling, both at home, and abroad. So that to grant to
a company of merchants to be a corporation, or body politic, is to grant
them a double monopoly, whereof one is to be sole buyers; another to be
sole sellers. For when there is a company incorporate for any particular
foreign country, they only export the commodities vendible in that
country; which is sole buying at home, and sole selling abroad. For at
home there is but one buyer, and abroad but one that selleth: both which
is gainful to the merchant, because thereby they buy at home at lower,
and sell abroad at higher rates: and abroad there is but one buyer of
foreign merchandize, and but one that sells them at home; both which
again are gainful to the adventurers.