Page 99 - Latent Defect or Excessive Price?Exploring Early Modern Legal Approach to Remedying Defects in Goods Exchanged for Money - Bruijn
P. 99

EARLY MODERN CASTILIAN LAW
somewhat annoyed by the great number of incomprehensive merchants and confessors that seemed to roam Spain, explains the just price and its determination as follows:
'The just price of the thing is that which is commonly paid in the time and place in which the contract is concluded, taking into account particular circumstances in the method of buying and selling... I understand all the doctrine in the sense that when there is no price fixed for the merchandise, neither by custom, nor law, one has to keep to nothing else than the common current price when one determines a thing's price. I repeat this many times, because it occurs to me that greedy merchants and imprudent confessors99 take huge liberties in the determination of price'.100
This is all much the same as what we encountered in medieval ius commune- literature on the just price with reference to the remedy for lesion beyond moiety. The Gloss already stated that 'the price of things is not determined by one's personal affections'.101 Yet, the early modern scholastic price determination is not an objective process in the sense that things have a value independent of the value men attach to it. Molina ponders that man price things in accordance with what people are generally willing to pay for it, however irrational that price might be. A gem, for example, is a useless thing. Yet, because of man's love of jewelry its market price many times exceeds that of a loaf of bread, the use of which is manifestly evident and many times exceeds that of a beautifully coloured stone.102
3.2.2.4 Deviation from the just price as breach of fairness in exchange
Now that we know how the just price of a thing was determined, we can again concentrate on the question how the concept of just price and fairness in exchanges gained influence in Castilian civil law. The vehicle used for putting these concepts at the service of legal scholars and practitioners was the ius commune-remedy for lesion beyond moiety in C. 4.44.2, which text was seen as the legal expression of early modern scholastic theory of
damno metienda sunt, sed ex communi earum aestimatione in loci ubi venduntur'; Mauel González Téllez († 1640) provides a plethora of Castilian scholars who defend the same view in his commentary to the Decretals. Tellez, Commentaria, vol. 3, to X. 3.17.1, no. 8, p. 201.
99 In determining whether someone had sinned.
100 De la Calle, Instruccion, fo. 18v: 'iusto precio de la cosa es aquel que communmente corre en el lugar e
tiempo del contracto contado consideradas las particulares circunstancias de la manera de vender y comprar... Todas estas dotrinas entiendo quando no ay puesto precio de la mercadería, ni por costumbre, ni por ley, que quando ay puesto precio a ninguna cosa se deve tener respeto sino al precio comun que corre. E repito esto tantas veces, porque a mi me consta quanta licencia se toman en esta tassacion los mercaderes cobdiciosos y quanta les dan los confessores imprudentes'; cf. Medina, De poenitentia, p. 195: 'Secundo in defectu huiusmodi taxationis, communi cursui, siue aestimationi videtur esse standum, ita ut illud sit rerum quae venduntur iustum pretium quod secundum communem cursum seu consuetudinem pro rebus illis tradi et recipi solet. Tertio, ubi nec lex pretii determinativa sit, nec communis consuetudo eo quod forte tales merces non sunt illic assuetae vendi, sed de novo aliunde portantur, tunc multa essent consideranda ad assignandum iustum pretium illarum mercium, quorum aliqua se tenent ex parte vendentis, quaedam ex parte ementis, alia vero ex parte ipsarum mercium... ; Azpilcueta, Enchiridion, c. 23, no. 80, fo. 335: 'Valor rei iustus est quo praesenti pecunia vendit potest'.
101 Gloss iudicis to C. 4.44.2, in: De la Porte (ed). Corpus iuris civilis, fo. 714: 'quoniam pretia rerum non constituuntur affectione singulorum'.
102 Molina, Opera omnia, vol. 2, disp. 348, nos. 2seq., p. 229. 87
 






















































































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