Question V: Whether, for certain causes, it is lawful to reduce below the minimum price, or raise above the maximum

FROM many circumstances the Doctors teach that the natural price of things can change.

THE FIRST is from the abundance of money, of goods, and of buyers; for just as by the scarcity of buyers and the abundance of goods merchandise becomes cheap, so on the contrary, etc. Hence also at the end of market days the price of goods falls. So Sotus l. 6. de iustitia quaest. 2. art. 3. Rebell. 2. p. de oblig. iust. l. 9. quaest. 1. sect. 1. num. 34.. Couar. l. 2. var. cap. 3. num. 4. Caiet. 2. 2. quaest. 77. art. 1. Tannet. disp. 4. quaest. 7. num. 28. Fagundez l. 5. de contract. cap. 30. and he indicates the S. Doctor does in speculo animae, cap. 2.

SECOND, from the abundance of money: There are some regions in which gold and silver abound, as the Indies and almost the whole New World, where more gold and silver can be poured out. Add that this also often happens from the difficult transport of goods. So Fagundez num. 30.

THIRD, the manner of selling is a cause; things are sold dearer piecemeal, as Bass. num. 5. Rebell. num. 36. Syluester v. emptio, quaest. 20. Molina T. 2. disp. 348. Fagundez num. 4. notes. To this are reduced sales sub hasta, or by brokers, or when students leave at the end of term. So Nauar. in Manuali, cap. 23. num. 78. Caiet. and Soto above. Tannerus num. 19.

THE Doctors ask, then, what is the just price for a sale sub hasta.

COMMONLY they answer that it is that which does not exceed half the just price, nor is lowered below half. So Gregorius Lopes de contract. l. 1. cap. 19. Filliuc. t. 2. tract. 35. cap. 6. num. 141. Mercado l. 2. cap. 12. Garcia l. 1. cap. 21. Corduba quaest. 8. Rodriguez tom. 1. cap. 174. Ioan. Franc. Suarez l. 1. under the word venditio, et emptio, §. 14.

SOME, however, say it is that which is last offered, if frauds are absent. So Iacobus Gordon. T. 1. Theolog. Mor. l. 4. quaest. 5. cap. 8. num. 98. Villalobos t. 2. cap. 21. diffic. 5. and he cites others, Fagundez l. 5. de contract. cap. 30. num. 6. Others say that worthless goods lose a third of their value. So Caietanus, but it does not please Tannero num. 29.

FOURTH, the price is increased by the appetite and desire for novelties, in the fruits of the earth, the fish of the sea, and certain curiosities: Thus the Ethiopians greatly value red caps, and the Japanese certain antiquities. See Caspensem tract. 19. disp. 4. sect. 4.

Tannerus num. 32. indeed warns that the matter is full of danger. The same is held by Molina disp. 351. Therefore they say it is to be discouraged. Tanner. num. 34. adds that something may be taken for curious things. Bassaeus joins the affection of the seller, by which he wishes to cling to his own thing, and how dearly he parts with it.

FIFTH, on account of the greater common utility. See Molinam disp. 348. Tomo 2. Fagundez num. 8.

I say the common utility, because the cheapness or necessity of a few is not a cause for increasing the just price; for just as the price of things does not depend on the estimation of a single seller, so neither does it depend on the necessity of a single buyer; otherwise it would be lawful to sell dearer to a poor man than to a rich man, because he needs the thing more. So S. Bonav. in speculo animae, chapter 2. §. concerning frauds, which occur in buying. D. Thom. 2. 2. quaest. 11. art. 1. Rebell. 2. p. de oblig. iust. l. 9. quaest. 15. Molina loc. cit. Fagund. num. 8.

SIXTH, the price is increased by the goodness of things, as Pinellus shows from many laws, 3. p. C. de rescind. vendit. C. ult. num. 32.

SEVENTH, from the transport of goods to the place where they are sold dearer, and the improvement made upon them by human industry, or by nature and the passage of time, as if a horse has grown, etc. So Molina disput. 348. Fagundez num. 11. Tanner. num. 31.

Scottus adds another cause, 4. dist. 15. quaest. 2. art. 2. Maior quaest. 41: that expenses, and the merchant's industry in carrying goods, and the reckoning of the dangers to which he exposed himself in navigation, or in transport by lands infested with robbers, contribute much to increasing the price.

Fagundez num. 12. criticizes this rule, because it is not the merchant's industry that increases the price, nor the dangers, etc., as is clear from the law reg. pretia rerum, ff. ad Legem Falcidiam, and from the text in cap. 1. de empt. et vendit. and from the law si servum meum, ff. ad l. Aquiliam.

These, however, if rightly understood, do not refute Scotus's view, which does not want prices increased immoderately for these reasons, or the shipwreck of other goods to be stuffed full by an immoderate excess of price; this Scotus does not assert.

I shall discuss the other causes in questions.