Global Journal of Human Social Science, E: Economics, Volume 22 Issue 2

A people, he said, is morally good by its agricultural workers and corrupted by those who practice shameful occupations. Agricultural activity "aprovecha tambien mucho para la fortaleza, y robustez, y su operacion, no afemina como la de las artes baxas, y mugeriles. " 46 Quoting Aristotle again, he praises agriculture: "Los primeros fundadores de una republica, de una ciudad, de una comunidad, de una casa particular. Lo primero trataron, y han de tratar del sustento de los hombres, y animales. " 47 Moreover, from the newly acquired lands come guests who did not contribute to agriculture, but "a sus negociaciones, y al cebo de la plata, y oro, buscando artes, y artificios [...] Esta gente al fin es mucha, y comen sin sembrar, ni criar." Lope de Deça attributes several reasons why agriculture in formerly fertile Spain was powerless in his time. Because Spain had gained so many lands and colonies with Flanders, Italy, and America, many Spaniards had left to steer and manage these areas, which were now lacking in Spain. 48 Foreign trade had led to a corruption of morals, "con que parece esta adulterada la noble senzillez de los Españoles, y en que buscan descansada, y viciosa vida, y huyen del trabajo virtuoso, y como fue sentencia dada por Dios a nuestros primeros padres, que auiamos de trabajar para comer, y queremos comer sin trabajar. " 49 The natural and necessary has given way to luxury: "Tantos hombres de todas edades como estan ocupados en servir superflumente en cosas mas superfluas, y no necessarias. [...] Donde bastauan dos sastres son aora menester veynte para la superfluydad, y multiplicacion de vestidos, y guarniciones que ha inuentado la vanidad, y va inuentando cada dia. " 50 An innumerable amount of "ministros de la gula" were devoted to "superfluas artes, en desprecio de las buenas costumbres antiguas Españolas. " 51 If in the past hunger was satisfied, now it is fanned. If in the past the body of the agricultural worker was strong and healthy "no corrompido con el arte, y deleyte " 52 , now numerous diseases appear as "castigos todos de la glotoneria, y luxuria " 53 . Also mentioned are perfumers and musicians who practice useless arts and those that serve pleasure. And if so many occupy themselves with superfluous and harmful things, they are naturally lacking in agriculture, which is as salutary as it is useful. Quoting Seneca and anticipating Rousseau, he particularly emphasizes the harmful effect of going to the theater. When children of agricultural workers studied law at universities, he says, this had no effect other than to multiply lawsuits. What is then elaborated on the loss of the former peace appears as an anticipation of Hobbes' "Homo homini lupus.": "Ninguno tiene alli ganancia sino con daño del otro. [...] No es otra su vida que la de los Gladiatores vivir, y pelear. Es una junta de fieras. " 54 Miguel Casa de Leruela, in Restauración de la antigua abundancia de España (1631), also deals with the decline of Spanish agriculture, attributing it to the lack of livestock: "la Carestia intolerable de precios, la Necesidad comun de las cosas, y la Despoblacion general de España, son efectos de la ruina de los ganados. " 55 The production of the staple food, bread, required animals to support agriculture. Casa de Leruela evokes the namesake Greek god Pan: "Por esto invocaba la filosofia antigua al Dios de los Pastores Pan, que quiere dezir Todo, y le aclamaba Señor de la materia universal." 56 He considers the consequences of the lack of cattle more devastating than those of idleness. Like Lope de Deça, he sees the causes in excessive rents and levies, which cause peasants to lose interest in agriculture, while greed and luxury reign on the side of the money recipients. The situation is comparable to ancient Rome, where Cato had already attributed the downfall of great empires to greed and effeminacy. Greed was insatiable: "Es ley penal de la Avaricia, que quanto quiera, que robe mucho siempre padeze necesidades. [...] Y assi para el desempeño de los naturales destos Reynos, se han de moderar no solamente el luxo iniciativo de la avaricia, la qual no guarda ley, estando la vanidad a sus anchuras. " 57 This was a situation "contra las leyes de naturaleza, que ordenan a las comodidades, que alcancen a quien persiguen la labor, y el trabajo. " 58 Two aspects of the Spanish texts will be subjected to special consideration in the following, first the positively evaluated early agricultural primitive state evoked by Alonso de Herrera. Then, based on the critique of luxury in Casa de Leruela and Lope de Deça, precursors and their further developments will also be discussed. Volume XXII Issue II Version I 48 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 © 2022 Global Journals E Economy between Necessity and Luxury. Business Ethics from Antiquity to Early Modern Times 46 Lope de Deça, Givierno polytico de Agricultura, Madrid, Alonso Martin de Balboa, 1618, p. 7 47 Lope de Deça, Givierno polytico de Agricultura, Madrid, Alonso Martin de Balboa, 1618, p. 10 48 Lope de Deça, Givierno polytico de Agricultura, Madrid, Alonso Martin de Balboa, 1618, p. 23 49 Lope de Deça, Givierno polytico de Agricultura, Madrid, Alonso Martin de Balboa, 1618, p. 23 50 Lope de Deça, Givierno polytico de Agricultura, Madrid, Alonso Martin de Balboa, 1618, p. 24 51 Lope de Deça, Givierno polytico de Agricultura, Madrid, Alonso Martin de Balboa, 1618, p. 24 52 Lope de Deça, Givierno polytico de Agricultura, Madrid, Alonso Martin de Balboa, 1618, p. 24 53 Lope de Deça, Givierno polytico de Agricultura, Madrid, Alonso Martin de Balboa, 1618, p. 25 54 Lope de Deça, Givierno polytico de Agricultura, Madrid, Alonso Martin de Balboa, 1618, p. 27 55 Miguel Casa de Leruela, Restauración de la antigua abundancia de España, Neapel, Lazaro Scorigio 1631, p. 3 56 Miguel Casa de Leruela, Restauración de la antigua abundancia de España, Neapel, Lazaro Scorigio 1631, p. 7 57 Miguel Casa de Leruela, Restauración de la antigua abundancia de España, Neapel, Lazaro Scorigio 1631, p. 70 58 Miguel Casa de Leruela, Restauración de la antigua abundancia de España, Neapel, Lazaro Scorigio 1631, p. 72