[19] The meaning of Grotius in this Section will be more clearly understood by a brief explanation of the nature of Contracts. "Now contracts are of two kinds, either express or implied. Express contracts are openly uttered and avowed at the time of making, as to deliver an ox, or ten load of timber, or to pay a stated price for certain goods. Implied are such as reason and justice dictate, and which therefore the law presumes, that every man undertakes to perform. As, if I employ a person to do any business for me, or perform any work; the law implies that I undertook, or contracted, to pay him as much as his labor deserves. If I take up wares from a tradesman, without any agreement of price, the law concludes, that I contracted to pay their real value. And there is also one species of implied contracts, which runs through and is annexed to all other contracts, conditions, and covenants, viz. that if I fail in my part of the agreement, I shall pay the other party such damages as he has sustained by such my neglect or refusal." Blackst. Com. b. ii. c. 30. p. 442.
[20] There are cases in which monopolies, and the exclusive privileges of trading companies are not only allowable but absolutely necessary. "For there are, says Vattel, commercial enterprizes that cannot be carried on without an energy that requires considerable funds, which surpass the ability of individuals. There are others that would soon become ruinous, were they not conducted with great prudence, with one regular spirit, and according to well supported maxims and rules. These branches of trade cannot be indiscriminately carried on by individuals: companies are therefore formed, under the authority of the government; and these companies cannot subsist without an exclusive privilege. It is therefore advantageous to the nation to grant them: hence have arisen in different countries, those powerful companies that carry on commerce with the East."—Law of Nat. b. i. c. viii. sect. 97. p. 42.
[21] Adam Smith in his Wealth of Nations, speaking of treaties of commerce, observes, that "when a nation binds itself by treaty, either to permit the entry of certain goods from one foreign country which it prohibits from all others, or to exempt the goods of one country from duties to which it subjects those of all others, the country, or at least the merchants and manufacturers of the country, whose commerce is so favoured, must necessarily derive great advantages from the treaty. Those merchants and manufacturers enjoy a sort of monopoly in the country, which is so indulgent to them. That country becomes a market both more extensive and more advantageous for their goods: more extensive, because the goods of other nations being either excluded or subjected to heavier duties, it takes off a great quantity of theirs: more advantageous, because the merchants of the favoured country, enjoying a sort of monopoly there, will often sell their goods for a better price, than if exposed to the free competition of all other nations."—Vol. 2. b. iv. ch. vi.
[22] The translation proceeds from the fourth to the ninth Chapter of the Second book of the original. The intermediate chapters, being chiefly a repetition of the author's former arguments, respecting the rights of seas and rivers, and other kinds of dominions; and that relating to the rights of persons, being so fully treated in the first volume of Judge Blackstone's Commentaries, it seemed unnecessary to give them in the present work.—Translator.
[23] Section VII of the original is omitted in the translation.—Translator.
[24] The following extracts from Blackstone's Com. b. ii. ch. xxx. will elucidate the meaning of our author in this place. "Sale or EXCHANGE is a transmutation of property from one man to another, in consideration of some price or recompense; for there is no sale without a recompence." P. 446.
"Where the vendor HATH in himself the property of the goods sold, he hath the liberty of disposing of them to whom ever he pleases, at any time, and in any manner." Ibid. 446.
"And notwithstanding any number of intervening sales, if the original vendor, who sold without having the property, comes again into possession of the goods, the original owner may take them, when found in his hands who was guilty of the first breach of justice." Ibid. p. 450.
[25] "A promise is in the nature of a verbal covenant, and wants nothing but the solemnity of writing and sealing to make it absolutely the same. If therefore it be to do any explicit act, it is an express contract, as much as any covenant; and the breach of it is an equal injury."—Blackst. Com. b. iii. ch. ix. sect. 3.
[26] All the reasonings of Grotius, on this, and on every other point, are intended to apply not only to the transactions of individuals, but to the conduct and affairs of nations.