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The Spirit of the Laws

  
[title page]
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The Translator to the Reader
  
CONTENTS
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PREFACE
  
ADVERTISEMENT

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Book I. Of Laws in General.
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Book II. Of Laws Directly Derived from the Nature of Government.
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Book III. Of the Principles of the Three Kinds of Government.
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Book IV. That the Laws of Education Ought to Be in Relation to the Principles of Government.
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Book V. That the Laws Given by the Legislator Ought to Be in Relation to the Principle of Government.
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Book VI. Consequences of the Principles of Different Governments with Respect to the Simplicity of Civil and Criminal Laws, the Form of Judgments, and the Inflicting of Punishments.
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Book VII. Consequences of the Different Principles of the Three Governments with Respect to Sumptuary Laws, Luxury, and the Condition of Women.
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Book VIII. Of the Corruption of the Principles of the Three Governments.
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Book IX., Of Laws in the Relation They Bear to a Defensive Force.
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Book X. Of Laws in the Relation They Bear to Offensive Force.
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Book XI. Of the Laws Which Establish Political Liberty, with Regard to the Consti- tution.
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Book XII. Of the Laws That Form Political Liberty, in Relation to the Subject.
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Book XIII. Of the Relation Which the Levying of Taxes and the Greatness of the Public Revenues Bear to Liberty.
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Book XIV. Of Laws in Relation to the Nature of the Climate.
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Book XV. In What Manner the Laws of Civil Slavery Relate to the Nature of the Climate.
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Book XVI. How the Laws of Domestic Slavery Bear a Relation to the Nature of the Climate.
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Book XVII., How the Laws of Political Servitude Bear a Relation to the Nature of the Climate.
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Book XVIII. Of Laws in the Relation They Bear to the Nature of the Soil.
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Book XIX. Of Laws in Relation to the Principles Which Form the General Spirit, Morals, and Customs of a Nation.
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Book XX. Of Laws in Relation to Commerce, Considered in its Nature and Distinctions.
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Book XXI. Of Laws in relation to Commerce, considered in the Revolutions it has met with in the World.
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1. Some general Considerations.
 21.2. 
2. Of the People of Africa.
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3. That the Wants of the People in the South are different from those of the North.
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4. The principal Difference between the Commerce of the Ancients and the Moderns.
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5. Other Differences.
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6. Of the Commerce of the Ancients.
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7. Of the Commerce of the Greeks.
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8. Of Alexander: his Conquests.
  
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Footnotes
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9. Of the Commerce of the Grecian Kings after the Death of Alexander.
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10. Of the Circuit of Africa.
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11. Of Carthage and Marseilles.
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12. The Isle of Delos.
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13. Of the Genius of the Romans as to Maritime Affairs.
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14. Of the Genius of the Romans with respect to Commerce.
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15. Of the Commerce of the Romans with the Barbarians.
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16. Of the Commerce of the Romans with Arabia and the Indies.
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17. Of Commerce after the Destruction of the Western Empire.
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18. A particular Regulation.
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19. Of Commerce after the Decay of the Roman Power in the East.
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20. How Commerce broke through the Barbarism of Europe.
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21. The Discovery of two new Worlds, and in what Manner Europe is affected by it.
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22. Of the Riches which Spain drew from America.
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23. A Problem, it is not for me to decide the question whether, if Spain be not herself able to carry on the trade of the Indies, it would not be better to leave it open to strangers.
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Book XXII. Of Laws in Relation to the Use of Money.
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Book XXIII. Of Laws in the Relation They Bear to the Number of Inhabitants.
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Book XXIV. Of Laws in relation to Religion Considered in Itself, and in its Doctrines.
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Book XXV. Of Laws in Relation to the Establishment of Religion and its External Polity.
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Book XXVI. Of Laws in Relation to the Order of Things Which They Determine.
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Book XXVII. Of the Origin and Revolutions of the Roman Laws on Successions.
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Book XXVIII. Of the Origin and Revolutions of the Civil Laws among the French.
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Book XXIX. Of the Manner of Composing Laws.
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Book XXX. Theory of the Feudal Laws among the Franks in the Relation They Bear to the Establishment of the Monarchy.
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Book XXXI. Theory of the Feudal Laws among the Franks, in the Relation They Bear to the Revolutions of their Monarchy.

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Footnotes

[33]

Strabo, lib. xv.

[34]

Herodotus, "Melpomene," iv. 44.

[35]

Strabo, lib. xv.

[36]

Ibid., lib. xv.

[37]

Pliny, lib. vi, cap. 33, Strabo, lib. xv.

[38]

They sailed not upon the rivers, lest they should defile the elements — Hyde, "Religion of the Persians." Even to this day they have no maritime commerce. Those who take to the sea are treated by them as Atheists.

[39]

Strabo, lib. xv.

[40]

Herodotus, "Melpomene," lib. iv, cap. 44, says that Darius conquered the Indies; this must be understood only to mean Ariana; and even this was only an ideal conquest.

[41]

Strabo, lib. xv.

[42]

This cannot be understood of all the Ichthyophagi, who inhabited a coast of ten thousand furlongs in extent. How was it possible for Alexander to have maintained them? How could he command their submission? This can be only understood of some particular tribes. Nearchus, in his book Rerum Indicarum, says that at the extremity of this coast, on the side of Persia, he had found some people who were less Ichthyophagi than the others. I should think that Alexander's prohibition related to these people, or to some other tribe still more bordering on Persia.

[43]

Alexandria was founded on a flat shore, called Rhacotis, where, in ancient times, the kings had kept a garrison to prevent all strangers, and more particularly the Greeks, from entering the country. -- Pliny, lib. vi, cap. 10; Strabo, lib. xviii.

[44]

Arrian, "De Expedit. Alex." lib. vii.

[45]

Ibid.

[46]

Strabo, lib. vi, towards the end.

[47]

Seeing Babylon overflowed, he looked upon the neighbouring country of Arabia as an island. — Aristobulus, in Strabo, lib. xvi.

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