[[261]]
Such a law as Luther here suggests was proposed to
the Diet of Worms (1521). Text in WREDE, Reichstagsakten, II, 335-341.
[[262]]
Cf. Luther's Sermon von
Kaufbandlung und Wuche of 1524. (Weim. Ed.
XV, pp. 293 ff.)
[[263]]
Spices were one of the chief articles of foreign
commerce in the XVI Century. The discovery of the cape-route to India
had given the Portuguese a practical monopoly of this trade. A
comparative statement of the cost of spices for a period of years was
reported to the Diet of Nurnberg (1523). See WREDE, op. cit., III, 576.
[[264]]
The Zinskauf or Rentenkauf was a means for evading the
prohibition of usury. The buyer purchased an annuity, but the purchase
price was not regarded as a loan, for it could not be recalled, and the
annual payments could not therefore be called interest.
[[265]]
The practice was legalized by the Lateran Council,
1512.
[[266]]
The XVI Century was the hey-day of the great
trading-companies, among which the Fuggers of Augsburg (see above, p.
97, note 5) easily took first place. The effort of these companies was
directed toward securing monopolies in the staple articles of commerce,
and their ability to finance large enterprises made it possible for them
to gain practical control of the home markets. The sharp rise in the
cost of living which took place on the first half of the XVI Century was
laid at their door. The Diet of Cologne (1522) had passed a stringent
law against monopolies the subject (WREDE, Reichstagsakten, II, pp. 355 ff.) "in
somewhat heated language" (ibid., 842), but failed to agree upon methods
of suppression. The subject was discussed again at the Diet of Nurnberg
(1523) and various remedies were proposed (ibid., III, 556-599).
[[267]]
The profits of the trading-companies were
enormous. The 9 percent annually of the Welser (EHRENBERG, Zeitalter der Fugger, I, 195), pales into
insignificance beside the 1634 percent by which the fortune of the
Fuggers grew in twenty-one years (SCHULTE, Die
Fugger in Rom, I, 3). In 1511 a certain
Bartholomew Rem invested 900 gulden in the Hochstetter company of
Augsburg; by 1517 he claimed 33,000 gulden profit. The
company was willing to settle at 26,000 and the resulting litigation
caused the figures to become public (WREDE, op. cit., II, 842, note 4;
III pp. 574 f.). On Luther's view of capitalism see ECK,
Introduction to the Sermon von Kaufshandlung und
Wucher, in Berl. Ed., VII, 494-513.
[[268]]
The Diets of Augsburg (1500) and Cologne (1512)
had passed edicts against drunkenness. A committee of the Diet of Worms
(1521) recommended that these earlier edicts be reaffirmed (WREDE, op.
cit., II, pp. 343f.), but the Diet adjourned without acting on the
recommendation (ibid., 737) Vol. II-11
[[269]]
Sie wollen ausbuben, so
sich's vielmehr hineinbubt.
[[270]]
Cf. MULLER, Luther's theol.
Quellen, 1912, ch. I.
[[271]]
In the Conitendi Ratio Luther had set the
age for men at eighteen to twenty, for the women at fifteen to sixteen
years. See Vol. I, p. 100.
