[PAULUS libro trigensimo tertio ad edictum. ] §18.1.1.prOrigo emendi uendendique a permutationibus coepit.
The origin of buying and selling began with exchanges.
olim enim non ita erat nummus neque aliud merx, aliud pretium uocabatur, sed unusquisque secundum necessitatem temporum ac rerum utilibus inutilia permutabat, quando plerumque euenit, ut quod alteri superest alteri desit.
For formerly money was not used in this way, nor was one thing called merchandise and another price, but everyone, according to the necessity of the times, exchanged useless things for useful ones, since it commonly happens that what is superfluous to one is lacking to another.
sed quia non semper nec facile concurrebat, ut, cum tu haberes quod ego desiderarem, inuicem haberem quod tu accipere uelles, electa materia est, cuius publica ac perpetua aestimatio difficultatibus permutationum aequalitate quantitatis subueniret.
But because it did not always nor easily happen that, when you had what I desired, I in turn had what you wished to receive, a material was selected whose public and perpetual valuation would relieve the difficulties of exchange by an equality of quantity.
eaque materia forma publica percussa usum dominiumque non tam ex substantia praebet quam ex quantitate nec ultra merx utrumque, sed alterum pretium uocatur. §18.1.1.1Sed an sine nummis uenditio dici hodieque possit, dubitatur, ueluti si ego togam dedi, ut tunicam acciperem.
And this material, stamped with a public device, provides use and ownership not so much from its substance as from its quantity, and no longer is both called merchandise, but one is called the price. But whether a sale can be said to exist today without money is doubted, as, for example, if I gave a toga in order to receive a tunic.
Sabinus et Cassius esse emptionem et uenditionem putant: Nerua et Proculus permutationem, non emptionem hoc esse.
Sabinus and Cassius think this is buying and selling; Nerva and Proculus hold that this is exchange, not buying.
Sabinus Homero teste utitur, qui exercitum Graecorum aere ferro hominibusque uinum emere refert, illis uersibus: ἔνθεν ἄρ᾽ οἰνίζοντο καρηκομόωντες Ἀχαιοί ἄλλοι μὲν χαλκῷ, ἄλλοι δ᾽ αἴθωνι σιδήρῳ, ἄλλοι δὲ ῥινοῖς, ἄλλοι δ᾽ αὐτῇσι βόεσσι, ἄλλοι δ᾽ ἀνδραπόδεσσιν. sed hi uersus permutationem significare uidentur, non emptionem, sicut illi: ἔνθ᾽ αὖτε γλαύκῳ Κρονίδης φρένας ἐξέλετο Ζεύς, ὃς πρὸς Τυδείδην Διομήδεα τεύχε᾽ ἄμειβεν. magis autem pro hac sententia illud diceretur, quod alias idem poeta dicit: πρίατο κτεάτεσσιν ἑοῖσιν. sed uerior est Neruae et Proculi sententia: nam ut aliud est uendere, aliud emere, alius emptor, alius uenditor, sic aliud est pretium, aliud merx: quod in permutatione discerni non potest, uter emptor, uter uenditor sit. §18.1.1.2Est autem emptio iuris gentium, et ideo consensu peragitur et inter absentes contrahi potest et per nuntium et per litteras.
Sabinus uses Homer as a witness, who relates that the army of the Greeks bought wine with bronze, iron, and men, in those verses: 'Thence the long-haired Achaeans bought wine, some with bronze, some with gleaming iron, some with hides, some with the cattle themselves, and some with slaves.' But these verses seem to signify exchange, not buying, like those: 'Then Zeus, son of Cronos, took away the wits of Glaucus, who exchanged armor with Diomedes, son of Tydeus.' But rather in favor of this opinion might be cited what the same poet says elsewhere: 'He bought with his own possessions.' But the opinion of Nerva and Proculus is truer; for just as selling is one thing, buying another, the buyer one, the seller another, so the price is one thing, and the merchandise another; which in exchange cannot be distinguished, as to who is the buyer and who is the seller. Moreover, buying is of the law of nations, and therefore it is completed by consent and can be contracted between absent parties, both by a messenger and by letter.