De Rege et Regis Institutione (On the King and the Royal Institution)
1599
Summary
Juan de Mariana's major work of political theory, published in 1599. Mariana argues that political power originates in the community and is held in trust for the common good; a king who becomes a tyrant — who seizes property, manipulates the currency, or imposes taxes without consent — may be legitimately removed. His argument that currency debasement amounts to theft from the people, developed further in De Monetae Mutatione (1609), made him one of the first systematic critics of inflationary monetary policy.