Notable Quote

"The prince is not the owner of the private property of his subjects. To impose new taxes or to increase old ones without the consent of the people is an act of tyranny, contrary to natural law and destructive of the commonwealth."

Mariana, Juan de event 1599

From De Rege et Regis Institutione (On the King and the Royal Institution)

Context: On the requirement that taxation be consensual. De Rege et Regis Institutione (1599), Book III, Chapter 7. Mariana's insistence on consent as a precondition of legitimate taxation anticipates Locke's theory of property and representative government.