y should be reimbursed by sale
of the spoil.[618] In the laws of Marseilles it is declared, "If a
foreigner take anything from a citizen of Marseilles, and he who has
jurisdiction over the said debtor or unjust taker does not cause right
to be done in the same, the rector or consuls, at the petition of the
said citizen, shall grant him reprisals upon all the goods of the said
debtor or unjust taker, and also upon the goods of others who are under
the jurisdiction of him who ought to do justice, and would not, to the
said citizen of Marseilles."[619] Edward III. remonstrates, in an
instrument published by Rymer, against letters of marque granted by the
king of Aragon to one Berenger de la Tone, who had been robbed by an
English pirate of 2000_l._, alleging that, inasmuch as he had always
been ready to give redress to the party, it seemed to his counsellors
that there was no just cause for reprisals upon the king's or his
subjects' property.[620] This passage is so far curious as it asserts
the existence of a customary law of nations, the knowledge of which was
already a sort of learning. Sir E. Coke speaks of this right of private
reprisals as if it still existed;[621] and, in fact, there are instances
of granting such letters as late as the reign of Charles I.

[Sidenote: Liability of aliens for each other's debts.]

A practice, founded on the same principles as reprisal, though rather
less violent, was that of attaching the goods or persons of resident
foreigners for the debts of their countrymen. This indeed, in England,
was not confined to foreigners until the statute of Westminster I. c.
23, which enacts that "no stranger who is of this realm shall be
distrained in any town or market for a debt wherein he is neither
principal nor surety." Henry III. had previously granted a charter to
the burgesses of Lubec, that they should "not be arrested for the debt
of any of their countrymen, unless the magistrates of Lubec neglected to
compel payment."[622] But by a variety of grants from Edward II. the
privileges of English subjects under the statute of Westminster were
extended to most foreign nations.[623] This unjust responsibility had
not been confined to civil cases. One of a company of Italian merchants,
the Spini, having killed a man, the officers of justice seized the
bodies and effects of all the rest.[624]

[Sidenote: Great profits of trade,]

[Sidenote: and high rate of interest.]

[Sidenote: Money dealings o