ARGENTARIUS

4 definitions found across Law Mind sources

ARGENTARIUSAuthored
The Law Mind • 890 words
Definition
In Roman law, a professional money dealer — a banker, money-changer, or moneylender who received deposits, made loans at interest, and conducted financial transactions on behalf of clients. The argentarii were a recognized and regulated class of financial intermediaries in Roman commercial life, operating in the forum and in the provinces. The related term argentarium denotes the written instrument evidencing a loan made by such a dealer, roughly equivalent in function to a modern promissory note or bond. Two related terms appear in the sources: 1. ARGENTARIUS MILES — A money porter in the English Exchequer, responsible for carrying coin from the lower to the upper Exchequer for examination and testing. This is a distinct medieval English usage, not a continuation of the Roman banking sense. 2. ARGENTUM ALBUM — Bullion; uncoined silver; or common silver coin worn smooth by circulation. A term of English and civil law used in fiscal and treasury contexts. ---
Common Confusion
The Roman argentarius should not be confused with the nummularius, though the terms partially overlap. The nummularius was primarily a money-changer who tested and exchanged coin; the argentarius had the broader function of a banker, including deposit-taking and lending. Burrill's notes the terms were sometimes used interchangeably but distinguishes them by function. Researchers should also take care not to conflate argentarius (the person) with argentarium (the instrument or contract), as the two appear in different legal and historical contexts and are not always clearly separated in secondary sources. ---
Why It Matters in Research
ARGENTARIUS is a Roman civil law term with no direct common law successor. Researchers encounter it almost exclusively in one of three contexts: (1) translations and commentaries on the Digest and Code of Justinian, where the argentarii appear as parties in disputes over deposit, loan, and account-keeping; (2) comparative legal history discussing the origins of banking and commercial paper; and (3) English legal antiquarianism, where argentarius miles surfaces in Exchequer records and glossaries. The term's appearance in English-language law dictionaries is largely inherited from civilians and legal historians rather than from practitioners. It carries no operative significance in Anglo-American common law. If you encounter it in a primary source, the source is almost certainly drawing on civil law tradition, canon law commentary, or a civilian-trained author. The argentarium instrument is occasionally cited in histories of negotiable instruments and commercial paper as a precursor to the bond and promissory note. This lineage is historically contested and should be traced carefully — modern scholarship is more cautious than nineteenth-century legal historians about drawing direct lines from Roman argentarii practice to medieval or modern instruments. The Exchequer variant (argentarius miles) is a narrow administrative term. It appears in Spelman's Glossary and related antiquarian sources. Researchers working in English fiscal history or Exchequer procedure will find it there; it does not appear in judicial reports or pleading records with any frequency. ---
Historical Dictionary Support
The four source dictionaries are in close agreement on the core definition. Black's (both editions) and Rapalje & Lawrence offer compact, nearly identical entries: a money lender, broker, or banker in Roman law, with a note on argentarium as the loan instrument. Burrill's provides the most substantive treatment, identifying the argentarii as an important and professionally organized class operating throughout Rome and the provinces, cross-referencing the Digest (Dig. 2.13.4, 6, 8, 9, 10; Dig. 46.3.88), the Code (Cod. 10.64.1), and the Novels (Nov. 136). Burrill's also distinguishes the argentarius from the nummularius and the campsor (money-changer), offering more precision than the other dictionaries. What the historical dictionaries collectively underserve is the institutional and social history of the argentarii — their guild-like organization, their obligation to maintain written accounts (the rationes or codices), and the legal significance of those accounts in Roman litigation. These features are documented in the Digest passages Burrill's cites but are not explained in any of the dictionary entries. Researchers needing that context must move beyond the dictionaries to Romanist scholarship. None of the source dictionaries address the argentarium instrument in more than a single sentence, and none engage the question of whether it is a genuine antecedent of negotiable instruments — a question that occupied comparative legal historians well into the twentieth century. ---
Jurisdictional Note
ARGENTARIUS has no operative force in any common law jurisdiction. It appears in American and English legal dictionaries solely as a civil law and legal history term. Researchers working in Louisiana, Quebec, or other mixed civil law jurisdictions may encounter it in civilian-trained commentary but will not find it in statutes or modern case law even there. ---
Related Terms
Argentarium — the loan instrument associated with the argentarius; roughly analogous to a promissory note or bond Argentarius Miles — the Exchequer money porter; English administrative variant Argentum Album — bullion or worn silver coin; related fiscal term Nummularius — Roman money-changer; partially overlapping function Campsor — Latin term for money-changer; synonym in some sources for the exchange function of the argentarius Mutuum — Roman contract of loan; the underlying transaction in many argentarius dealings Depositum — Roman contract of deposit; another transaction type conducted by the argentarii Negotiable Instrument — modern comparative reference point for the argentarium Exchequer — institutional context for argentarius miles
ARGENTARIUSmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
In the Roman law, a money lender or broker; a dealer in money; a banker. Argentarium, the instrument of the loan, similar to the modern word “bond" or "note."
ARGENTARIUSmain
Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888
- In the Roman law, a money lender or broker; a dealer in money; a banker. Argentarium, the instrument of the loan, similar to the modern word "bond" or "note." ARGENTARIUS MILES.-A money porter in the English Exchequer, who carrie the money from the lower to the upper Exchequer to be examined and tested.-Spel. Gloss. ARGENTUM ALBUM.-Bullion; uncoined silver; common silver coin; silver coin worn smooth. Cowell; Spel. Gloss. COLLYBUM.-Exchange. of See COLONUS.-A husbandman or villager, who was bound to pay yearly a certain tribute; or, at certain times in the year, to plough some part of the lord's land; hence the word "clown." -Jacob. COLONY.-LATIN: colo, to cultivate. A settlement in a foreign country possessed and cultivated, either wholly or partially, by immigrants and their descendants, who have a political connection with and subordination to the mother country, whence they emigrated. In other words, it is a place peopled from some more ancient city or country. Colonies are acquired either (1) by conquest, (2) by cession under treaty, (3) by occupancy, or (4) by hereditary descent. In the first two cases, the territory retains its former laws until they are altered by the home government. The alterations may be general or partial, leaving the old laws still in force touching matters unprovided for. In the third case (which is strictly a plantation), the laws of the home government, so far as they are applicable to the condition of with them the laws of their country, which are their inalienable birthright. Such a colony is, then, not subject to legislation by the mother country.-Wharton. COLOR.-LATIN: color, a pretext. Dirksen Man. Lat. s. v. 2 2; Steph. Pl. Append. n. 40 et seq. 1. Color primarily signifies any appearance, pretext or pretence; thus, a person is said to have no color of title when he has not even a prima facie title. Litt. 400. 2. In pleading.---Color is an important term in the language of pleading. "It signifies an apparent or prima facie right, and the meaning of the rule that pleadings in confession and avoidance should give color is, that they should confess the matter adversely alleged to such an extent at least as to admit some apparent right in the opposite party, which requires to be encountered and avoided (i. e. deprived of its effect) by the allegation of new matter." (Steph. Pl. (5 edit.) 233.) Color is either implied or express. 3. Implied color. -"Where to an action of assumpsit the defendant pleads in confession and avoidance that he did not promise within six years before the action brought, it is an absolute implied admission of the truth of the adverse allegation, that he had at one time made such promise as alleged, and that there is therefore an apparent right in the plaintiff, and this right is avoided by relying on the lapse of time." Steph. Pl. (5 edit.) 234. 4. Express color (called in the old books "color" simply) is "a feigned matter, pleaded by the defendant in an action of trespass, from which the plaintiff seems to have a good cause of action, whereas he has in truth only an appearance or color of cause." (Bac. Abr. Trespass, T. 4). Thus, if the defendant in an action of trespass quare clausum fregit wished to defend himself upon the ground that J. S., a third person, being seized in fee of the land in question, demised it to him for a term of an infant colony, are ipso facto in force in years, he was not allowed to plead those such colony, for there can be no existing facts simply, because they would amount laws to contest the superiority; and, beto a denial of any title to possession whatsides, the occupants could not have any ever in the plaintiff, and for such a denial power to establish laws independently of a traverse (q. v.) was the proper plea; but the mother country, to whom their alleas it was frequently advantageous for the
ARGENTARIUSmain
Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1867
Lat. [from argentum, silver or money.] In the civil law. A dealer in money, (nummularius,) a money-changer, (L. Lat. campsor;) one who received money on deposit, and loaned money on interest; a banker. Calv. Lex. Brissonius. Dig. 2. 13. 4, 6, 8, 9, 10. Id. 46. 3. 88. Cod. 10. 64. 1. Nov. 136. ***The argentarii were an important class of dealers at Rome and in the provinces, who transacted their business in the forum, where they had their shops or stalls, (taberna,) and tables, (mensæ.) Besides the ordinary business of receiving, exchanging and loaning money, they performed many of the duties of brokers, notaries and auctioneers; and they also acted sometimes as inspectors of money. They were known by a variety of names; such as nummularii, from the money, (nummus,) in which they dealt; mensarii and mensularii, (or trapezita) from the tables (mensæ,) at which they stood or sat; argenti distractores or venditores, sellers of money; coactores and collectarii, collectors; besides the Greek appellations, doyvpóпparaι and doyuрoпparikоt, sellers of money; donópoßol or coldßiorú, money-changers; doyupoyvuoves, examiners of money, and the like. Calv. Lex. In the ninth edict of the Emperor Justinian, (in proœm.) mention is made of the corporation of argentarii. Lat. [from argentum, silver or money.] In old English law. A dealer in silver or money; a banker; a silversmith. Towns. Pl. 259, 260.

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