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24 - Roman History- The Early Empire by William Wolfe Capes · Roman History- The Early Empire

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty four of Roman History The Early Empire by
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  Speaker 1: William wolf Capes. This LibriVox recording is in the public
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  Speaker 1: domain recording by Pamelinagami, Chapter fifteen, The State of Trade.
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  Speaker 1: To appreciate the influence of the Empire upon the interests
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  Speaker 1: of commerce, it is needful to look back to some
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  Speaker 1: of the facts and feelings of earlier days. The Roman
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  Speaker 1: writers speak commonly with disfavor and contempt of the handicrafts
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  Speaker 1: and retail trades, and the common sentiment which they reflect
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  Speaker 1: seems to have grown more intense in the later ages
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  Speaker 1: of the Republic, at the very time when the tendency
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  Speaker 1: toward democracy became more marked. While the hardy life of
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  Speaker 1: the old yeoman was the ideal of the moralist and patriot,
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  Speaker 1: the work of the artisan or tradesman was a lasting
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  Speaker 1: stain upon a family name. This was due, probably in
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  Speaker 1: part to the warlike an aggressive spirit of these the
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  Speaker 1: old Roman policy, which relied chiefly on its husbandmen and
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  Speaker 1: shepherds to fill the ranks of its militia, while the
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  Speaker 1: industrial arts fell into the hands of the needy, homeless
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  Speaker 1: aliens who were attracted to the city and could not
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  Speaker 1: serve among the freemen in the armies. The growing contempt
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  Speaker 1: for the weaker races of Greece and Asia heightened the
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  Speaker 1: dislike for the trades they filled and the work which
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  Speaker 1: they monopolized. But above all, the vast influx of slave
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  Speaker 1: labor that followed the career of conquest supplied living tools
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  Speaker 1: for every need, made manual work seem servile, and rapidly
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  Speaker 1: drove free labor out of every field. The tendency extended
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  Speaker 1: even from the industrial to the fine arts, and to
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  Speaker 1: some even of what we call the learned professions. The
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  Speaker 1: great Roman households had highly educated slaves who were trained
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  Speaker 1: to amuse their masters and to satisfy their esthetic tastes.
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  Speaker 1: In old time, Phaebias pictor had gained a name for
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  Speaker 1: skill and painting, but it would have been a discredit
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  Speaker 1: in the later age. And Pliny tells us of one
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  Speaker 1: of gentle birth who was mocked at and insulted for
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  Speaker 1: taking to the art. Roman dignity says the same writer
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  Speaker 1: will not stoop to practice medicine, but leaves it to
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  Speaker 1: the Greek and freemen. Slaves were trained to be actors
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  Speaker 1: on the stage, and much as the Romans loved spectacles,
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  Speaker 1: they could not themselves act without disgrace, except in the
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  Speaker 1: old Atlan farces, which says Livy were never polluted by
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  Speaker 1: professional actors. Education was mainly in the hands of aliens
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  Speaker 1: and freedmen, who kept schools under the name of grammarians
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  Speaker 1: or rhetoricians. And the same classes also supplied the copyists,
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  Speaker 1: librarians and secretaries, whose useful labours furnished the materials that
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  Speaker 1: were worked up by literary men of note. But while
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  Speaker 1: the Romans disdained retail trade and manual labour, they had
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  Speaker 1: not the same disas like for commercial enterprise upon a
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  Speaker 1: larger scale. Soon after the Punic Wars, we may trace
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  Speaker 1: the rapid growth of a class of great speculators and contractors,
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  Speaker 1: who belonged chiefly to the second order of the state,
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  Speaker 1: the equities, and whose objects were more financial than political.
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  Speaker 1: They followed the movements of the conquering armies, engaged to
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  Speaker 1: supply the commissariat, formed joint stock companies for every variety
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  Speaker 1: of undertaking, farmed the revenues of the lands annexed to
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  Speaker 1: the Roman Empire, profited by the monopolies of commerce. When
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  Speaker 1: the old federal unions were broken up and trading intercourse
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  Speaker 1: was suspended between the members, and came forward as money
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  Speaker 1: lenders to advance the sums to be paid down in
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  Speaker 1: indemnities were confiscated by the governor's greed. At home, they
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  Speaker 1: lent their money to the bankers, or bought up lands
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  Speaker 1: in times of cheapness, like Pomponius Atticus, or had their
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  Speaker 1: slaves highly edged, dated in industrial arts, or speculated in
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  Speaker 1: building land like Crassus. But their energy was of little
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  Speaker 1: profit to the world, nor did it further the legitimate
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  Speaker 1: interests of trade. It enriched Rome or a few hundred
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  Speaker 1: of its citizens, but it impoverished the provinces. It made
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  Speaker 1: wealth change hands, but it did not stimulate production, or
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  Speaker 1: facilitate exchange, or promote the growth of peaceful enterprise. The
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  Speaker 1: influence of the monied aristocracy upon the central government had
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  Speaker 1: long been very great, and if trade had not been
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  Speaker 1: the gainer for it, it was not for lack of
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  Speaker 1: power on their part, but of will or insight. They
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  Speaker 1: could make their resentment felt by the few proconsuls who
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  Speaker 1: were clean handed themselves and who would not stand by
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  Speaker 1: and see wrong done. They could protect in the Roman
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  Speaker 1: courts the more criminal and unscrupulous of their body. They could,
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  Speaker 1: in their short sighted jealousy, strike down great commercial riss rivals,
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  Speaker 1: as in the case of Carthage, Corinth and roads. But
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  Speaker 1: they do not seem to have raised their voices to
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  Speaker 1: protest while war was destroying or weakening so many distinct
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  Speaker 1: centers of civilization and production throughout Italy, while injudicious taxation
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  Speaker 1: and bad poor lass systems were injuring industry and sumptuary
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  Speaker 1: laws discouraging consumption, while roads were made rather for the
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  Speaker 1: transport of armies than for the interchange of products. They
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  Speaker 1: were never so strong a power in the state as
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  Speaker 1: toward the close of the Republic, when the Corsairs swept
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  Speaker 1: the seas and organized themselves almost as a belligerent power,
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  Speaker 1: while on the mainland runaway slave bands and professional brigands
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  Speaker 1: were infesting the highways. We may now turn to trace
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  Speaker 1: the action of the Empire upon these conditions. When Augustus
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  Speaker 1: was finally seated in his place, it was his first
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  Speaker 1: aim to secure the high roads of commerce and to
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  Speaker 1: maintain the safety of intercourse throughout the Roman world. He
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  Speaker 1: put down brigandage with a strong hand, appointing special officers
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  Speaker 1: to do the work, and armed patrols to maintain peace
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  Speaker 1: and order. Inspectors visited the factories and farms and country
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  Speaker 1: districts where the slave gangs toiled in chains, restored to
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  Speaker 1: liberty many who had been kidnapped by violence, and returned
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  Speaker 1: to their masters, some thirty thousand runaways. The highways were
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  Speaker 1: made safe for quiet travelers, though the satires and romances
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  Speaker 1: still speak of brigands from time to time, just as
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  Speaker 1: they are brought occasionally upon the modern stage. On the seas, too,
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  Speaker 1: piracy was put down and almost banished for centuries from
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  Speaker 1: the Mediterranean, though in the Black Sea it was still
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  Speaker 1: a matter of complaint. It was a greater boon to
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  Speaker 1: trade that war was confined mainly to the frontiers among
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  Speaker 1: the scarcely civilized neighbors of the Empire. After Nero's death, indeed,
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  Speaker 1: great armies tramped across the central countries, spreading havoc and
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  Speaker 1: desolation in their track. But with this exception, the soldiers
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  Speaker 1: were confined to border camps, and no fatal check was
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  Speaker 1: given by the horrors of war to peaceful enterprise and industry.
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  Speaker 1: By a series of further measures, the Empire did its
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  Speaker 1: best to remove checks and hindrances to the activity of commerce,
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  Speaker 1: The careful survey and census of the Roman world under
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  Speaker 1: Augustus was one step to prepare for equalized taxation, and
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  Speaker 1: it was followed by others, as important financial agents were
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  Speaker 1: watchfully controlled. Legalized tariffs of the tolls and dews were
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  Speaker 1: made stricter to resist vexatious overcharge, while the courts of
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  Speaker 1: law administered more impartial justice between the official and the
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  Speaker 1: common subject. The old sumptuary laws, which aimed at checking
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  Speaker 1: luxury and extravagance, were given up after a short trial
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  Speaker 1: and regarded as a mischievous anachronism. The endless variety of
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  Speaker 1: monetary systems, which delayed easy intercourse between land and land,
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  Speaker 1: soon ceased to inconvenience the world. Many of them disappeared.
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  Speaker 1: Others were kept for local use or retail trade. But
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  Speaker 1: by their side, one uniform standard was set up, and
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  Speaker 1: beyond all the various national coinages, the imperial currency was
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  Speaker 1: the legalized tender, which appears henceforth in official documents in
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  Speaker 1: all parts of the Roman world. Still more direct was
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  Speaker 1: the influence on sentiment which affected the social estimate of
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  Speaker 1: industrial art. Slavery had been the formidable rival of free labor,
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  Speaker 1: but the countries which in earlier times had supplied the
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  Speaker 1: most serviceable tools, were now annexed, and only an outer
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  Speaker 1: fringe of barbarians were left to supply the slave markets.
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  Speaker 1: By wars of conquest, the northern nations furnished less pliant
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  Speaker 1: and docilelaborers, whose work was far less lucrative than that
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  Speaker 1: of Greeks and Asiatics. As the sources of supply were
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  Speaker 1: being cut off, the fashion of enfranchisements set in, and
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  Speaker 1: the slave born were set free so rapidly that laws
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  Speaker 1: had to be passed to check the growing custom. At
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  Speaker 1: the very time when the competition of slave labor was reduced,
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  Speaker 1: less scope was left to enterprise in what had been
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  Speaker 1: before absorbing interests. The old game of war gave fewer prizes,
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  Speaker 1: and the soldier's life seemed likely to be henceforth one
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  Speaker 1: of monotony and patient drill. The statesman's career was less
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  Speaker 1: tempting to ambition, when the show of talent might be
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  Speaker 1: dangerous and stir the jealousy of Caesar. The laurels of
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  Speaker 1: the orator soon faded when power passed out of the
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  Speaker 1: Senate's hands, and when the pleadings of the law courts
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  Speaker 1: had no influence on the course of public life. But
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  Speaker 1: in the place of these interests of the republic, the
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  Speaker 1: early emperors had tried to foster industry and learning. Julius
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  Speaker 1: gave the grant of citizenship to all who would practice
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  Speaker 1: liberal professions. Augustus encouraged literary labor through Mycenus and Nero,
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  Speaker 1: the artist Prince weakened the old sentiment in other branches.
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  Speaker 1: In short, we soon lose all traces of the feeling
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  Speaker 1: which prompted Cicero in his public speeches to disguise his
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  Speaker 1: familiar knowledge of the culture and the arts of Greece.
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  Speaker 1: The currents of national sentiment could no longer flow in
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  Speaker 1: separate channels, as men of every people flocked to Rome.
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  Speaker 1: In Asia, handicrafts and industrial labor had never been despised,
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  Speaker 1: and the gradual infusion of Eastern thought weakened the supercilious
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  Speaker 1: pride of Western prejudice. Something too, was distinctly done by
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  Speaker 1: Augustus to give a higher status to the industrial classes.
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  Speaker 1: A new office and badge of dignity was devised by
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  Speaker 1: the opointment of the Masters of the streets, a large
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  Speaker 1: number of whom were taken from among the artisans and
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  Speaker 1: freedmen of the city to discharge certain police duties, and
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  Speaker 1: also to minister as priests in the little chapels raised
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  Speaker 1: in honor of the genius of Rome and of the
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  Speaker 1: ruling Emperor. Guilds answering probably to this office, spread under
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  Speaker 1: the name of Augustalis through the towns, and helped to
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  Speaker 1: give organized force and self respect to retail trade and
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  Speaker 1: manual labor. It is still, indeed a striking fact that
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  Speaker 1: there is no reference in Latin literature to any history
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  Speaker 1: of trade, nor do we hear a special treatises connected
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  Speaker 1: with the subject. Though the works on agriculture are many,
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  Speaker 1: nothing is said of the moral benefits of international commerce.
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  Speaker 1: Nor careful as the Romans were about statistics, did they
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  Speaker 1: connect them with the balance of supply and demand. Yet
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  Speaker 1: under cover of the imperial regime, a vast system of
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  Speaker 1: free trade began to flourish, such as the world perhaps
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  Speaker 1: has seldom known. Merchant fleets passed peacefully from land to
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  Speaker 1: land and exchanged the products of their different climates, While
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  Speaker 1: the central government was content to keep the police of
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  Speaker 1: sea and land, allowing tolls and harbor dues to be
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  Speaker 1: levied for purposes of local revenue and watching over the
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  Speaker 1: corn trade with especial care that the markets of the
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  Speaker 1: capital might be always stocked. But this trade was hampered
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  Speaker 1: with no theories of protection, and was not interfered with
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  Speaker 1: by commercial or navigation laws. The vast population gathered in
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  Speaker 1: one city required, of course, an enormous retail trade upon
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  Speaker 1: the spot, but there were few manufactories upon a large
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  Speaker 1: scale near Rome. The necessaries of life came largely from
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  Speaker 1: the south and west, the luxuries from the east, while
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  Speaker 1: industrial wares were brought for the most part ready made,
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  Speaker 1: owing to the greater cheapness of labor in other countries.
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  Speaker 1: The balance of trade was always against Italy, for she
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  Speaker 1: failed to supply herself even with food exported little beside
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  Speaker 1: wine and oil, and had few great manufacturing centers. In
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  Speaker 1: old days, the riches that had been gained by plunder
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  Speaker 1: and extortion went out again to seek investment in the provinces.
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  Speaker 1: But now that Rome was the queen of fashion and
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  Speaker 1: the center of attraction for the wealthy of all countries,
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  Speaker 1: the realized fortunes came thither to be spent. The productive
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  Speaker 1: centers and the hives of industry were to be found
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  Speaker 1: in other lands. At Alexandria, which Strabo calls the greatest
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  Speaker 1: emporium of the world, at the flourishing marts of trade
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  Speaker 1: among the isles of the Aegean, or among the hundred
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  Speaker 1: cities of Asia Minor, whose industrial democracies had soon recovered
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  Speaker 1: from the pillage and misgovernment of republican proconsuls, and enjoyed
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  Speaker 1: a magnificent prosperity with which no other land could vie.
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  Speaker 1: And of Section twenty four