which were employed to transport marble from the choicest quarries of Greece and
Asia to many flourishing cities besides the metropolis. . . . . After due deduc-
tion for the more contracted sphere of ancient commerce, and the lesser number of
articles, for the extent also to which the necessaries and conveniences of life were
manufactured at home in the establishments of wealthy slave owners, we shall still
readily believe that the inter-communication of the cities of the Mediterranean, such
as Corinth, Rhodes, Ephesus, Cyzicus, Antioch, Tyrus, Alexandria, Cyrene, Athens,
Carthage, Tarraco, Narbo and Massilia, Neapolis and Tarentum, Syracuse and Agri-
gentum and of all with Rome, must have been a potent instrument in fusing into
one family the manifold nations of the empire.
In the eyes of the

Orientals and the Greeks, the mistress of lands and continents, the leader of armies
and the builder of roads was regarded as the greatest of all maritime emporiums
and represented in their figurative style as a woman sitting enthroned upon the
waves of the Mediterranean. The maritime aspect thus assumed by Rome in the
eyes of her subjects beyond the sea, is the more remarkable when we consider how
directly her ancient policy and habits were opposed to commercial developments.
. . The landowners of Rome, in the heigh-day of her insolent adolescence,
had denounced both the commerce and the arts as the business of slaves or freed-
men. So late as the year 535 a law had been passed which forbade a senator to
possess a vessel of burden, and the traffic which was prohibited to the higher class
was degraded in the eyes of the lower. . . . . It was thus by following the
natural train of circumstances and by no settled policy of her own, that Rome
secured her march across the sea, and joined coast to coast with the indissoluble chain
of her dominion. On land, on the contrary, she constructed her military causeways
with a fixed and definite purpose.
The population of Gaul crept, we
know, slowly up the channel of the rivers, and the native tracks which conveyed
their traffic from station to station were guided by these main arteries of their vital
system. But the conquerors struck out at once a complete system of communication
for their own purposes, by means of roads cut or built as occasion required, with a
settled policy rigidly pursued. These high roads as we may well call them, for they
were raised above the level of the plains and the banks of the rivers, and climbed
the loftiest hills, were driven in direct lines from point to point, and were stopped
by neither forest nor marsh nor mountain.1

Roman empire present

Rome a

great

centre of

commerce.

of the

The state of things which arose on the collapse of the two concurrent facts, deeply affecting the course of trade. (1) the ancient seats of The fall industry and civilization were undergoing constant decay, while (2) the energetic Empire. races of Europe were rising into more civilized forms and manifold vigor and copiousness of life. The fall of the Eastern division of the empire prolonged the effect of the fall of the Western empire; and the advance of the Saracens over Asia Minor, Syria, Greece, Egypt, over Cyprus and other possessions of Venice in the Mediterranean, over the richest provinces of Spain, and finally across the Hellespont into the Danubian provinces of Europe, was a new irruption of barbarians from another point of the compass, and revived the calamities and disorders inflicted by the successive invasions of Goths, Huns and other Northern tribes. For more than ten centuries the naked power of the sword was vivid and terrible as flashes of lightning over all the seats of commerce, whether of ancient or more modern origin.2

But meanwhile these immigrations had caused the almost entire decay of agriculture and industry. During the four or five centuries in which they took place The Dark the finest regions of Europe became unfruitful and desolate. It was impossible in Ages. such troubled times to improve the fertility of the soil by renewed applications of capital and skill. And of course the condition of internal trade was hardly superior IC. Merivale, History of the Romans, Ch. 39.

2 Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol. VI., p. 200.

State of

trade in the Dark Ages.

to that of agriculture, and for the same reasons. For some centuries there is no
trace of any important manufactures, except of course those domestic arts of weaving
and spinning which are absolutely necessary for providing clothes, and which can
be practiced by separate individuals in every village or household. Rich men,
indeed, used to keep artisans in their households as servants; but this only shows
that there were no recognized seats of manufacture from which they could easily
procure what they wanted. Even kings in the ninth century had their clothes made
by women upon their farms. No doubt the villages had their smiths and weavers,
but these occupations belonged to a few isolated individuals, and had not yet devel-
oped to any considerable branch of industry. Trade between various localities was
very limited, for the general insecurity of the times made mercantile traffic highly
dangerous. The want of communication prevented men from easily moving about
to supply one another's wants and at the same time made it difficult for them to
find out what these wants were. Robbery by violence was frequent and robbery by
extortionate tolls still more so. The ordinary knight of those times was nothing
more or less than a bandit, perhaps not always so openly criminal as a highwayman,
but very often employing the same methods. They made merchants pay extravagant
tolls at every bridge and market and along every highway in their domains. Fre-
quent complaints of these exactions are found in Karl the Great's capitularies or
enactments, and the most open robbery was practiced by the German barons.

This state of things naturally ruined industry and prevented the development
of manufactures or of the products of the soil. Hence Europe in general had prac-
tically nothing to offer in exchange for the products of Asia, the only other con-
tinent then open to commerce. This is the reason why for so many centuries we
have hardly any foreign trade. Almost the only imports were fine Eastern cloths
and spices for the nobility. But how were these paid for? In return Europe gave
the East gold and silver-the remnants, apparently, of the money in circulation
under the Roman empire, but the supply of which thus greatly diminished before
the eleventh century. Armor and furs were also exported. A great feature in Euro-
pean exports was, however, the slave trade; for often only by the sale of slaves were
the upper classes, as they were called, enabled to pay for the Eastern luxuries they
desired. Karloman, the brother of Karl the Great, made a law to try and stop this sale
of European slaves to the Saracens, but it was ineffectual. This and indeed all
other trade was carried on via Constantinople by the only two trading centres of
importance in those ages, Venice and Amalfi.1

CONCLUSIONS.

A study of the nations of antiquity reveals two facts of importance. In the first place the branch of commerce chiefly followed by the ancients was the carrying trade to which they were impelled by the necessity of their situation. In the second place no nation has ever yet permitted its people to live in idleness, neglected to cultivate its own fields and permitted its domestic industries to fall into decay and ruin without sapping the very foundation of its national life. The chief source of wealth from the earliest time, the means by which the greatness and happiness of nations have most surely been attained in all ages and among all peoples, have been the application of labor and capital to native industry and the opening of pursuits which have furnished the most employment to the largest number of people. In regard to the nations of antiquity it should be further noted

1 History of Commerce in Europe, pages 33, 34.

that not one ever attained commercial greatness in the face of an active competition. The great commercial nations always enjoyed a form of natural protection in their geographical situation or in the possession of some peculiar advantages.

be drawn

from the

commercial

history of

Rome.

Rome furnishes to the world the greatest lesson in economics of all the ancient civilizations. The merits of those two policies which in Lessons to modern times have formed the basis of the opposing systems of protection and free trade were tested. At first the domestic resources of Italy were relied upon as the principal source of her prosperity. Later, the cultivation of the soil was abandoned, and the imperial city drew her food supplies from foreign countries. In the early history of Rome, in what was known as her Golden Age, the virtue, industry and patriotism of those citizens who cultivated the soil were the strength and greatness of the Republic. Rome was most fortunately situated in the heart of one of the most fertile and productive regions of Europe. She held within herself the resources, from which an ambitious, enterprising and industrious people could acquire greatness and material wealth. During the palmy days of the Roman Republic, the cultivation of the soil and various pursuits of industry were regarded as honorable and dignified occupations. Cincinnatus, one of the greatest patriots of the age, left his plow to take the reins of government. It was at this time that Rome defeated Carthage, after holding out for twenty-seven years against the invading army of Hannibal. It was this age which gave to Rome, Cato, Scipio and those statesmen and soldiers who are particularly distinguished for their patriotism and courage in the defence of their country. But this policy was abandoned. The loyal hardy yeomen were supplanted, and from Naples to Gaul, Italy became cultivated by slaves. Wheat and cattle were brought from Egypt, the island of Britain and other provinces. The people of Rome were fed on the products of other countries. They neglected not only agriculture, but manufacturing. Their clothing and implements and other wares were brought from the East. All the wealth brought from foreign countries to the imperial city did not compensate her for the loss sustained by her failure to develop her own resources. She made the fatal mistake of neglecting domestic production and attempting to live by foreign commerce. In the best days of the Republic, when it was invaded by Hannibal, the most consummate general of the time, Rome was saved by that sturdy people imbued with a love of country, who were ready to defend the imperial city at the sacrifice of their treasures and their lives. At this time Rome meant something to her own people.

After the domestic resources of the country had been destroyed, her sturdy patriotic citizens wiped out and replaced by slaves, she was weak and defenceless, although her nobles and senators had become rich from the spoils and profits of foreign conquest and trade. In the fifth century,

when the barbarian hordes of the North swept down upon Italy, instead of finding a people who were ready to fight for their own homes, firesides and personal interests, they found a mass of people who despised their own country and were as willing to see the imperial city destroyed as the invaders were to destroy her. Rome had no friends at home. The corrupt and vicious aristocracy of wealth which had lived and prospered by sapping the life not only of her own people, but of her provinces, were not only powerless but were ready to flee to Constantinople or any other city where they could hide their wealth.

CHAPTER III.

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF ITALIAN AND GERMAN CITIES IN THE
MIDDLE AGES.

No attempt will be made to recount the commercial history of European nations during the period indicated, but merely to present the chief features in the economic development of some of the leading commercial communities and to ascertain, if possible, the influences that shaped their commercial destiny-the causes of their prosperity and their decline.

During those centuries known as the Dark Ages, all progress was completely arrested and a condition of savagery and barbarism prevailed throughout Western Europe. It was not until about the twelfth century that Western Europe began to rise from this debased condition and take on that national life which made progress possible. The industrial activity which made its appearance at this time in Italy and Flanders, and among the German cities of the North, marks an epoch of the greatest importance in the history of the world. It was not, however, until the seventeenth century that England, France, Germany, Switzerland and all of the countries of Europe turned their attention to those manufacturing pursuits which, in recent times and especially in the nineteenth century have increased their wealth and independence and added so much to the material welfare of their people.

The slow but steady growth of this phase of European civilization is worthy of the attention of those who are seeking after the causes of the material prosperity of nations. The growth of this side of a nation's life is, in great part, an intellectual development, arising from the cultivation of skill and artistic taste. The manufacturing supremacy of a nation does not consist wholly in what is known as manual labor. The industrial proficiency of a people, the wares they make, the articles which enter into their trade and commerce, are among the surest means of attesting the degree of their civilization. There is no doubt that as these faculties and tastes develop in the parents, they are transmitted to the children, and that which is difficult for one generation to perform, becomes second nature to the next. It has been by centuries of education and training, that the people of Western Europe have produced the most skillful, apt and efficient artisans in the world. For two hundred years their fine fabrics have surpassed any that have been made in other countries. The skill and taste displayed in their new and beautiful patterns and designs, which appear every year in all markets, are not only the results of long years of cultivation, but also by the development of a special