21.14. 14. Of the Genius of the Romans with respect to Commerce.
The Romans were never distinguished by a jealousy for trade. They attacked Carthage
as a rival, not as a commercial nation. They favoured trading cities
that were not subject to them. Thus they increased the power of
Marseilles by the cession of a large territory. They were vastly afraid
of barbarians, but had not the least apprehension from a trading people.
Their genius, their glory, their military education, and the very form
of their government estranged them from commerce.
In the city, they were employed only about war, elections, factions,
and law-suits; in the country, about agriculture; and as for the
provinces, a severe and tyrannical government was incompatible with
commerce.
But their political constitution was not more opposed to trade than
their law of nations. "The people," says Pomponius, the civilian,
[113]
"with whom we have neither friendship, nor hospitality nor alliance, are
not our enemies; however, if anything belonging to us falls into their
hands, they are the proprietors of it; freemen become their slaves; and
they are upon the same terms with respect to us."
Their civil law was not less oppressive. The law of
Constantine,
[114]
after having stigmatised as bastards the children of a
mean rank who had been married to those of a superior station, confounds
women who retail merchandise with slaves, with the mistresses of
taverns, with actresses, with the daughters of those who keep public
stews, or who had been condemned to fight in the amphitheatre; this had
its origin in the ancient institutions of the Romans.
I am not ignorant that men prepossessed with these two ideas (that
commerce is of the greatest service to a state, and that the Romans had
the best-regulated government in the world) have believed that these
people greatly honoured and encouraged commerce; but the truth is, they
seldom troubled their heads about it.
Footnotes
[113]
Leg. 5, 2, ff. De Captivis.
[114]
Quæ mercimoniis publice præfuit — Leg. 1, Cod. de natural. liberis.
