The trade to Arabia Felix, and that to the Indies, were the two branches,
and almost the only ones, of their foreign commerce. The Arabians were
possessed of immense riches, which they found in their seas and forests;
and as they sold much and purchased little, they drew to themselves the
gold and silver of the Romans.
[119]
Augustus,
[120]
being well apprised
of that opulence, resolved they should be either his friends or his
enemies. With this view he sent lius Gallus from Egypt into Arabia.
This commander found the people indolent, peaceable, and unskilled in
war. He fought battles, laid sieges to towns, and lost but seven of his
men by the sword; but the perfidy of his guides, long marches, the
climate, want of provisions, distempers, and ill-conduct, caused the
ruin of his army.
He was therefore obliged to be content with trading to Arabia, in
the same manner as other nations; that is, with giving them gold and
silver in exchange for their commodities. The Europeans trade with them
still in the same manner; the caravans of Aleppo and the royal vessel of
Suez carry thither immense sums.
[121]
Nature had formed the Arabs for commerce, not for war; but when
those quiet people came to be near neighbours to the Parthians and the
Romans, they acted as auxiliaries to both nations. lius Gallus found
them a trading people; Mahomet happened to find them trained to war; he
inspired them with enthusiasm, which led them to glory and conquest.
The commerce of the Romans to the Indies was very considerable.
Strabo
[122]
had been informed in Egypt that they employed in this
navigation one hundred and twenty vessels; this commerce was carried on
entirely with bullion. They sent thither annually fifty millions of
sesterces. Pliny
[123]
says that the merchandise brought thence was sold
at Rome at cent per cent profit. He speaks, I believe, too generally;
if this trade had been so vastly profitable, everybody would have been
willing to engage in it, and then it would have been at an end.
It will admit of a question, whether the trade to Arabia and the
Indies was of any advantage to the Romans. They were obliged to export
their bullion thither, though they had not, like us, the resource of
America, which supplies what we send away. I am persuaded that one of
the reasons of their increasing the value of their specie by
establishing base coin was the scarcity of silver, owing to the
continual exportation of it to the Indies: and though the commodities of
this country were sold at Rome at the rate of cent per cent, this
profit of the Romans, being obtained from the Romans themselves, could
not enrich the empire.
It may be alleged, on the other hand, that this commerce increased
the Roman navigation, and of course their power; that new merchandise
augmented their inland trade, gave encouragement to the arts, and
employment to the industrious; that the number of subjects multiplied in
proportion to the new means of support; that this new commerce was
productive of luxury, which I have proved to be as favourable to a
monarchical government as fatal to a commonwealth; that this
establishment was of the same date as the fall of their republic; that
the luxury of Rome had become necessary; and that it was extremely
proper that a city which had accumulated all the wealth of the universe
should refund it by its luxury.
Strabo says
[124]
that the Romans carried on a far more extensive
commerce with the Indies than the kings of Egypt; but it is very
extraordinary that those people who were so little acquainted with
commerce should have paid more attention to that of India than the
Egyptian kings, whose dominions lay so conveniently for it. The reason
of this must be explained.
After the death of Alexander, the kings of Egypt established a
maritime commerce with the Indies; while the kings of Syria, who were
possessed of the more eastern provinces, and consequently of the Indies,
maintained that commerce of which we have taken notice in the sixth
chapter, which was carried on partly by land, and partly by rivers, and
had been further facilitated by means of the Macedonian colonies;
insomuch that Europe had communication with the Indies both by Egypt and
by Syria. The dismembering of the latter kingdom, whence was formed that
of Bactriana, did not prove in any way prejudicial to this commerce.
Marinus the Tyrian, quoted by Ptolemy,
[125]
mentions the discoveries
made in India by means of some Macedonian merchants, who found out new
roads, which had been unknown to kings in their military expeditions. We
find in Ptolemy
[126]
that they went from Peter's tower
[127]
as far as
Sera; and the discovery made by mercantile people of so distant a mart,
situated in the north-east part of China, was a kind of prodigy. Hence,
under the kings of Syria and Bactriana, merchandise was conveyed to the
west from the southern parts of India, by the river Indus, the Oxus, and
the Caspian Sea; while those of the more eastern and northern parts were
transported from Sera, Peter's tower, and other staples, as far as the
Euphrates. Those merchants directed their route nearly by the fortieth
degree of north latitude, through countries situated to the west of
China, more civilised at that time than at present, because they had not
as yet been infested by the Tartars.
Now while the Syrian empire was extending its trade to such a
distance by land, Egypt did not greatly enlarge its maritime commerce.
The Parthians soon after appeared, and founded their empire; and
when Egypt fell under the power of the Romans, this empire was at its
height, and had received its whole extension.
The Romans and Parthians were two rival nations, that fought not for
dominion but for their very existence. Between the two empires deserts
were formed and armies were always stationed on the frontiers; so that
instead of there being any commerce, there was not so much as
communication between them. Ambition, jealousy, religion, national
antipathy, and difference of manners completed the separation. Thus the
trade from east to west, which had formerly so many channels, was
reduced to one; and Alexandria becoming the only staple, the trade to
this city was immensely enlarged.
We shall say but one word of their inland trade. Its principal
branch was the corn brought to Rome for the subsistence of the people;
but this was rather a political affair than a point of commerce. On this
account the sailors were favoured with some privileges, because the
safety of the empire depended on their vigilance.
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