To speak now of the commerce of Attica, the most extensive and important in the ancient world. It is an error shared by persons in other respects above the vulgar, that a commercial people is necessarily sordid; and hence Napoleon considered it opprobrious to the English, that they are a nation, as he expressed it, of shopkeepers. There are some lessons in the science of human nature that Napoleon had not learned, among which this is one,—that the greatest, wisest, and most virtuous of mankind have risen and flourished in trading communities, and been themselves in many instances engaged in commerce. No country in the modern world has produced men of more chivalrous honour or heroic disinterestedness than England; and in antiquity the Athenians, as a community and as individuals, far outshone in wisdom, high-mindedness, and patriotism, every other people with whom we could compare them. In one word, they were the English of antiquity;—bold, adventurous, indefatigable people, equally renowned in trade, philosophy, and war. That they were less fortunate may be accounted for from their geographical position, lacking the inestimable advantage which we enjoy in being seated on an island,—a misfortune well understood by Pericles, who alludes to it in his first oration for the war.[[1570]]
No country, however fertile, produces all that its inhabitants, when advancing in civilisation, require, which tends more than any other circumstance to promote the amelioration of society; and Attica, from its comparative barrenness and very limited extent, peculiarly experienced the necessity of foreign commerce. To this accordingly the Athenians from a very early period applied themselves, and with so much success, that whatever commodities the ancient world produced were generally to be found in the greatest abundance in their city.[[1571]] They enjoyed as has been already observed, most of the advantages of insular position, that is,[[1572]] excellent harbours conveniently situated, in which they received supplies during all winds,[[1573]] and, in addition to these, some of the compensating advantages of being situated on the continent, in facilities for inland traffic. Chief of all, however, were the blessings flowing from the wisdom, and moderation, and liberality, of its government, which rendered Athens the resort of all the enterprising and enlightened men of every other country. Its dealings with foreigners were facilitated by the purity of the coin, as the traders who did not choose to purchase merchandise might take bullion, which, as Xenophon expresses it, was a very handsome article, and of so little alloy as everywhere to pass for more than its nominal value, like the old Spanish dollars, and English gold currency in the East.[[1574]] Prohibitions to export money, as Bœckh observes, were unknown in ancient times, and are only compatible with bills of exchange.[[1575]]
Though war to a certain extent interfered with Athenian commerce, yet, being masters of the sea, they could generally command a plentiful supply of foreign commodities, so that many articles regarded as rare in other countries might be found abundantly in the warehouses of the Peiræeus. “Hither, on account of the richness of our city,” says Pericles, “are borne the products of all lands, so that we are not more familiar with the use of wheat grown in Attica than with the productions of other countries.”[[1576]] So Isocrates: “the Peiræeus, has been established as an emporium in the heart of Greece, and so far excels all its rivals, that articles with difficulty met with singly in other ports may be readily found here altogether.”[[1577]] And true it is, that every region of the east and island of the Mediterranean poured their productions into Attica, whence they were distributed throughout Greece. Thither were brought the magnificent carpets and fine wool of Persia, Phrygia, and Miletos; the gloves and purple of Tyre and Sidon; the fine linen of Egypt;[[1578]] the gold and ivory of Africa; the pearls of India and the Red Sea;[[1579]] white and black slaves, and corn, and timber, and spices, and costly wines, and perfumes from Spain, Sicily, Italy, Cypros, Lydia, the Black Sea, and the farthest regions of the east.[[1580]]
This extended commerce, and the encouragement which strangers of all countries found to settle at Athens, rendered it the home of all languages and religions,[[1581]] and led to the adoption of many barbarous words. But she thus created a boundless market for her own exports, whether consisting of manufactures or the surplus produce of the soil; and as we now retail to the Continental nations many productions of Eastern Asia, so the Athenians disposed, in the uncommercial countries around, of the commodities they had elsewhere collected. For example, they found a vent among the nations on the Black Sea for the wines of the islands and shores of the Ægean, Peparethos, Cos, Thasos, Mendè, Skionè, Lemnos, and Crete.[[1582]] From a passage in Xenophon, it would appear either that Greek sailors amused themselves by reading on their voyages, or that books were exported to Pontos, for there seems to be no foundation for the suspicions that they were blank books.[[1583]] “Here,” says Xenophon, speaking of the coast of Thrace, “are found numerous beds, cabinets, books, and such other things as shipmasters are accustomed to transport in chests.”[[1584]] Theopompos represents the Persians as carrying books (χάρται βιβλίων) along with them in their invasion of Egypt, and the Greeks could have been scarcely less literary.[[1585]] Certain, at all events, it is, that there was a book-market at Athens, probably resembling the bazars of the East, where the dealers in manuscripts kept their shops;[[1586]] and thence, in all likelihood, the Greek cities on the Black Sea were supplied; and this is by no means inconsistent with the proverb respecting Hermodoros, Plato’s Sicilian publisher, who was said, contemptuously, to traffic in words; for, as he himself was one of Plato’s hearers, it may have been thought beneath him to turn trader.[[1587]] Somewhat later we read of Zeno, a stranger in the city, going into a bookseller’s shop to sit down, where he finds the owner reading Xenophon, and is recommended by him to follow Crates.[[1588]]
So extensive a trade as Athens carried on could not be conducted without protecting regulations, and the co-operation of a commercial police. Accordingly the government exhibited much wisdom and liberality in whatever related to commerce, by all means seeking to encourage enterprise and industry. Numerous officers were appointed to watch over the commercial dealings of the citizens; such as the superintendents of the harbour, ten persons appointed annually by lot; the overseers of the market, likewise ten, of whom five superintended the markets in the city, the other five, those in the Peiræeus; fifteen inspectors of weights and measures, ten of whom attended in the city, the other five those in the port; and subordinate, probably, to these were the public meters, who seem to have been Scythians, and therefore slaves of the state: their duty was to measure whatever grain was sold in the market,[[1589]] for which was paid a small sum, applied, it may be supposed, to the augmentation of the revenue. Great care, in fact, was bestowed on the subject of weights and measures, and to the market regulations generally; and yet we find from the comic poets[[1590]] that much fraud was occasionally committed.[[1591]]
It is, by some writers, supposed that credit was at a low ebb in Greece; but this notion seems to have been formed hastily, without allowing for circumstances, as the condition of the times sufficiently accounts for the facts which suggested it; for all large and established houses are known to have possessed almost unlimited credit, since they were able, on the mere security of their name, to raise whatever money they needed; so that none, probably, but persons little known, or not known advantageously, were required to give security.[[1592]] The inhabitants of certain cities, as, for example, of Phaselis, enjoyed, as we say, a bad reputation,[[1593]] and were, no doubt, among those whom people refused to trust.
If severity, however, in the laws of debtor and creditor have any tendency to support credit, the confiding portion of the community had little reason to complain at Athens, since the spirit of this branch of Athenian jurisprudence was unusually stern. The man who obtained the loan of money and fraudulently withheld his security, was deemed to have committed a capital offence, nor could his high rank or honourable connexions skreen him from punishment.[[1594]] For it was considered, observes the orator, that an offender of this description not only defrauded the individuals with whom he dealt, but also made an attempt against the sources of public prosperity, commercial operations depending not on the borrower but on the lender, without whose coöperation no ship, or captain, or passenger, can move. On which account the most effective protection was afforded them by law.
Merchants and sea-captains were also defended by very severe enactments against false accusers, who, upon conviction, were heavily fined, and, in default of payment, deprived of the rights of citizenship.[[1595]] Causes of this kind were tried in the Commercial Court of the Nautodikæ, which was also empowered to examine the claims of citizens accused of foreign extraction.[[1596]] The causes were introduced by the Thesmothetæ, and in lawsuits between citizens of different nations, by virtue of a particular agreement, there existed an appeal from one state to the other.[[1597]] Nothing more clearly shows the consideration in which nautical and mercantile affairs were held at Athens, than the laws which regulated the proceedings of this court: in the first place, not to interrupt the course of business and occasion loss to individuals, the Nautodikæ sat during the winter months, from September till March, when navigation was usually suspended. At first, indeed, they did not commence their sittings till January;[[1598]] but this was found inconvenient, the decision of the court being frequently delayed till late in the spring or summer, to the great loss and detriment of the litigants. Consequences still more disastrous, perhaps, ensued when the cause stood over till the ensuing winter, when, as new judges would be appointed, the whole business had to be commenced de novo. To remedy this evil a plan of reform was conceived by Xenophon,[[1599]] but with nothing like a statesman’s views, its chief merit consisting in proposing a prize to be awarded to the most able and expeditious judge. His scheme, however, may have had the merit of fixing the attention of wiser men upon the subject, which at length produced the monthly suits to which belonged all causes concerning trade-clubs, dowries, and mines.[[1600]] Upon the introduction of this improvement in the practice of the commercial court the advantage proposed by Xenophon was fully obtained, since causes could not, as some have imagined, stand over from month to month, but must absolutely be decided within the term.[[1601]] The more completely to protect and advance the interests of commerce, each state had its consul[[1602]] (προξένος) who represented the interests of his country, and, like our own consuls in the Levant, was bound to receive and entertain such citizens as arrived at the port where he resided. Besides, when a merchant or trader died abroad, it was part of the consul’s duty to take charge of his property, and transmit immediately to his friends an account of what had taken place, with the necessary particulars.[[1603]] Occasionally, however, very improper persons obtained this respectable and, no doubt, lucrative situation, as the man Lycidas, formerly one of Chabrias’s slaves, who contrived, by intrigue, to be appointed consul of Messina; and Dionysios, a man of like origin and character, and by birth a Megarean, who enjoyed the honour of representing Athens at Megara.[[1604]]
It has been made a question, whether or not perfect freedom of trade existed among the ancients, and upon the whole it appears, that among the Athenians, at least, no unwise or vexatious interference habitually took place.[[1605]]
Bœckh remarks that, in the plan of Xenophon for restoring the revenue, no allusion is made to the removal of onerous restrictions on trade; from which it may be inferred that none such existed. Heeren[[1606]] is clearly of this opinion: “nothing was known of the balance of trade, and consequently all the violent measures resulting from it were never devised by the Greeks. They had duties as well as the moderns; but these duties were exacted only for the sake of increasing the public revenue, not to direct the efforts of domestic industry by the prohibition of certain wares. There was no prohibition of the exportation of the raw produce; no encouragement of manufactures at the expense of the agriculturist. In this respect, therefore, there existed a freedom of industry, commerce, and trade. And such was the general custom. As every thing was decided by circumstances, and not by theories, there may have been single exceptions, and perhaps single examples, where the state for a season usurped a monopoly. But how far was this from the mercantile and restrictive system of the moderns!”