Western Commerce of Rome

Roman Commerce in the Eastern Provinces

In commenting upon the commerce of Ancient Rome we must remember that nearly all of the labor of the Empire was performed by slaves. It had been the custom from remote antiquity for the conqueror in war to carry off those whom he had spared, and compel them to cultivate his fields and otherwise serve him as slaves. Many ancient wars were instigated and conducted for the purpose of supplying the demand for labor. Rome was no exception to this rule. Livy and Plutarch tell us that when Sicily and Greece were subjugated by Rome portions of them were depopulated. At the conquest of Epirus by the Roman general, Paulus Aemil-ius, 150,000 persons were either murdered or carried away into slavery, and at the destruction of Carthage 50,000 persons were carried into Roman slavery. At the taking of Thebes large numbers were thus disposed of, and these not the lower but of the well-to-do and respectable classes. To these slaves the laws of Rome were villainously unjust. A slave could be murdered on the slightest provocation, or forced into the arena to contend with wild beasts for the entertainment of the people. One statute provided that in case a slave owner was murdered, not only all of the slaves within his house, but even those within a circle supposed to be measured by the reach of his voice, should be put to death. Such laws show the small value placed upon the lives of these unfortunates, and the facility with which they could be replaced. The great number of slaves necessitated a vast military system to control them. Now and then they arose in insurrection, but usually paid the severest penalty as a result. All kinds of labor were assigned to the slaves and regarded as contemptible by the Romans. Slaves tilled the soil, rowed the galleys and performed the work of manufactures. The carpenters, masons, weavers, and, to a considerable extent, the copyists of books were slaves. Eich men owned large numbers of them, the price of a slave being, in the public market, only equivalent to $25 of our currency. Slave labor was actually cheaper than animal labor, so that much of the work which we assign to horses and cattle was performed by men. The result of this was to debase labor and destroy that class of intelligent, sturdy and independent workmen and artisans in which the strength of a nation chiefly rests. Although commerce flourished for a time under the Roman empire, it had beneath it this system of injustice and inhumanity, and could not be permanent. It flourished principally because of the vigorous system of government established by the Romans, better roads and means of intercourse between different countries and provinces, and better protection against pirates. Thus we see the influence of government upon commerce.