had enjoyed a popular government, even buried, those which he frequently lost under the kings of Persia. Lucullus by the treachery of his own people, and having taken Sinone and Amisus, re- those which were found after his death.
stored them to their liberty, and recalled f See Appian on the Mithridatic war.
the inhabitants, who had fled on board g Ibid.
their ships. h He lost at one time 170,000 men, yet d See what Appian writes concerning he soon recruited his armies.
the Phanagoreans, the Amisians, and the Synopians, in his treatise of the Mithridatic war.
THE SPIRIT OF LAWS 357 hend but from the ambition of their own subjects, Mithridates once more ventured to contest the mighty point, which the overthrows of PhiHp, of Antiochus, and of Perseus had already decided. Never was there a more destructive war: the two contending parties, being possessed of great power, and re- ceiving alternate advantages, the inhabitants of Greece and of Asia fell a sacrifice in the quarrel, either as foes, or as friends of Mithridates. Delos was involved in the general fatality, and commerce failed on every side: which was a necessary conse- quence, the people themselves being destroyed.
The Romans, in pursuance of a system of which I have spoken elsewhere,* acting as destroyers, that they might not appear as conquerors, demolished Carthage and Corinth; a practice by which they would have ruined themselves had they not subdued the world. When the kings of Pontus became masters of the Greek colonies on the Euxine Sea, they took care not to destroy what was to be the foundation of their own gran- deur.
13. — Of the Genius of the Romans as to Maritime Affairs The Romans laid no stress on anything but their land forces, who were disciplined to stand firm, to fight on one spot, and there bravely to die. They could not like the practice of sea- men, who first ofifer to fight, then fly, then return, constantly avoid danger, often make use of stratagem, and seldom of force. This was not suitable to the genius of the Greeks,; much less to that of the Romans.
They destined, therefore, to the sea only those citizens who were not considerable enough to have a place in their legions.^ Their marines were commonly treed-men.
At this time we have neither the same esteem for land forces nor the same contempt for those of the sea. In the former, art has decreased; i in the latter, it has augmented: m now things are generally esteemed in proportion to the degree of ability requisite to discharge them.
t In the " Considerations on the k Polybius, lib. V.
Causes of the Rise and Declension of I See the " Considerations on the the Roman Grandeur," Causes of the Rise and Declension of ;■ As Plato has observed, lib. IV., of the Roman Grandeur."
Laws. »t Ibid.
358 MONTESQUIEU 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 favored 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 bar- barians, but had not the least apprehension from a trading peo- ple. Their genius, their glory, their military education, and the very form of their government estranged them from com- merce.
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,^ " with whom we have neither friendship nor hos- pitality 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 Con- stantine,o after having stigmatized as bastards the children of a mean rank who had been married to those of a superior sta- tion, confounds women who retail merchandise with slaves, with the mistresses of taverns, with actresses, with the daugh- ters of those who keep public stews, or who had been con- demned 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 honored and encouraged commerce; but the truth is, they seldom troubled their heads about it.
n Leg. V. ff. " de Captivis." 0 Quae mercimoniis publice prsefuit.-- Leg. V. cod. " de natural, liberis."
THE SPIRIT OF LAWS 359 15.— 0/ the Commerce of the Romans with the Barbarians The Romans having erected a vast empire in Europe, Asia, and Africa, the weakness of the people and the tyranny of their laws united all the parts of this immense body. The Roman policy was then to avoid all communication with those nations whom they had not subdued: the fear of carrying to them the art of conquering made them neglect the art of enriching them- selves. They made laws to hinder all commerce with bar- barians. " Let nobody,'* said Valens and Gratian,^ " send wine, oil, or other liquors to the barbarians, though it be only for them to taste." '' Let no one carry gold to them," add Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius; Q. " rather, if they have any, let our subjects deprive them of it by stratagem." The exportation of iron was prohibited on pain of death.
Domitian, a prince of great timidity, ordered the vines in Gaul to be pulled up,r from fear, no doubt, lest their wines should draw thither the barbarians. Probus and Julian, who had no such fears, gave orders for their being planted again.
I am sensible that upon the declension of the Roman Em- pire the barbarians obliged the Romans to establish staple towns, and to trade with them.^ But even this is a proof that the minds of the Romans were averse to commerce.* 16. — Of the Commerce of the Romans with Arabia and the Indies The trade to Arabia Felix, and that to the Indies, were the two branches, and almost the only ones, of their foreign com- merce. 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.w Augustus,^ being well apprised of that opu- lence, resolved they should be either his friends or his enemies. With this view he sent yElius Gallus from Egypt into Arabia. This commander found the people indolent, peaceable, and un- skilled in war. He fought battles, laid sieges to towns, and lost but seven of his men by the sword; but the perfidy of his p Leg. ad barbaricum cod. quae res t See the " Considerations on the exportari non debeant. Causes of the Rise and Declension of Q Leg. 2 cod. de commerc. et mercator. the Roman Grandeur."
r Leg. 2 quse res exportari non de- u Pliny, lib. VI. cap. xxviii., and beant, and Procopius, " War of the Strabo, lib. XVI.
Persians," book I. v Ibid.
s See the Chronicles of Eusebius and Cedrenus.
36o MONTESQUIEU guides, long marches, the dimate, want of provisions, distem- pers, 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 commodi- ties. The Europeans trade with them still in the same manner; the caravans of Aleppo and the royal vessel of Suez carry thither immense sums.w Nature had formed the Arabs for commerce, not for war; but when those quiet people came to be near neighbors to the Parthians and the Romans, they acted as auxiliaries to both nations, ^lius Gallus found them a trading people; Ma- homet 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 con- siderable. Strabo x had been informed in Egypt that they em- ployed in this navigation one hundred and twenty vessels; this commerce was carried on entirely with bullion. They sent thither annually fifty milHons of sesterces. Pliny y says that the merchandise brought thence was sold at Rome at a centuple cent, profit. He speaks, I believe, too generally; if this trade had been so vastly profitable, everybody would have been will- ing 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 increas- ing 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 a centuple rate, 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 in- creased the Roman navigation, and, of course, their power; that new merchandise augmented their inland trade, gave enwThe caravans of Aleppo and Suez sel of Suez carries thither also two carry thither annually to the value of millions, about two millions of livres, and as x Lib. II. p. 8i.
much more clandestinely; the royal ves- y Lib. VI. cap. xxiii.
THE SPIRIT OF LAWS 361 couragement to the arts, and employment to the industrious; that the number of subjects multipHed in proportion to the new- means of support; that this new commerce was productive of luxury, which I have proved to be as favorable to a monarch- ical government as fatal to a commonwealth; that this estab- lishment 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 a that the Romans carried on a far more exten- sive commerce with the Indies than the kings of Egypt; but it is very extraordinary that those people who were so little ac- quainted 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,^ 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,*^ that they went from Peter's tower,^ as far as Sera; and the discovery made by mercantile people of so distant a mart, situated in the northeast part of China, was a kind of prodigy. Hence, under the kings of Syria and Bac- triana, merchandise was conveyed to the west from the south- ern parts of India, by the River Indus, the Oxus, and the Cas- pian Sea; while those of the more eastern and northern parts were transported from Sera, Peter's tower, and other staples, a He says, in his 12th book, that the b Lib. I. cap, ii.
Romans employed a hundred and c Lib. I. cap. xiii.
twenty ships in that trade; and in the d Our best maps place Peter's tower 17th book, that the Grecian kings in the hundredth degree of longitude, scarcely employed twenty. and about the fortieth of latitude.
362 MONTESQUIEU as far as the Euphrates. Those merchants directed their route nearly by the fortieth degree of north latitude, through coun- tries situated to the west of China, more civilized 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 em- pire; 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. Be- tween 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 be- tween 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 favored with some privileges, because the safety of the empire depended on their vigilance.^ 17. — Of Commerce after the Destruction of the Western Empire After the invasion of the Roman Empire one effect of the general calamity was the destruction of commerce. The bar- barous nations at first regarded it only as an opportunity for robbery; and when they had subdued the Romans, they hon- ored it no more than agriculture, and the other professions of a conquered people.
Soon was the commerce of Europe almost entirely lost. The nobility, who had everywhere the direction of affairs, were in no pain about it.
e Suet, in " Claudio," leg. 8 cod. Theodosis. " de Naviculiariis."
THE SPIRIT OF LAWS 363 The laws of the Visigoths f permitted private people to oc- cupy half the beds of great rivers, provided the other half re- mained free for nets and boats. There must have been very little trade in countries conquered by these barbarians.
In those times were established the ridiculous rights of escheatage and shipwrecks. These men thought that, as strangers were not united to them by any civil law, they owed them on the one hand no kind of justice, and on the other no sort of pity.
In the narrow bounds which nature had originally prescribed to the people of the North, all were strangers to them: and in their poverty they regarded all only as contributing to their riches. Being established, before their conquest, on the coasts of a sea of very little breadth, and full of rocks, from these very rocks they drew their subsistence.
But the Romans, who made laws for all the world, had es- tablished the most humane ones with regard to shipwrecks.^ They suppressed the rapine of those who inhabited the coasts, and what was more still, the rapacity of their treasuries./t The law of the Visigoths made, however, one regulation in favor of commerce.* It ordained that foreign merchants should be judged, in the differences that arose among themselves, by the laws and by judges of their own nation. This was founded on an established custom among all mixed people, that every man should live under his own law — a custom of which I shall speak more at large in another place.
19. — Of Commerce after the Decay of the Roman Power in the East The Mahommedans appeared, conquered, extended, and dis- persed themselves. Egypt had particular sovereigns; these carried on the commerce of India, and being possessed of the merchandise of this country, drew to themselves the riches of all other nations. The sultans of Egypt were the most powerful princes of those times. History informs us with what a con- / Lib. VIII. tit. 4, sec. 9. h Leg. i cod. de naufragiis.
g Toto titulo fJ. de incend. ruin, et « Lib. II. tit. 3, sec. a.
naufrag. and cod. de naufragiis, and leg. 3 ff. ad leg. Cornel, de sicariis.
364 MONTESQUIEU stant and well regulated force they stopped the ardor, the fire, and the impetuosity of the crusades.
20. — How Commerce broke through the Barbarism of Europe Aristotle's philosophy being carried to the west, pleased the subtle geniuses who were the virtuosi of those times of ig- norance. The schoolmen were infatuated with it, and bor- rowed from the philosopher / a great many notions on lending upon interest, whereas its source might have been easily traced in the gospel; in short, they condemned it absolutely and in all cases. Hence commerce, which was the profession only of mean persons, became that of knaves; for whenever a thing is forbidden, which nature permits or necessity requires, those who do it are looked upon as dishonest.
Commerce was transferred to a nation covered with infamy, and soon ranked with the most shameful usury, with monopo- lies, with the levying of subsidies, and with all the dishonest means of acquiring wealth.
The Jews, enriched by their exactions, were pillaged by the tyranny of princes; which pleased indeed, but did not ease, the people.^ What passed in England may serve to give us an idea of what was done in other countries. King John I having imprisoned the Jews, in order to obtain their wealth, there were few who had not at least one of their eyes plucked out. Thus did that king administer justice. A certain Jew, who had a tooth pulled out every day for seven days successively, gave ten thousand marks of silver for the eighth. Henry IH extorted from Aaron, a Jew at York, fourteen thousand marks of silver, and ten thou- sand for the queen. In those times they did by violence what is now done in Poland with some semblance of moderation. As princes could not dive into the purses of their subjects because of their privileges, they put the Jews to the torture, who were not considered as citizens.
At last a custom was introduced of confiscating the effects of those Jews who embraced Christianity. This ridiculous cusi See Aristot. " Polit." lib. I, cap. ix. in the year 1206, between the King, the and X. Countess of Champagne, and Guy of k See in " Marca Hispanica," the con- Dampierre.
stitutions of Aragon, in the years 1228 / Stowe's " Survey of London," book and 1231; and in Brussel, the agreement. III,, p. 54.
THE SPIRIT OF LAWS 365 torn is known only by the law which suppressed it.w The most vain and trifling reasons were given in justification of that pro- ceeding; it was alleged that it was proper to try them, in order to be certain that they had entirely shaken off the slavery of the devil. But it is evident that this confiscation was a species of the right of amortization, to recompense the prince, or the lords, for the taxes levied on the Jews, which ceased on their embracing Christianity.^ In those times, men, like lands, were regarded as property. I cannot help remarking, by the way, how this nation has been sported with from one age to another: at one time, their effects were confiscated when they were willing to become Christians; and at another, if they re- fused to turn Christians, they were ordered to be burned.
In the meantime, commerce was seen to arise from the bosom of vexation and despair. The Jews, proscribed by turns from every country, found out the way of saving their effects. Thus they rendered their retreats forever fixed; for though princes might have been willing to get rid of their persons, yet they did not choose to get rid of their money.
The Jews invented letters of exchange; 0 commerce, by this method, became capable of eluding violence, and of maintain- ing everywhere its ground; the richest merchant having none but invisible effects, which he could convey imperceptibly wher- ever he pleased.
The Theologians were obliged to limit their principles; and commerce, which they had before connected by main force with knavery, re-entered, if I may so express myself, the bosom of probity.
Thus we owe to the speculations of the schoolmen all the misfortunes which accompanied the destruction of commerce; P and to the avarice of princes, the establishment of a practice which puts it in some measure out of their power.
From this time it became necessary that princes should govm The edict passed at Baville, 4th of who were chased from France took April, 1392., refuge in Lombardy, and that there they n In France the Jews were slaves in gave to foreign merchants and travellers mortmain, and the lords their succes- secret letters, drawn upon those to sors. Mr. Brussel mentions an agree- whom they had intrusted their effects ment made in the year 1206, between the in France, which were accepted.
King and Thibaut, Count of Cham- p See the 83d novel of the Emperor pagne, by which it was agreed that the Leo, which revokes the law of Basil his Tews of the one should not lend in the father. This law of Basil is in Herlands of the other. menopulus, under the name of Leo, lib.
0 It is known that under Philip Au- III. tit. 7, sec. 27. gustus and Philip the Long, the Jews 366 MONTESQUIEU ern with more prudence than they themselves could ever have imagined; for great exertions of authority were, in the event, found to be impolitic; and from experience it is manifest that nothing but the goodness and lenity of a government can make it flourish.
We begin to be cured of Machiavelism, and recover from it every day. More moderation has become necessary in the councils of princes. What would formerly have been called a master-stroke in politics would be now, independent of the horror it might occasion, the greatest imprudence.
Happy is it for men that they are in a situation in which, though their passions prompt them to be wicked, it is, never- theless, to their interest to be humane and virtuous.
21. — The Discovery of two new Worlds, and in what Manner Europe is affected hy it The compass opened, if I may so express myself, the uni- verse. Asia and Africa were found, of which only some borders were known; and America, of which we knew nothing.
The Portuguese, sailing on the Atlantic Ocean, discovered the most southern point of Africa; they saw a vast sea, which carried them to the East Indies. Their danger upon this sea, the discovery of Mozambique, Melinda, and Calicut, have been sung by Camoens, whose poems make us feel something of the charms of the " Odyssey " and the magnificence of the " ^neid."
The Venetians had hitherto carried on the trade of the Indies through the Turkish dominions, and pursued it in the midst of oppressions and discouragements. By the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, and those which were made some time after, Italy was no longer the centre of the trading world; it was, if I may be permitted the expression, only a corner of the universe, and is so still. The commerce even of the Levant depending now on that of the great trading nations to both the Indies, Italy even in that branch can no longer be con- sidered as a principal.
The Portuguese traded to the Indies in right of conquest. The constraining laws which the Dutch at present impose on THE SPIRIT OF LAWS 367 the commerce of the Httle Indian princes had been estabUshed before by the Portuguese.^ The fortune of the house of Austria was prodigious. Charles V succeeded to the possession of Burgundy, Castile, and Ara- gon; he arrived afterwards at the imperial dignity; and to pro- cure him a new kind of grandeur, the globe extended itself, and there was seen a new world paying him obeisance.
Christopher Columbus discovered America; and though Spain sent thither only a force so small that the least prince in Europe could have sent the same, yet it subdued two vast em- pires, and other great states.
While the Spaniards discovered and conquered the west, the Portuguese pushed their conquests and discoveries in the east. These two nations met each other; they had recourse to Pope Alexander VI, who made the celebrated Hne of partition, and determined the great suit.
But the other nations of Europe would not suffer them quietly to enjoy their shares. The Dutch chased the Portu- guese from almost all their settlements in the East Indies; and several other nations planted colonies in America.
The Spaniards considered these new-discovered countries as the subject of conquest; while others, more refined in their views, found them to be the proper subjects of commerce, and upon this principle directed their proceedings. Hence several nations have conducted themselves with so much wisdom that they have given a kind of sovereignty to companies of mer- chants, who, governing these far distant countries only with a view to trade, have made a great accessory power without em- barrassing the principal state.
The colonies they have formed are under a kind of de- pendence, of which there are but very few instances in all the colonies of the ancients; whether we consider them as holding of the state itself, or of some trading company established in the state.
The design of these colonies is, to trade on more advan- tageous conditions than could otherwise be done with the neighboring people, with whom all advantages are reciprocal. It has been estabUshed that the metropolis,*- or mother country, alone shall trade in the colonies, and that from very good reaq See the " Relation of Fr. Pirard," r This, in the language of the ancients, part II. chap. xv. is the state which founded the colony.
368 MONTESQUIEU son; because the design of the settlement was the extension of commerce, not the foundation of a city or of a new empire.
Thus it is still a fundamental law of Europe that all com- merce with a foreign colony shall be regarded as a mere mon- opoly, punishable by the laws of the country; and in this case we are not to be directed by the laws and precedents of the ancients, which are not at all applicable.-?
It is likewise acknowledged that a commerce established be- tween the mother countries does not include a permission to trade in the colonies; for these always continue in a state of prohibition.
The disadvantage of a colony that loses the liberty of com- merce is visibly compensated by the protection of the mother country, who defends it by her arms, or supports it by her laws.
Hence follows a third law of Europe, that when a foreign commerce with a colony is prohibited, it is not lawful to trade in those seas, except in such cases as are excepted by treaty.
Nations who are, with respect to the whole globe, what indi- viduals are in a state, are governed like the latter by the laws of nature, and by particular laws of their own making. One na- tion may resign to another the sea, as well as the land. The Carthaginians forbade the Romans to sail beyond certain limits,^ as the Greeks had obliged the King of Persia to keep as far distant from the sea-coast as a horse could gallop."
The great distance of our colonies is not an inconvenience that afifects their safety; for if the mother country, on whom they depend for their defence, is remote, no less remote are those nations who rival the mother country, and by whom they may be afraid of being conquered.
Besides, this distance is the cause that those who are estab- lished there cannot conform to the manner of living in a climate so different from their own; they are obliged, therefore, to draw from the mother country all the conveniences of life. The Carthaginians,^ to render the Sardinians and Corsicans more dependent, forbade their planting, sowing, or doing anything of the kind, under pain of death; so that they supplied them with necessaries from Africa.
J Except the Carthaginians, as we see by treaty not to sail with any vessel of by the treaty which put an end to the war beyond the Cyanean rocks and the first Punic war. Chelidonean isles.— Plutarch, in the t Polyb. lib. III. " Life of Cimon."
«The King of Persia obliged himself r Aristotle on "Wonderful Things"; J^ivy, lib. VII. dec. 2.
THE SPIRIT OF LAWS 369 The Europeans have compassed the same thing, without hav- ing recourse to such severe laws. Our colonies in the Carib- bean Islands are under an admirable regulation in this respect; the subject of their commerce is what we neither have nor can produce; and they want what is the subject of ours.
A consequence of the discovery of America was the con- necting Asia and Africa with Europe; it furnished materials for a trade with that vast part of Asia known by the name of the East Indies. Silver, that metal so useful as the medium of commerce, became now as merchandise the basis of the great- est commerce in the world. In fine, the navigation to Africa became necessary, in order to furnish us with men to labor in the mines, and to cultivate the lands of America.
Europe has arrived at so high a degree of power that noth- ing in history can be compared with it, whether we consider the immensity of its expenses, the grandeur of its engagements, the number of its troops, and the regular payment even of those that are least serviceable, and which are kept only for osten- tation.
Father Du Halde says w that the interior trade of China is much greater than that of all Europe. That might be, if our foreign trade did not augment our inland commerce. Europe carries on the trade and navigation of the other three parts of the world; as France, England, and Holland do nearly that of Europe.
22. — Of the Riches which Spain drew from America