tiq. vol. 1, p. 80, 83, 84, 167. sovereignty of the sea, and obtained it) contributed much to their skill in navigation. The many laws which they left to posterity, Potter's with regard to imports and exports, and the contract of bargain and Grecian Ansale; the many privileges granted to the mercantile part of the state; the appointment of magistrates, who had the cognisance of controversies that happened between merchants and mariners; the attention which they paid to their market, and the many officers concerned in that department, give us a very favourable idea of their judgment in the true principles of commerce. But notwithstanding this, the Athenians, being of a very ambitious disposition, being more attentive to extend their maritime power than to enjoy it, and having a government of such a cast that the public revenues were distributed among the common people, to be squandered at their pleasure, did not carry on so extensive a trade as might naturally be expected from the number of their seamen, from the produce of their mines, from their influence over the cities of Greece, and from those excellent laws and institutions which have been just enumerated. Their trade was Montesq. almost entirely confined to Greece and to the Euxine sea. From Esprit des loix, liv. 21, such of their laws as we have seen, and from such accounts as we have obtained of their naval history, we have not the smallest reason to suppose that this celebrated people knew anything of the contract of insurance. c. 7. 4th Edit. Introd. P. 3. Some notice should have been taken before now of the Phenicians, Beawes,Lex an ancient, commercial, and opulent people. Indeed, the height of Merc. red. grandeur to which they attained is a sufficient proof of the vast resources of a commercial nation. Many writers, both sacred and profane, from their florid and magnificent descriptions, give a vast idea of their wealth and power. I forbore to speak of them till I should have occasion to mention one of their colonies, that of Carthage, which, in opulence, and the extent of her commerce and naval power, equalled, if not surpassed, the parent state herself. Whether either, or both of these maritime powers ever promulgated any code of naval law cannot now be ascertained; for the former was entirely destroyed by Alexander the Great, and, that it might never be restored, he Quint. Curremoved its marine and commerce to Alexandria, in which removal, tius, lib. 4, probably, all its naval regulations might be lost. Carthage, on the cap. 8, &c. other hand, having long disputed with Rome the empire of the world, was at last obliged to yield to her victorious rival, who, even after she gained the victory, retained such a hatred to the Carthaginians, that she rooted out every vestige of their former greatness. No time, however, nor the hatred of the Romans, can wholly obliterate the amazing accounts which have come down to us, of the enterpris a From several of the orations of Demosthenes it appears, that the poor were entitled to receive from the public stock, as much money as would admit them to the diversions of the theatre; and besides this it was made a capital offence for any one to propose the restoration of the theatrical money, to its original uses. This custom was at length so much abused, that under pretence of theatrical money, almost all the public funds were ing spirit and hazardous voyages of the Carthaginians, almost exceedAnderson's ing the bounds of credibility. Thus much is certain, that they took Hist. of such distant voyages, and went so far even without the Mediterranean, Commerce, both to the South and North of it, as induced many people to suppose Introd. p. that they were acquainted with the use of the compass. It is evident, 31, 32, fol. Edit. however, that they only followed the coasts. Besides, the ancients might sometimes have performed such voyages as would make one imagine that they had the use of the compass; for, if a pilot were far from land, and during his voyage had such serene weather that in the night he could always see the polar star, and in the day the rising and the setting sun, he might regulate his course by them nearly as we do now by the compass. This, however, must be a fortuitous case, and not a regular plan of navigation.a Montesq. liv. 21, ch. 8. Montesq. liv. 21, ch. 9. From a slight attention to the commercial and maritime history of the Romans, it will appear that they were as great strangers to the contract of insurance as any of those people of whom much has been already said. It seems to be universally agreed that the Romans were never very conspicuous as a maritime power, considered either in a commercial or warlike point of view. In the latter case they relied chiefly on their land forces, who were disciplined to stand always firm and undaunted, and, till towards the latter age of the republic, when we read of some wonderful naval exertions, they do not seem to have possessed anything of a marine establishment. They never were distinguished by a jealousy for trade, and even when they attacked Carthage, they did it as a rival for empire, and Ferguson's not for commerce. It is recorded by historians, that till the first Rom. Rep. Punic war, upwards of four hundred years after the building of the city, the Romans were so entirely ignorant of ship-building that they took for a model a Carthaginian galley which had been accidentally stranded at Messina. Carthage, it must be observed, was at that time in her zenith of power and greatness; and yet, from the model of one of her galleys, the Romans were able, in sixty days from the time the timber was cut down, to fit out and man for sea one hundred galleys, of five tiers, and twenty of three tiers of oars. Such were vol. 1, p. 100. the ships of the famous Carthage. The spirit of the people of Rome was entirely averse from commerce, and fully justifies what was said Sallust, Ca- by a celebrated Roman historian, "sese quisque hostem ferire, murum adscendere, conspici, dum tale facinus faceret, properabat; eas divitias, eam bonam famam, magnamque nobilitatem putabant." These exploits tilina, cap. 7. a What I have said in the text has been supposed by some not to do sufficient justice to the commercial and enterprising spirit of the Phenicians, who are said to have visited Britain about 900 years before Christ.* I have already admitted the almost incredible voyages which they performed; but as it is also undoubtedly true, that they were unacquainted with the mariner's com pass, the honour of discovering which was reserved for later times, they must, in most cases, have followed the coasts. Nor does their visiting Britain militate against this idea; for by attending to the situation of the two places, the voyage might have been performed, though no doubt very tediously, without once losing sight of land. * See Borlase's Hist. of Cornwall, p. 27, and Henry's Hist. Great Britain, book i. chap. 6. сар. 63. were the only glory of a Roman, no employment was deemed honourable but the plough and the sword, and every species of gain was deemed disgraceful to those of Patrician rank. But it was from the Livy, lib. constitution of the government that individuals were possessed of this 21, warlike spirit, so contrary to that which leads to eminence in commercial pursuits. The cast of their civil government was of a military Taylor's nature, and for a considerable time the civil and military officer was Civil Law, the same person; he distributed justice in Rome, and commanded P. 502. their legions in the field, till the vast increase of their empire, and the multiplicity of civil business, occasioned a separation. The natural consequence of this was, that no man who was not of the profession of his country was much esteemed at Rome; and accordingly we find that traders and mechanics were incapable of succeeding to any public honours. Nay, so far was commerce from being encouraged at Rome, that it was deemed prejudicial to the state. The Romans, by huma- Taylor,498. nity, terror, triumphs, tributes, and taxes, which they imposed on the conquered countries, increased the riches of their city. Laws were passed to prevent the exportation of their gold; the reason of which seems to be, that it carried away their money, and brought them nothing in return but luxury, the bane of virtue, and destruction of empire. Could it be expected, says Doctor Taylor, that a people of Civil Law, soldiers, whose trade was their sword, and whose sword supplied all 501. the advantages of trade; who brought the treasures of the world into their Exchequer, without exporting anything but their own personal bravery; who raised the public revenues, not by the culture of Italy, but by the tributes of provinces; who had Rome for their mansion, and the world for their farm, should have leisure to set forward the articles of commerce, or be likely to pay any regard to the character of its professors? The terms of defiance upon which they lived with all mankind, in consequence of this martial spirit, would have prevented all the good effects of commerce, had their disposition allowed them to pursue it. That restless spirit, which kept their armies on foot, and their swords in their hands, for a succession of centuries, was fatal to factories and correspondence. The world was in arms, and insurances and underwriting were but a dead letter. This is very nearly a true representation of the case, for it is certain that not one law was made in favour of commerce in the time of the commonwealth; on the contrary, it was greatly discouraged as introductory of luxury, which was supposed not to be compatible with the severity of their manners. It is also no less true than singular, that a people who were so well acquainted with the true principles of natural reason and justice, who applied those principles with so much propriety to the various wants and necessities of human society, and who had the honour of establishing a system of law, which has been adopted as the rule of action by the greatest part of Europe, and which continues to be so even at the present day, never attempted to introduce any plan of marine jurisprudence. Nay, this idea is carried farther by Schomberg's some writers, who declare, and I believe with truth, at least we can observations discover nothing to the contrary, that the Romans did not even take on the Rhothe pains to digest the materials which they had borrowed; and that dian laws. whilst they carried every other branch of law to the highest pitch of accuracy and refinement, they were content to stand indebted to one of their own provinces both for the form and matter of their maritime code. The Romans, it is true, after the first Punic war, constantly maintained a fleet; but long after that time, even in the year of the city 563, it was observed of them, that they were very unskilful in the Polybius. art of navigation. One of their own historians, who flourished at the time of the second Punic war, and who was tutor to the great Scipio, justly remarks, that at no period did they ever make any figure at sea as a commercial power. Even when they arrived at their highest perfection in naval skill, their fleets were never employed for the purposes of trade, in the discovery of new states, or establishing commercial intercourse with those they already knew. The greatest extent of their commerce was to bring to the market of Rome that corn, which they collected in the various granaries of Sicily, Africa, and Egypt. Upon all other occasions the business of their fleet was to overawe the conquered, and to transport to Rome the spoils of ruined provinces. In such a state of commerce, it is impossible that insurances could exist; and we have already quoted Dr. Taylor, the opinion of a respectable author to show that they were unknown. ut supra. Commerce. Montesq. Esprit des loix, liv. 21, cho vi There are several reasons applicable to all the ancient maritime powers, which seem to prove to demonstration, that insurances were not in use. We have seen, that insurances are only introduced where commerce is widely extended. The commerce of the ancients compared with modern times, could not be very considerable, as it Anderson's was chiefly confined within the Mediterranean, Egean, and Euxine Hist. of Seas to which they were compelled more from necessity than inclination. Carthage, in all her glory, had not arrived at any great degree of perfection in the art of ship-building. Vessels of the best construction at that time could only be navigated with oars, or when they had a fair or a smooth sea: they might be built of green timber; and, in case of a storm, could run ashore under any cover, or upon any beach that was free from rocks: in short, they were merely galleys, and were managed with the greater difficulty on account of the position of the sails, and the mode of rigging practised in those days. This could not fail of proving a considerable obstacle to the extension of commerce. But when we consider, in addition to the bad construction of their ships, that the ancients were utterly ignorant of that unerring guide, the mariner's compass (the honour of inventing which was reserved for more modern times) by reason of which they durst not venture out of sight of land, for fear of being overtaken by tempests, and being left at large in the boundless ocean, their commerce could not have been great; although we are even led to admire the progress which they made in commercial affairs. It is true, that many distant naval expeditions were made under all these disadvantages, which often proved fatal to the adventurers.a These expeditions, however, could add little or a Huet, Bishop of Avranches, in his very instructive and entertaining treatise on the commerce and navigation of the ancients has, with infinite labour and accuracy, collected the most remarkable facts on this head. Ch. 8. nothing to their maritime or geographical skill, in which the ancients were certainly very deficient, on account of the necessity they were always under of coasting the shores, for want of a better guide; and, indeed, the shores were the only compass. These observations Montesq. are not intended to detract from that merit, which has been already vol. 2, ch. 6. allowed to the ancients for their naval exertions; because they are founded merely on a comparison of their powers and knowledge in those arts with the improvements of the moderns, and are adduced to show that, under such disadvantages and obstacles to the extension of their trade and commerce, it was impossible that insurances could be at all known to the ancient world.a M. Emerigon agrees, that the contract of insurance, as it is under- Preface to stood at this day, was not in use among the Romans; but he thinks his work, he discovers some traces of it in the history of that people. The P. 4. first instance given by this learned writer is this, that about the time of the second Punic war, those who had undertaken to supply the troops in Spain with provisions and military stores, made it a previous condition that the republic should be at the hazard of exporting them, according to the words of Livy, Ut quæ in naves impo- Livy, lib. suissent, ab hostium tempestatisve vi, publico periculo essent." But 23, cap. 49. with all deference to so great a name, this seems to bear no resemblance to the contract of insurance; for it is nothing more than every well regulated state is bound to do by the ties of natural justice. It is equitable and right, that those, who in times of danger, appropriating their private wealth to the advancement of the public service, should be reimbursed from the purse of the state for the private losses they may sustain. This indeed is the rule of conduct between man and man: for when one man purchases goods of another to be sent abroad, was it ever supposed that the seller was to run the risk of the voyage; or that if the goods perished he was never to be paid? If such a doctrine were to prevail in any country, the state could only be supplied with necessaries in time of war, by means of extortion, rapine, and violence. lib. 25, cap. Another instance given by Emerigon is a story, which we find Traité des recorded by Livy, of some men, who were charged with the care Assur. loc. of exporting provisions for the army, and who, "qui publicum peri- cit. Livy, culum erat a vi tempestatis in iis quæ portarentur ad exercitus,' 3. endeavoured by fraud to destroy the ship, and then told the directors of the state, that many very valuable articles were on board; whereas they had taken care to send out very old, rotten ships, in which were a few commodities, and those of small value. That part of this story which is material to the present inquiry, has already met with an answer in what was said upon the last quotation, and the propriety of a government's indemnifying those who might suffer in the public service, is not at all altered by the misconduct of some individuals.b a See note a, page xii. b It has been truly observed by Mr. Millar (for an account of whose work upon insurances see the preface to this second edition) that in these instances from the Roman historians, no mention is made of a premium paid by the mer- |