?tate QfoUcge of Ji^griculturp 
 
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 3tl|aca, W. f . 
 
3 1924 052 132 291 
 
Cornell University 
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 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924052132291 
 
EDITED BY G. W. PROTHERO, LiTT.D., LL.D. 
 
 HONORARY FELLOW OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, 
 LATE PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. 
 
 WESTERN CIVILISATION 
 
 IN ITS ECONOMIC ASPECTS 
 
 (MEDIAEVAL AND MODERN TIMES) 
 
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 C.F. CLAY, Manager 
 
 LONDON : FETTER LANE, E.C. 4 
 
 NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN CO. 
 
 BOMBAY 
 
 CALCUTTA MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd. 
 
 MADRAS J 
 
 TORONTO : THE MACMILLAN CO. OF 
 
 CANADA, Ltd. 
 TOKYO : MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
AN ESSAY 
 
 ON 
 
 WESTERN CIVILISATION 
 
 IN ITS ECONOMIC ASPECTS 
 
 (MEDIAEVAL AND MODERN TIMES) 
 
 BY 
 W. CUNNINGHAM, D.D. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE15 , 
 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 1922 
 
First Edition 1900, Rtprinted 1904, 1910. 1912. 
 
 flUNTED IN QREAT BRITAM 
 
TO 
 
 PRESIDENT ELIOT 
 
 I DEDICATE THIS MEMENTO OF MY WORK 
 AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 
 
 a 2 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THROUGHOUT this Essay I have tried to show how 
 the material progress of the human race has been 
 carried on and afFectpd by one great polity after another. 
 Friendly critics have said that the scheme of the book brings 
 put the organic connection between countries and between 
 periods that seem to lie very far apart; but the selection of 
 materials^ and the proportion of space assigned to different 
 topics, especially in this second volume, may prove disap- 
 pointing to readers who are keenly interested in the study of 
 the past, for its own sake. Many historical problems might 
 doubtless be seen in clearer light,iif they were approached from 
 the economic staridp6irit,| but I have not attempted to deal 
 with such diifficul ties. The definite object of my Essay has 
 been to point out the remote and complicated causes in the 
 past which have co-operated to mould industry and commerce 
 into their present forms. The cornmercial and industrial in- 
 fluence of the Anglo-Saxon race is so marked and far-reaching 
 that it has been necessary to assign great prominence to the 
 circumstances which have reridered England para.mount on 
 the sea. On the other hand the vigorous tradirig life of Italian 
 
 ^ So niuch uncertainty attaches to all attempts to interpret quotations 
 of prices and to institute comparisons on this basis between the conditions 
 current in different periods, that I haye found it impossible to make much 
 use of evidence of this kind. Compare my article On the Value of Money 
 in the Harvard Quarterly Journal of Economics, June 1899. 
 
viii Preface. 
 
 cities in the Middle Ages was not very fruitful so far as after 
 times were concerned ; and we cannot but feel that these 
 magnificent communities have been less influential on the 
 economic progress of the world as a whole, than might have 
 been expected by the contemporaries who chronicled their 
 greatness. 
 
 The difficulty of inarshalling facts that are drawn from so 
 many sources and of sketching the history of centuries on a 
 few pages has been by no means slight ; it has been my good 
 fortune that I have had throughout my task the constant 
 assistance of Miss Lilian Tomn ; her wide reading and careful 
 criticism have been of indispensable service to me at every 
 stage of my work on this volume. 
 
 The completion of this Essay finishes the series of three 
 text-books' on which I have been engaged since 1893. They 
 are intended to supplement one another as aids to the equip- 
 ment of the student of Modern Economics ; they follow the 
 lines of my teaching in Cambridge for many years past, and 
 this concluding portion embodies the substance of lectures 
 which I had the honour of delivering at Harvard University 
 in 1899. 
 
 Trinity College, Cambridgb, 
 8 November igoo. 
 
 ' These text-books are as follows : 
 
 Modern Civilisation in some of its Economic Aspects. Cr. 8vo. 
 pp. xvi-Hi7. 1896. 
 
 Outlines of English Industrial History, with E. A. M'Arthur. Cr. Svo. 
 pp. xii + l64. 1895. 
 
 Western Civilisation in its Economic Aspects (Ancient Times). Cr. 
 Svo. pp. xii + 220. 1898. (Modem Times). Cr. Svo. pp. xii + 283. 
 1900. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 71. Mediaeval Christendom as an organised society • 
 
 72. The economic debt to ancient Rome .... 
 
 73. The Christian compared with the Greek and Roman attitude 
 
 towards material opportunities and resources. The recon- 
 struction and remodelling of society .... 
 
 74. The age of discovery and the study of economic policy . 
 
 75. The age of invention, and the general application of capital 
 
 76. Divisions of the subject 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I 
 
 7 
 10 
 
 13 
 '5 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 CHRISTENDOM. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 The Foundations of Society. 
 
 77. Security for the prosecution of labour and enterprise afforded 
 
 by Moral Authority 17 
 
 78. Personal influence and official position of Bishops in dealing 
 
 with Heathen Barbarians 20 
 
 7g. Restraining influence on Christianised Barbarians — ^Theodoric 
 
 the Ostrogoth 23 
 
 So. The conversion of the Franks and the recognition of a common 
 
 ecclesiastical authority in Western Europe .... 29 
 
X Table of Contents. 
 
 8i. The fusion of the Franks and the Gallo-Romans ... 31 
 
 82. The economic influence of monasteries on agriculture, industry, 
 
 trade 35 
 
 83. The Empire of Charles, its importance, and its character as 
 
 compared with the realm of Theodoric .... 40 
 
 84. Commerce under Charles the Great 46 
 
 85. The household as the unit of society for economic purposes . 51 
 
 86. Town life — its meaning, elements and conditions ... 54 
 
 87. The Roman Obedience 6(> 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Natural and Money Economy. 
 
 88. Material relics of mediaeval prosperity ; civic, ecclesiastical, 
 
 domestic 70 
 
 89. The transition from natural to money economy — Constitutional 
 
 progress 74 
 
 90. The mediaeval theory of price ; its fundamental mistakes and 
 
 its practical applications 77 
 
 91. Royal prerogative and the minting of money ... . . 82 
 
 92. Ecclesiastical and administrative system. Papal revenue; its 
 
 collection and transmission 84 
 
 93. Collection of royal revenue in kind and in money ... 87 
 
 94. Civic Life. Rise of the Communes 89 
 
 95. Merchants and Fairs 94 
 
 96. Industrial organisation. Craft gilds 95 
 
 97. Household economy. Household management. Commutation 99 
 
 98. Mediaeval and ancient institutions 103 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Christian Relations with Heathen and Moslems. 
 
 99. The Crusading spirit 107 
 
 100. The Vikings and the Baltic commerce 108 
 
 loi. The Haiise League .111 
 
 102. The Caliphate 114 
 
 103. The Western Mediterranean 119 
 
 104. The Crusades and the opening of the East . . . .124 
 
 105. Prince Henry the Navigator ' , ijg 
 
 106. Mediaeval and modem slavery •..>,. 132 
 
Table of Contents. xi 
 
 BOOK V. 
 NA TIONALITIES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Secuiarisation. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 107. The disruption of Christendom . . . • t . 138 
 
 108. Secular functions of the clergy and criticism of the existing 
 
 system 140 
 
 109. The Black Death and social disintegration. The Renaissance 143 
 no. The beginnings of reconstruction. Territorial economic 
 
 policy 146 
 
 111. The rise of nationalities — the influence of Roman Law . . 151 
 
 112. The French Monarchy and bourgeois interests . . . 154 
 
 113. The Nation as the unit of economic organisation . . . 157 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The Intervention of Capital 
 
 114. Capital and its necessary conditions 162 
 
 115. Favourable conditions for minimising its possible evils . . 165 
 
 116. The new finance in its bearing on military and political 
 
 organisation 171 
 
 117. The money-markets 175 
 
 n8. The influence of capital in recasting commercial and in- 
 dustrial practice . . • • • • • •177 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Rival Commercial Empires. 
 
 119. The Portuguese secure a footing in the East . . • .183 
 
 ijo. The Spaniards and treasure 190^ 
 
 121. The Dutch and shipping .196. 
 
 \ii. The French and internal development . . . . • . 206 
 
 123. Tbe English Mercantile System . . . • « .315 
 
xii Table of Contents. 
 
 BOOK VI. 
 THE EXPANSION OF WESTERN CIVILISATION. 
 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 
 
 The Industrial Revolution. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 124. 
 
 The age of invention, and its effects 
 
 225 
 
 125. 
 
 The loss of industrial stability .... 
 
 230 
 
 126. 
 
 The capitalistic organisation of agriculture 
 
 ■ 233 
 
 127. 
 
 The disintegration of national economic life . 
 
 • 235 
 
 128. 
 
 Re-adaptation and reconstruction .... 
 
 244 
 
 129. 
 
 Modifications in English finance .... 
 
 • 251 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 General Tendencies and Particular Conditions. 
 
 130. The inevitable tendency of economic forces .... 254 
 
 131. Pessimism and anarchism 255 
 
 132. Control over the operation of economic forces in different 
 
 circumstances 258 
 
 133. Nationalism and cosmopolitanism 26 [ 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 134. Reciprocal action of Man, and his environment . . , 268 
 
 135. Unintentional advance 270 
 
 136. Progress as real, and not fortuitous 271 
 
 137. Temporary and permanent elements in civilisation . . 272 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 The Transplantation of Arts and Institutions . . , 27= 
 Index jg^ 
 
 MAPS. 
 
 The Dominion and Conquests of Charles the Great 
 
 (after Spruner and Menke) .... to face p. 40 
 
 Some important Trade Routes in the XIV. Century 
 (based on Goetz, Die Verkehrswege im Dienste 
 des Welthandels) ,,114 
 
 The Era of Latin Expansion ,, 183 
 
WESTERN CIVILISATION. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 71. In the first volume of this book an attempt has been 
 made to trace the progress of material civili- 
 sation in the ancient world, from its beginnings christen^d<fin 
 in Egypt and Phoenicia to its highest develop- fsanorgan- 
 ment in the Roman Empire under Hadrian. 
 The influences which sapped the vigour of this great polity 
 and left it powerless before the attacks of the barbarians, 
 have also been described; and we have seen that though a 
 portion of the ancient empire maintained a successful resistance 
 at Constantinople, the Teutonic invasion shook or destroyed 
 the whole fabric of society in the western parts of Europe. 
 The military organisation proved insufficient; the defenceless 
 cities became the prey of barbarian conquerors; what had once 
 been a well administered empire was broken into fragments, 
 and the social order was reduced to chaos. The Norse and 
 Danish invasions in the ninth and tenth centuries were the 
 last of the successive inundations to which Western Europe 
 was exposed': and when they had ceased, we may note the 
 emergence of a new civilisation which was curiously like and 
 curiously different from the old empire that had sa com- 
 pletely succumbed. 
 
 * Cunningham, AUtn Immigrants, p. 5. 
 
 c w. a II. I 
 
2 Introduction. 
 
 The very name by which we speak of this new social 
 system calls attention to its Christianity as the trait which 
 distinguishes it most clearly from the civilisation of the ancient 
 world. The Roman Empire had been created by military 
 prowess; the military organisation, with the military roads 
 which connected its various provinces, was the effective ele- 
 ment by which it was maintained. Christendom on the 
 contrary, under its spiritual head the Pope, expended its 
 material energies in the raising of magnificent churches and 
 the endowing of religious houses ; it devoted .its resources to 
 aggressive struggles with the infidel. Religious aspirations and 
 motives found expression in the magnificent buildings of the 
 twelfth and thirteenth centuries; these ideas and sentiments 
 peririeated all social institutions; though they lie on the sur- 
 face they were not merely superficial. War was practically 
 unintermittent in the early middle ages, but it was rarely a 
 combining force ; and however much the swords of the Franks 
 may have contributed to the rise of the papacy, the secret of 
 its power lay far deeper. It was not by military force, but 
 by religious authority, that the foundations of civilised society 
 were laid anew in the dark ages ; in so far as old institutions 
 reappear in mediaeval Christendom, they were for the most 
 part modified or remodelled under religious influence. 
 
 In looking back from the present time, when political and 
 religious differences have done so much to accentuate the 
 divisions of Christendom, we are apt to forget its solidarity 
 in bygone days. In the thirteenth century the ecclesiastical 
 organisation gave a unity to the social structure throughout 
 the whole of Western Europe ; over the area in which the 
 Pope was recognised as the spiritual and the Emperor as 
 the temporal Vicar of God, political and racial differences 
 were relatively less important. For economic purposes it is 
 scarcely necessary to distinguish different countries from one 
 another in the thirteenth century, for there were fewer barriers 
 to social intercourse within the limits of Christendom than 
 
Introduction, 3 
 
 we meet to-day. Latin was the only literary language, and 
 the student who passed from one University to another 
 found himself everywhere at home, in the method of teach- 
 ing and the course of study to be pursued. The merchant 
 who visited a foreign pprt, or the artisan who sojourned in 
 a distant town, was confronted with restrictions or aided by 
 faciUties which were familiar enough to him at home. There 
 was little in the churches of different parts of Christendom 
 to distract the worshipper by unaccustomed rites. Similar 
 ecclesiastical canons, and similar law merchant prevailed over 
 large areas, where very different admixtures of civil and bar- 
 baric laws were in vogue. Christendom, though broken into 
 so many fragments politically, was one organised society, for 
 all the purposes of economic life, because there was such 
 free intercommunication between its parts. From this point 
 of view we may treat it as a clearly marked and distinct 
 civilisation, which succeeded to the place that the Roman 
 Empire had occupied. 
 
 Geographically they were not coincident. Western Chris- 
 tendom, in the thirteenth century, contained much of the 
 territory which had been included in the Roman Empire, as 
 it was fortified and beautified by Hadrian; but much also 
 had fallen away. The far East and Africa had been entirely, 
 and Spain had been partially lost, as a result of the Mo- 
 hammedan invasion ; and the Greek lands maintained that 
 independence of Rome which they had achieved when Con-; 
 stantine founded his capital on the shores of the Bosphorus. 
 On the other hand, there had been some acquisitions; there 
 had been peaceful conquests of the Cross in Ireland and 
 Scotland, Iceland, Denmark, and the Scandinavian Peninsula ; 
 and militant Christianity had at length prevailed in Saxony 
 and Lithuania. There had thus been an expansion of 
 Christendom on the north beyond the limits which Roman 
 strategy had laid down for the Empire. 
 
 There was throughout this area one social system, and 
 
 I — 3 
 
4 Introduction. 
 
 it is possible to indicate the general course of its history as 
 a whole ; but it is obvious that the rate of economic progress 
 has not been similar and simultaneous in all these Christian 
 lands, especially when we take account of the differences in 
 their physical conditions and in their inhabitants. We are not 
 concerned with the separate industrial developrnent of each 
 part by itself, but only with each, in turn, in so far as it was at 
 any moment typical of changes which have taken place in 
 Christendom as a whole. The various countries of Chris- 
 tendom did not start from the same point, and did not run 
 the same course; at one time France, at another Italy, at 
 another Germany or Flanders took the lead ; but it is not 
 uninteresting to note the well-marked and distinct stages to 
 which different peoples attained at different times; some were 
 pioneers, and some were imitators at each step in advance, 
 but still the path of progress was similar for all. 
 
 The development of civilisation in ancient times had been 
 carried on by a succession of races which were mutually ex- 
 clusive and hostile; while the advance in the mediaeval and 
 modern world has been due to social elements, which though 
 distinct yet recognised a common underlying affinity*. The 
 most distant places shared more or less in the movements 
 which were at work elsewhere ; for the magnificent churches at 
 Kirkwall, Trondhjem and Upsala show that even the outlying 
 districts of Christendom had their part in its artistic and 
 industrial work in the thirteenth century ; these ancient monu- 
 ments testify to an intercourse which never entirely ceased. 
 The peoples of Western Christendom have formed one civili- 
 sation, — not because their conditions and history have been 
 identical, but because, different as they were and are, the 
 intercourse between them has been so frequent and the 
 
 1 Their common Christianity gave a consciousness of affinity which was 
 not natural to the city life of the ancient world (Fustel de Coulanges, La 
 Citi Antique, 1. II. c. 4, De Pesprit municipal), and which united the whole 
 of Western Europe in antagonism to the Mohammedan world. 
 
Introduction. 5 
 
 interconnection so close, that changes which occurred in one 
 have necessarily reacted upon all the others'. 
 
 72. The ruins of the Roman Empire were drawn on, in 
 many ways, for the reconstruction of civilised TheEco- 
 society in the West. The very tradition of nomicdebtto 
 
 . . T . . _ Ancient Rome. 
 
 Imperial power exercised an immense influence 
 as a unifying idea^ which survived to give definite shape 
 to the ambitions of Charles, and' facilitated the general re- 
 cognition of a central authority at Rome. These political 
 influences are the most obvious, but others, whic-h are more 
 difficult to trace, are hardly less important; we find the signs 
 ■of a neW: social order, especially when we are looking at its 
 material side, not only in the one great centre of adminis- 
 tration', but in many separate localities,, where circumstances 
 afforded an opportunity for the beginnings of progress. There 
 was no province from which the barbarians effaced all traces 
 of Roman occupation. Even in Britain, the cherry trees and 
 quickset hedges, the wheat and the cattle, suggest the tradition 
 of Roman agriculture^ ; while the roads, canals, and buildings 
 afforded models that were followed in subsequent tinies. In 
 some parts of Northern France the imperial influence had 
 been comparatively superficial*, but it was not obliterated; 
 when some degree of order was once more secured there were 
 ample materials which could be utilised' in the new social 
 structure. The physical relics of Roman civilisation remained 
 
 ^ On the importance of intercourse as a characteristic of Western 
 Civilisation, see Volume I. p. 3. 
 
 " Bryce, Holy Roman Empire (1875), pp. 24, 72. 
 • * The beginnings of civilised life in northern Britain, round the Co- 
 lumban churches, lay outside the influence of the Bishop of Rome; nor 
 was it from Rome that the impulse came for the work of S. Columbanus 
 in Burgundy and Switzerland, and of S. Boniface in Germany. 
 
 * Pearson, England during Early and Middle Ages, I. 56 ; Coote, A 
 Neglected Fact of English History, p. 53; Hughes, Royal Agricultural 
 Journal, 3rd Ser., v. 561. 
 
 " Dareste de la Chavanne, Hisloire des Classes Agricoles, p. 51. 
 
6 Introduction. 
 
 throughout the greater part of the West; and in some cities 
 vestiges of Roman administration were maintained. There 
 was a great heritage of manual skill and mechanical arts which 
 had been slowly built up in Egypt, Phoenicia, Greece, and 
 Carthage, and which was incorporated in the culture which 
 the Romans diffused; and it may be doubted if any of the 
 iridustrial arts as known and practised by the Romans was 
 wholly lost in the West. There were, besides, forms of eco- 
 nomic life which reappeared when circumstances admitted of 
 the revival; there was no need to inveiit them anew. The 
 organisation of the mediaeval estate has its analogue in the 
 Roman villa; the mediaeval city, with its gilds, is the repro- 
 duction' of the Roman town and its collegia. The fiscal and 
 the judicial systems of the different lands were affected by the 
 methods of Imperial Rome, In some regions there was a 
 revivifying of institutions that had decayed but were not 
 extinct; in others there was the direct imitation or trans- 
 planting of methods that had survived elsewhere; but in all 
 parts of Christendom there is enough to remind us of the 
 fact that the new civilisation was raised on the ruins of the 
 Roman Empire. Nor need it surprise us that the revival 
 followed a course that was somewhat parallel to the original 
 growth ; the transference from natural to money economy, the 
 organisation first of passive and then of active commerce, the 
 establishment of fairs and the- regulation of industry recurred 
 in mediaeval times, just as we have already traced them 
 in the ancient world ; there has been a " natural progress of 
 opulence" which can be discerned both in ancient and in 
 mediaeval society. So far as industrial arts and the great 
 types of social and economic organisation are concerned, the 
 new development followed closely on the hnes of the old. 
 
 73. It is true, then, that the debt of Christendom to 
 ancient Rome is very deep, and that centuries of gradual growth 
 
 ^ Even though continuity can only be proved in some few cities of 
 Italy; see below, p. 24 n. 
 
Introduction. y 
 
 were required before mediaeval could vie with ancient civili- 
 sation in the external signs of material prosperity ; ^he chris- 
 but it would be a mistake to suppose that the *'»" compared 
 
 , . , , with the Greek 
 
 new society was a mere reproduction of the and Roman 
 
 old ; it differed in every single feature. It has ^rds m'a- 
 
 been pointed out above' that though the Phoe- teriai oppor- 
 
 nicians were so highly skilled in all industrial resources, 
 
 and commercial arts, the character of Greek Therecon- 
 
 .... . struction and 
 
 Civilisation was different from that of their remodelling of 
 Semitic instructors ; there was a similar contrast ^""^'^'y- 
 between the Roman Empire and mediaeval Christendom; 
 a difference not in skill or in organisation merely, but in the 
 whole spirit of the civilisation. Though this element is very 
 important, it is so subtle that analysis does not readily detect 
 it, and there is some difficulty in describing it; but the best 
 that the Greeks had attained may be taken as the starting- 
 point from which the new advance began. The Greek re- 
 garded material wealth as a means to an end, and as offering 
 opportunities for the cultured life of free men in a City-State. 
 A high respect for the dignity of man and the possibilities 
 of human nature as essentially political, dominated his attitude 
 towards the material world, and the pursuit of agriculture, 
 commerce and industry. Christian teaching carried this Greek 
 conception of the supreme worth of human life much farther 
 by presenting it in its supernatural aspects. The doctrine of 
 the Incarnation'' asserted that the human body had afforded 
 
 ' Volume I. pp. 71, 98. 
 
 * There is no side of human life which may not have a bearing on 
 economic changes (Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Com- 
 merce, r. p. 7), and though it is rarely necessary to call attention to philo- 
 sophical beliefs or religious convictions, we are forced back on them if 
 we attempt to describe the spirit of a. people or of an age. Thus, as 
 Professor Bury points out (Later Roman Empire, I. p. 18S), the victory of 
 Athanasianism over Arianism was of world-historical importance. "The 
 very essence of Christianity was at stake. For the special power of 
 Christianity depended on the idea of Christ, and the doctrine of Arius 
 
8 Introduction. 
 
 an adequate medium for the manifestation of the divine 
 nature ; the doctrine of the Resurrection held out a sure and 
 certain hope of personal immortality for the human soul. 
 Christianity thus involved a higher view of all human life, as 
 such, than the Greeks had asserted of the noblest members 
 of a selected race. The supreme dignity of man as man 
 was set forth by Christian teaching, and the conscious and 
 habitual subordination of material things to human ideals and 
 aspirations was carried farther than it had ever been before, 
 since man came to be regarded not only as a rational, but 
 as an immortal being, and as one who has a place in a 
 supernatural order. 
 
 One of the gravest defects of the Roman Empire lay in 
 the fact that its system left little scope for individual aims, 
 and tended to check the energy of capitalists and labourers 
 alike'. But Christian teaching opened up an unending pros- 
 pect before the individual personally, and encouraged him 
 to diligence and activity by an eternal hope. Nor did 
 such concentration of thought on a life beyond the grave 
 necessarily divert attention from secular duties'; Christianity 
 did not disparage them, but set them in a new light, and 
 brought out new motives for taking them earnestly. The 
 Christian monk, like the Roman slave, was deprived of civil 
 rights, and was absolutely at the beck and call of his superior. 
 
 tended to depress Christ, as less than God, a tendency which, if it had 
 prevailed, would have ultimately banished Christ" from the world. The 
 tendency of much Eastern speculation was to exalt the divine at the expense 
 of the human, and thus to refuse to accord to what is merely human its 
 true dignity and value. See also Gwatkin, Studies in Arianism, 264. 
 
 * Volume I. pp. 189, 192. 
 
 * The legend, which was popularised by Robertson {^State of Europe in 
 Charles V. I. p. 26) and Michelet (Histoire de France, 11. p. 132), of the 
 general disregard of mundane interests and consequent shock to society 
 at the close of the tenth century from the prevalence of the belief in 
 the approaching end of the world, has been recently shown to be entirely 
 contrary to the truth. Pfister, Etudes sur le rigne de Robert le Piettx in 
 Bibliothique de PAcole des hautes £tudes, Fasc. 64"", p. 322. 
 
Introduction. g 
 
 But there was no degradation in monastic obedience, since it 
 was voluntarily undertaken by a freeman as a discipline through 
 which he might attain the noblest destiny. 
 
 The acceptance of this higher view of the dignity of 
 human life as immortal, was followed by a fuller recognition 
 of personal responsibility. Ancient philosophy had seen that 
 Man is the master of material things; but Christianity intro- 
 duced a new sense of duty in regard to the manner of using 
 them. The new teaching could not approve the wasting of 
 material wealth in the mere perpetuation of regal pride, in 
 pandering to the gratification of effeminate luxury, or in 
 pauperising an idle and brutal rabble by providing them with 
 bread and diversion. The wealth of the old world had been 
 wasted in this fashion; provinces had been despoiled and 
 ruined and their resources exhausted rather than developed; 
 and Christian teachers were forced to protest against any 
 employment of wealth that disregarded the glory of God and 
 the good of man'. 
 
 This then was the characteristic difference between the 
 ancient civilisation and the new order which was beginning 
 to flourish in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It is of 
 course true that these principles were very imperfectly realised, 
 but in so far as they had any influence at all on actual life, 
 they help us to understand the nature and scope of the political 
 contrasts between the Pagan Empire and Latin Christendom. 
 A capricious and arbitrary human ruler had been hailed with 
 divine honours in ancient times; in the Middle Ages the supre- 
 macy of Eternal and Supernatural Authority over all human 
 beings who might exercise magisterial power was maintained; 
 the contrast is exemplified in the controversy between the 
 Popes and Emperors regarding Investitures. The Christian 
 doctrine of price, and Christian condemnation of gain at the 
 expense of another man, affected all the mediaeval organisation 
 of municipal life and regulation of inter-municipal commerce, 
 * S. Thomas Aquinas, Summa, ii" ii'", q. 66, art. i, j. 
 
10 Introduction. 
 
 and introduced marked contrasts to the conditions of business 
 in ancient cities. The Christian appreciation of the duty of 
 work rendered the lot of the mediaeval villain a very different 
 thing from that of the slave in the ancient empire. The re- 
 sponsibility of proprietors, like the responsibility of princes, was 
 so far insisted on as to place substantial checks on tyranny of 
 every kind. For these principles were not mere pious opinions 
 but effective maxims in practical life. Owing to the circum- 
 stances in which the vestiges of Roman civilisation were locally 
 maintained and the foundations of the new society were laid', 
 there was ample opportunity for Christian teaching and 
 example to have a marked influence on its development. 
 74. When measured by strictly economic criteria, it may 
 The age of ^^ doubted whether the civilisation of the 
 discovery and thirteenth century had made any advance on 
 
 the study of ^ . 
 
 economic that of the Roman Empire m its best days ; m 
 
 policy. jjjg fourteenth century, the Black Death caused 
 
 a shock to society from which it only slowly recovered, and 
 in the latter part of the fifteenth century Europe was still 
 seeking for inspiration by looking to the past and making 
 closer acquaintance with the masterpieces of ancient literature 
 and art. It was only with the close of the fifteenth century 
 that Western Christendom obviously reached a stage of mate- 
 rial progress beyond that to which the Romans had attained^ 
 The discovery of America and of the new route to the East Indies 
 revolutionised men's ideas as to the surface of the globe, and 
 
 ' The old order was not completely subverted at Constantinople, and 
 ancient civilisation, with many of its inherent defects, survived in the 
 East ; society there had a veneer of Christian teaching applied to it, but 
 it was not completely recast under Christian guidance. The church in 
 the East was to a considerable extent a department of state under imperial 
 co-nlxo\(BMry, History of Later Roman Empire, I. 105, 186; Tixilny, History 
 of Greece, l. 196), though there were indirect checks upon the Emperor 
 (Finlay, op. cit. 188). 
 
 ^ For some qualifications see below on the beginnings of capital and 
 credit, p. 169. 
 
Introduction, 1 1 
 
 gave them an entirely fresh conception of the scale on which 
 commercial intercourse and colonisation might be attempted. 
 
 This was a second great step in intellectual advance, and 
 important economic results followed directly. The Christian 
 revelation had given man a new sense of his personal responsi- 
 bility, and brought about the remodelling of civilised society ; 
 the age of discovery opened up a new idea of the world we 
 live in, and of the possibilities of wealth which might be 
 secured by obtaining possession of, or trading with, distant 
 parts of the globe. These new opportunities became available 
 at the very time when the unity which had characterised 
 mediaeval Christendom was being shattered. The absorption 
 of the smaller powers, partly through conquest, had favoured 
 the rise of considerable monarchies, — England, France, Portu- 
 gal and Spain; and their statesmen were consciously setting 
 themselves to consider how it was possible to utilise the 
 resources of each separate country so as to promote its power 
 effectively. 
 
 The most obvious method was adopted by Spain, and con- 
 sisted in endeavouring to procure the largest possible amount 
 of the precious metals; but before long it appeared that this 
 was a short-sighted policy after all. It was necessary not 
 only to gather and hoard 'treasure' or bullion', but to open 
 up the sources, from which 'riches' of any and every kind 
 might be procured. The particular advantages of each country 
 came to be carefully considered; and every great statesman 
 gave attention to the special economic scheme which should 
 be pursued, in order to increase national wealth and provide 
 the sinews of war for his own land I The rise of nationalities, 
 
 * Seventeenth century writers have been somewhat unjustly blamed 
 for carelessness in confusing elements in wealth which they endeavoured 
 to distinguish. By treasure, they meant the precious metals ; by riches, 
 the comforts and the conveniences of life. 
 
 " On the relation of treasure and military power compare R. Ehrenberg, 
 Das ZeitaUer der Fugger, I. 9. 
 
1 2 Introduction. 
 
 together with the opportunities for the amassing of treasure 
 which the silver mines of America had rendered available, gave 
 a sudden impulse, not pnly to commercial undertakings and 
 colonisation, but to the study of economic policy and of the 
 best methods for fostering the wealth of a nation. Both in 
 practice and in economic doctrine the sixteenth and seventeenth 
 centuries made rapid progress beyond the limits which had 
 been reached in the ancient world, It had been the shame 
 of ancient Rome that so little was done to develop the 
 resources of Gaul and the various provinces \ but in the 
 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there was far less of this 
 neglect; for each country was regarded as an estate, which 
 was carefully examined in every direction so that its capabilities 
 might be taken advantage of to the utmost. 
 
 The rise of nationalities has been a gradual process and 
 has extended to our own day, when the formation of a United 
 Italy and a United Germany has first made it possible for 
 each of them to formulate and endeavour to carry out a policy 
 of economic regulation and expansion. England, from its 
 limited area and insular position^, was the first part of Europe 
 to organise its political and economic life on a national basis. 
 Signs of a deliberate economic policy for the country, as a 
 whole, may be found before the important year when Edward I 
 summoned the model parhament and passed a Statute of 
 Merchants. But though there have been such marked dif- 
 ferences in- the dates at which different European countries 
 have entered on this phase of development, it may still be 
 
 ' There are of course some limitations to this statement ; probably corn- 
 growing was encouraged, as in Britain, for the sake of supplies ; and 
 various fruit trees and breeds of cattle were introduced into this country. 
 It may also be remembered that Justinian established silk cultivation in 
 Syria. In the first two centuries things were probably at their best, but 
 the coloni were being ruined, and the' spoliation of a province was not 
 unknown. Cf. Juvenal, Sat. viit. 87 seq. 
 
 ' Cunningham and M^ Arthur, Outlines of English Industrial History, 
 p. 24. 
 
Introduction, 1 3 
 
 regarded as a general movement by which each has been 
 affected in turn. The precise form of policy that suited one 
 was not adapted to another; but there was in all cases 
 a similar attempt to pursue the same end, and to utilise the 
 resources of the country in such a fashion as to increase 
 its power. The movement was noticeable at the Reforma- 
 tion period, when the disruption of Christendom gave the 
 different nations a keener sense of independence, and fresh 
 motives for rivalry ; the policy of governments became favour- 
 able to the race for wealth which is such a marked feature 
 of modern society, as contrasted with that of the early Middle 
 Ages, and distinguishes the western world to-day from the 
 stationary peoples of the East. It is, however, in the seven- 
 teenth century that the working and effects of this phase of 
 economic regulation come into clear light; they are plainly 
 portrayed in the country which was at that time the undoubted 
 leader in European politics. The French monarchy of Louis 
 XIV was able to overawe surrounding nations by its splendour, 
 and demonstrated the wisdom of the policy which had re- 
 created agriculture and industry after the devastation caused 
 by the wars of religion. 
 
 75. The intellectual progress of the eighteenth century 
 was very remarkable, and it gave rise to the ^he age of 
 startling economic changes which have come invention, and 
 
 ° the general 
 
 about during the last hundred and fifty years, application of 
 We may speak of this epoch as the age of in- e^pi'^'- 
 vention; for though human ingenuity has not been confined 
 to any one period, the eighteenth century made a great advance 
 in the physical and chemical sciences, and also afforded 
 economic and social conditions in which this new knowledge 
 of physical forces could be practically applied. The blast 
 furnace and the steam engine, the self-acting mule and the 
 power loom have wrought revolutions in industrial life which 
 are even more startling than the commercial changes that 
 followed the age of geographical discovery. 
 
14 Introduction. 
 
 It appears indeed that the age of discovery with its search 
 for treasure was a necessary preliminary that rendered the age 
 of invention possible. The maritime adventurers had opened 
 up distant markets to European commerce, and rendered it 
 practicable for business men to manufacture on a large scale 
 and introduce costly machinery. These same discoveries, too, 
 supplied the material means of saving wealth which could 
 be utilised as capital". Despite the strict regulations of the 
 Spaniards, the precious metals which were brought from the 
 New World could not be strictly guarded and retained 
 as public treasure ; bullion found its way into circulation and 
 passed from royal treasuries to private hands, where it served 
 a more useful purpose, as it was utilised in industrial and 
 commercial enterprise. We have already seen that the 
 waste of capital had been one of the causes of the fall of 
 Rome; and constant complaints of a deficiency of capital 
 and of the tardy development of English industry occur in 
 the writings of English pamphleteers in the seventeenth 
 century. These complaints . seem to have been well-founded, 
 and much human ingenuity was doubtless lost to the world 
 for want of the material means of rendering some experiment 
 a practical success. The formation of capital and the in- 
 creased facilities for credit in the eighteenth century did 
 much to remove these obstacles to progress. The cost and 
 risk of introducing machinery into the textile trades could be 
 undertaken as soon as there was abundance of capital in the 
 hands of enterprising men, as well as access to many and 
 distai;t markets where a vent for the products could be 
 expected. 
 
 Capital accumulated in larger masses, and seeking for 
 remunerative investment, has also been the principal agent in 
 diffusing the triumphs of Western Civilisation throughout the 
 globe. Railways have been laid down, and factories created 
 in distant parts of the old world, by the enterprise of English- 
 
 * Cunningham, Grcfwth 0/ English Industry, II. p. 14. 
 
Introduction. 1 5 
 
 men, Frenchmen and Germans; while in the new world our 
 efforts are surpassed, not only by the ingenuity of American 
 undertakings, but by the vast scale on which they are carried 
 out. Japan has caught the fever, and is copying the achieve- 
 ments of European peoples. Private and associated capital, 
 with its extraordinary fluidity and power of transporting skilled 
 labour and the products of labour, is diffusing the last results 
 of our material progress among savages and half-civilised races. 
 We might have continued to trade with them as the seven- 
 teenth century companies did and left them little affected by 
 the intercourse; but Western capitalists, by introducing modern 
 inventions, have brought about startling changes, for good or 
 for evil, in the social conditions of every country to which 
 they have found their way. 
 
 It is thus that Western Civilisation has come to launch 
 out in its ruthless career of conquest. Its two salient features, — 
 the subjugation of natural forces and its extraordinary facility 
 for procuring material wealth — have a fitness of their own; 
 they are sure to survive, they are bound to force their en- 
 trance into every land and to compel society to adapt itself 
 to them. And herein lies the danger ; we may come, in our 
 admiration of these marvels, to regard material progress as 
 an end in itself, and to lose sight of the ideals for human 
 society and for individual life which are the most precious of 
 earthly possessions. It will be sad indeed, if while multiplying 
 the opportunities that might be devoted to the cultivation 
 of a truly noble life, we lose the power and desire to use 
 these opportunities worthily. 
 
 76. The foregoing paragraphs may have served not only 
 to point the contrast between ancient civilisa- 
 tion and that of mediaeval and modern times th?'^utj°ect.°^ 
 but to elucidate the principle of division which 
 has been adopted in the following pages. There have been 
 three great stages of progress, in man's knowledge of himself, 
 and of his place and powers in the world ; and each of these 
 
1 6 Introduction. 
 
 has had far-reaching effects on industrial and commercial 
 life. Under the influence of Christian teaching man attained 
 to a new consciousness of duty ; and we can trace the 
 workings of these ideas in the institutions of Christendom, 
 as they are most noticeably seen in the age of S. Louis. 
 Again, when the period of discovery came, man's conceptions 
 of the earth and of the possibilities it contained were suddenly 
 enlarged, and we find the influence of this new knowledge, 
 not only in the expansion of commerce, but in the national 
 economic policies, of which France under Louis XIV affords 
 a typical example. Lastly, with the age of invention there 
 was an increase in irian's acquaintance with physical nature, 
 combined with special opportunities for applying that know- 
 ledge practically; and Englishmen have taken the lead, not 
 only as inventors, but as pioneers in the work of diffusing 
 the new industrial practices and organisation throughout the 
 world. During each of these three periods attention has been 
 concentrated in turn on one of the requisites of production. 
 In mediaeval Christendom we find institutions for the regu- 
 lation of labour; the phase of nationalist economic policy 
 has been chiefly concerned with the development of land; 
 while in recent times we see the remarkable results effected 
 by the utilisation of capital 
 
i; 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 CHRISTENDOM. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIETY. 
 
 77. We are accustomed to describe different political 
 organisms as being in a healthy or unhealthy security for 
 state, according to their success in affording the prose- 
 adequate protection to person and property, labour and 
 This test applies not only to high civilizations, afforSTby 
 but also to primitive peoples : for wherever Moral Au- 
 
 , . . . .,..,,, ., , thority. 
 
 chrome msecunty prevails it is hardly possible 
 for society to continue to exist, and there can be no hope of 
 any advance in material wealth. Diligence in labour and 
 enterprise in business will both be checked, when men have 
 little hope of receiving a reward for their work or of enjoying 
 what they have stored'. It is essential to progress that society 
 should be defended alike against attack from without and 
 disorder within. 
 
 In striving for these ends men have not always adopted 
 the same principles. In some cases it has been possible to 
 take advantage of geographical conditions; these may prove 
 serious obstacles against hostile invasion, though they cannot 
 afford complete immunity ; but they give no guarantee 
 of internal welfare. Tyre maintained her independence for 
 
 ' Cunningham, Modem Civilisation, 12. 
 & W. C. II. 2 
 
1 8 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 centuries, but her prosperity was shaken by revolutionary out- 
 breaks. It seems as if a great military organisation would 
 suffice for the double purpose, as it did for a time at Rome; 
 but the army itself may become a danger to civil institutions, 
 especially if the sense of public duty is lost or the bonds of 
 discipline are relaxed. The most effectual safeguard of society 
 is found in the influence of moral authority ; and this may be 
 relied on, in so far as there is a belief that right and wrong in 
 political affairs are determined by something deeper than mere 
 expediency. This has been more or less felt in many polities, 
 and it comes out very clearly in mediaevar Christendom. The 
 claim to enforce the omnipotent God's Will as supreme over 
 all men' by the simple appeal to the human conscience to 
 submit to that Will, is the strongest position that human 
 authority can take. This conviction of a divine commission 
 may give to rulers the dignity and courage whicl^ impress 
 outsiders, and the strength of character which commands 
 respect. 
 
 Moral authority will rarely attempt to dispense with all 
 extraneous supports. S. Columba and his monks in their 
 island home were glad of the protection afforded them by the 
 sea. There may be many occasions for summoning an army 
 to do battle for the right, but the secret of success lies not 
 in these external agents, but in inspiring ideas. The claim 
 to enforce right is the best basis for civil authority, and the 
 recognition of that claim by the subjects is a sufficient reason 
 for loyal obedience. As Christianity was gradually accepted, 
 with its new view of man's nature and his responsibility, an 
 enormous influence was placed within the reach of those who 
 had authority to speak in God's name, and who warned the 
 
 * This principle, which holds good both among Mohammedan and 
 Christian peoples, is derived from Judaism. Paganism, with Its local 
 cults, could not supply a common religious basis for moral principles as 
 binding on all men alike. On the economic importance of this belief, 
 compare the Duke of Argyle, Unseen Foundations, 192, 219. 
 
CHAP. I.] The Foundations of Society. 19 
 
 disobedient of the danger of incurring divine punishment here 
 and hereafter. This religious power was steadily brought to 
 bear in favour of securing protection to person and property ; 
 it was used to limit the frequency and mitigate the horrors 
 of war^, which was then the chief source of social disorder: 
 while the conditions of tenure and the protection claimed for 
 ecclesiastical property favoured the growth of secular pro- 
 prietary rights^, and helped to supply the legal forms by which 
 they are defined and transferred. , 
 
 The claim of the Bishop of Rome to speak with authority 
 in God's name, and to declare the _right, absolutely, was 
 generally recognised in mediaeval Christendom in the thirteenth 
 century; religious ideas permeated all civil institutions; and 
 the force of spiritual censures was shown in the humiliation 
 of the emperor Henry IV at Canossa. The papal authority 
 had grown from small beginnings; and we must look very 
 closely in order to see exactly how this influence was actually 
 brought to bear. The heathens who routed the imperial 
 armies had little cause to respect ecclesiastical institutions ; 
 but even in the darkest days of all, we may notice how the 
 personal influence of one or another of the Christian bishops 
 intervened to stem the tide of invasion for a moment, or to 
 intercede in behalf of subject populations, ^nd thus facilitated 
 the preservation of some elements of ancient civilisation. 
 Besides this influence of personal character there was also 
 corporate religious influence which we shall have to consider"; 
 the power of individual men was displayed in saving some of 
 the remains of the old order, but corporate religious life had 
 much to do with creating the new civilisation. This religious 
 enthusiasm enabled the monks of the West to be pioneers 
 
 ' Bethune Baker, Influence of Christianity on War, 87, 118. Semichon, 
 La Paix et la Trive de Dieu. Lecky, History of European Morals from 
 Augustus to Charlemagne, H. 274. 
 
 " Cunningham, Growth of English Industry, '\. 68. 
 
 ' See below, p. 35. 
 
20 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 in the work of reclaiming the regions that seemed to have been 
 totally lost. The isolated action of Christian men and Christian 
 communities supplied the groundwork on which the wide- 
 spread influence of the papacy was subsequently raised. 
 78. Many beautiful legends have been handed down of 
 Personal ^^ heroic conduct of bishops in intervening in 
 
 influence behalf of their cities, especially during the in- 
 
 position'^of vasion of the Huns. The city of Troyes was 
 
 Bishops in unfortified and surrounded by a swarm of dis- 
 
 dealing with . . ■* 
 
 Heathen appomted and retreating soldiers who were 
 
 Barbarians. clamouring for the spoil, but S. Lupus succeeded 
 in persuading Attila to draw off his troops before the pillage 
 began ^ Later in his career, the same warrior yielded to the 
 solicitations of another bishop at a moment of uncertainty. 
 " Upon these doubts and ponderings of his supervened the 
 stately presence of Leo", a man of holy life, firm will, and 
 dauntless courage — that, to bf sure, Attila perceived in the 
 first moments of their interview — and besides holding an office 
 high and venerated through all the civilised world. The 
 Barbarian quailed to his spell, as he had quailed to that of 
 Lupus of Troyes, and according to- a tradition which is not 
 very well authenticated, he jocularly excused his unaccustomed 
 gentleness by saying that he knew how to conquer men but 
 the lion and wolf (Leo and Lupus) had learned to conquer 
 him." A similar example of episcopal heroism had been 
 shown by S. Anianus at Orleans', while the sufferings of the 
 provincials were also mitigated by the ascendancy which 
 bishops*, or private persons like S. Severinus of Noricum", 
 obtained over the barbarian conquerors. The responsibility 
 
 ' Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, 11. 122, a.d. 451. 
 ^ Hodgkin, II. 161, A.D. 452. 
 ^ Hodgkin, 11. 119, a.d. 451. 
 
 * Compare the influence of Avitus, Bishop of Vienne (a.d. 490-523), 
 and Caesarius of Aries (a.d. 502-542) during the transition from Burgundian 
 and Gothic to Frankish authority. 
 
 * Hodgkin, 11. 514 (a.d. 453-482). 
 
CHAP, I.] The Foundations of Society. 2 1 
 
 taken by the bishops in encouraging successful resistance may 
 be noticed in the east^ as well as in the west, while the miserable 
 population that remained alive looked to the episcopate for 
 protection against barbarian" and imperial oppression'. 
 
 This view of the salutary influence exercised by the epis- 
 copal order is rendered more probable by the fact that so 
 many of the towns in Germany, whicii have the best claims 
 to continuous existence from Roman times, are ancient 
 episcopal sees*. Cologne, Treves, Metz, Mayence, Speyer, 
 Worms, and Strasburg are ancient civitates'' which appear to 
 have a continuous ecclesiastical history", though this does not 
 seem to extend to their civil government. Archaeological' 
 remains in ^ome of the French cities go to show that the 
 Roman civitates in Gaul did not share the fate of those in 
 Britain' which ceased to exist as populous places. 
 
 * Compare the influence of the bishop of Heraclea, in Macedonia, in 
 malcing terms with Theodoric (Finlay, Greece, I. 170). At Thessalonica 
 the populace insisted on the transference of the city keys from the praeto- 
 rian prefect to the archbishop. (Bury, iMter Roman Empire, I. 267.) 
 There was one notable exception in the bishop who betrayed Margus to 
 the Huns (Bury, i. 164). 
 
 ° Kemble (Saxons-in England, II. 375, 393) calls attention to similar 
 activity on the part of bishops in England. 
 " Finlay, Greece, I. 202. 
 
 * In England, on the other hand, most of the towns grew up round 
 abbeys or castles ; even in the cases, like that of York, where a cimtas was 
 the site of an English town, there is no continuous ecclesiastical history : 
 Winchester is not an exception in this respect. 
 
 " Hegel, Entstehung des deiitschen .Stadtewesens, p. 3. Rietschel, Die 
 Civitas, 33. 
 
 ' Rietschel, op. cit. p. 51. 
 
 ' In not a few French towns the space within the Roman walls re- 
 mained as a well-defined and separately administered district, known as 
 the city; this was the core, round which the later expansions were arranged 
 as faubourgs. Du Cange, Glossarium s. v. Burgus. Pirenne, in Revne 
 hislorique, LVII. 60. Flach, Les origines de I'ancienne France, II. 237, 
 
 8 The mediaeval towns, which grew up among the ruins of Roman 
 cities in England, generally occupied a somewhat different site, or show 
 
22 Western Civilisation, [BOOK iv. 
 
 It must be remembered, moreover, that successful inter- 
 vention in behalf of the safety of a city did not merely 
 benefit the space within its walls, but applied also to the 
 territory round about'; and the boundaries of the dioceses of 
 mediaeval France, like Touraine and Perigord, seem to 
 perpetuate the ancient civil divisions" and to mark out the 
 territory which shared the favourable lot of the episcopal sees 
 of Tours and Perigueux. 
 
 While the bishops thus endeavoured to protect their 
 cities from pillage, they would also help to secure favourable 
 conditions for trading within the walls. There is good 
 reason to believe that the bishops took an active part in 
 regulating commercial and industrial life in their dioceses. We 
 know that this task was formally imposed upon them in the 
 East, and it is unlikely that analogous duties were entirely 
 neglected in the West'. The bishops were concerned in the 
 audit of moneys expended in public works*, in supervising 
 the sale of necessaries^, and in controlling the excessive gains 
 of Christian merchants". It has been commonly alleged that 
 tiie bishops held the office of Defensor civitatis'' and thus 
 
 a considerable shifting of the main lines of tiafiSc. Chisholm, Journal 
 of Royal Geographical Society (1897), X. p. 512. Winchester appears to 
 be an exception. Kitchin, Winchester (Historic Towns), p. 5. 
 
 ^ Hegel, Geschichte der Stddteverfassung von Italien, II. 347. The 
 term civitas may apply to the diocese of a bishop. Rietschel, Die Civitas, 
 21, 69. Many of the Roman cities had lands from which they drew their 
 food supply. Pardessus, Lex Salica, App. viii. p. 544. 
 
 ' There is another striking contrast with England in this matter. The 
 ecclesiastical divisions of England have no obvious relationship with the 
 civil division of Roman Britain. In Merovingian France the gau followed 
 the lines of the diocese, even when there had been no Roman civitas, as at 
 Chilons and Macon. Rietschel, Die Civitas, 26. 
 
 ' Compare the trading facilities which were brought into play by 
 Bishop Patiens of Lyons in feeding the population of Auvergne in a.d. 474. 
 Hodgkin, 11. 488. 
 
 * Codex Justin. I. 4, 26, sec. 2. 
 
 » Digest, L. 4, 18, 7. « Codex Justin. I. 4. i. 
 
 ' Houdoy, Droit Municipal (1876), 650. 
 
CHAP. I.] The Foundations of Society. 23 
 
 occupied one of the principal civic positions in the town and 
 were responsible for keeping the city records (gestd); and 
 though there is no evidence that any diocesan ever filled 
 this post", it is highly probable that he exercised dominant 
 influence over every side of life in these struggling towns'*- It 
 is quite unlikely that the towns in France preserved an un- 
 broken tradition in the system of civil government', but there 
 is on the other hand a high probability that many of them con- 
 tinued to be populous places through the period of barbarian 
 conquest, and that the economic life of some has been steadily 
 maintained. In so far as any elements of the old adminis- 
 tration survived the Prankish invasion, their preservation 
 appears to have been due in no small degree to the personal 
 character and effective intervention of the bishops*. 
 
 79. To assess the precise results of Chri^ian Faith as 
 it inspired the action of particular men in re- 
 sisting heathen barbarians is not easy, but there influence on 
 is still greater difficulty in estimating the in- larbarfrnl- 
 fluence religion exerted as a restraining principle Theodonc the 
 in modifying the conduct of Christianised bar- 
 barians. We may certainly feel that Theodoric the Great 
 deliberately desired to preserve the Roman institutions and 
 administration. Living as a Christian within the limits of the 
 Empire, he had the keenest admiration for its great traditions, 
 
 ^ Chenon, Atude historique stir le Defensor Civitatis in Nouvelle Revue 
 histoi-ique de Droit, xin. (1889), p. 555. 
 
 " Fustel de Coulanges, Institutions poHtiques, Vinvasion germanique 
 (1891), 70. Hegel, Stddte und Gilden (1895), p. 14. 
 
 ' The influence of Christianity had done niuch to undermine the system 
 of government by the curiales [Fustel de Coulanges, Institutions politiqites, 
 Vinvasion germanique (1891), 35]; and Hegel's careful investigation shows 
 that, in Italy at all events, the municipal constitutions were completely 
 transformed between imperial and mediaeval times (Stadteverfassung von 
 Ilalien, I. 199) ; see also Flach, op. cit. 11. 236. 
 
 * In so far as the evidence of contemporary panegyric is of value, it is 
 interesting to compare Fortunatus, Opera Poetica in Mon. Germ. Hist. 
 Aitctorum Antiquissimorum, IV. part i. 
 
24 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 and he tried to use the swords of his Ostrogoths to preserve 
 it from external and internal decay. The magnificent monu- 
 ments which remain at Ravenna testify to the greatness of his 
 nation while it lasted, and give it a wonderful interest; but 
 the Gothic kingdoms disappeared so suddenly and so com- 
 pletely, that it may seem doubtful whether they played any 
 part at all in the course of Western civilisation. Neverthe- 
 less, though we cannot specify any one element for which 
 we are indebted to Theodoric, there are two grounds on which 
 it is well worth while to pay some attention to his kingdom, 
 as at least a transitional form. By establishing good govern- 
 ment in Italy, he gave an opportunity for the tradition of 
 Roman administration to linger on', so as possibly to facilitate 
 the revival of similar institutions among the Franks and else- 
 where. There is, however, a better reason for dwelling on 
 this reign; in the letters of Cassiodorus, his secretary, we have 
 a most valuable collection of state papers, which put on record 
 
 1 The security which was then enforced afforded an opportunity for 
 the survival in Italy of many imperial and civic institutions of which all 
 traces might otherwise have disappeared. The letters of Cassiodorus are 
 full of reference to the fiscal system (Cassiodorus, Variae, XI. 7), and show 
 that the survey of lands (lb. III. 52) and collection of a census was in 
 regular operation. The postal service was also maintained (lb. I. 29), and 
 there were commercial facilities which rendered it possible to supply Rome 
 with food drawn from distant districts (lb. I. 35). Within the cities too, 
 attention was given to the repair and maintenance of the aqueducts (lb. 
 III. 31, v. 38), fortifications and other public works (lb. I. 25, III. 29, 30, 
 44, 48, 49); while there is evidence that the organisation of labourers in 
 collegia survived in some of the cities of Italy till a much later date. 
 There appears to be documentary evidence of the existence of associa- 
 tions of fishermen, and of merchants in Ravenna in A.D. 943 and 953 
 (Fantuzzi, Monumenta Ravennifia, t. IV. 174, and t. 1. pp. 133 and 227, 
 as quoted by Levasseur, Histoire dcs Classes ouvrieres, I. 124). Hegel, 
 who argues that there was an entire breach in civic government, admits 
 the probability of continuity among (he trading societies of parts of Italy 
 (Stdiitevetfassung, 1. 196) as e.g. at Rome (ll. i. 255, 11. 298) ; but see 
 also Rodocanachi (Corporations ouvriires d Rome, preface, viii.), who 
 regards the survival as doubtful. 
 
CHAP. I.] The Foundations of Society. 2$ 
 
 the maxims of state craft which characterised his beneficent 
 rule. These may well have produced more than a contempo- 
 rary effect; Cassiodorus by his example and influence gave a 
 new direction to the monastic life, and laid the seeds of the 
 devotion to learning for which so many Benedictines have 
 been conspicuous. It is not improbable that his political 
 ideals helped to shape the principles which the monks of the 
 West brought to bear on the distant kingdoms in which they 
 settled; at least it is remarkable that we find in the cor- 
 respondence of Cassiodorus clear anticipations of the politico- 
 economic principles that prevailed throughout the Middle Ages. 
 These far-reaching effects are somewhat problematical; but 
 the influence of Christianity on the work of Theodoric is 
 perfectly clear. We can see on the one hand that the political 
 aims he cherished were completely consonant with Christian 
 teaching, and that his Christian education had rendered it 
 possible for him to adopt them : on the other hand, if we 
 compare his administration with that of the Imperial system, 
 we may notice differences of detail which Christian influence 
 would tend to produce. 
 
 In the earlier letters of Cassiodorus we may find the 
 ideals of Theodoric as expressed by his secretary. The funda- 
 mental aim of his whole system was the maintenance of law 
 and order (civilitai). This ideal is depicted in philosophical 
 rather than religious terms, as something that appealed to 
 right reason' and to the welfare of the subjects; but for 
 practical purposes it was the same social condition as the 
 bishops of Gaul were trying to secure in their struggle with 
 the heathen Franks. In the kingdom of Italy a serious effort 
 was made to give the blessings of good government to two 
 separate races, each with its distinct history and proper pride, 
 each with its own ecclesiastical system and habitual senti- 
 ments. That such a problem could be steadily faced and 
 that there should be considerable success in dealing with it 
 
 * Cassiodorus, Variae, IV. 33. 
 
26 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 for a time, is the highest proof of the statesmanship of 
 Theodoric and his ministers; even though their measures 
 failed to provide a permanent solution of the difficulties of 
 the situation. 
 
 Theodoric's birth and up-bringing fitted him for making 
 this attempt ; he was too proud of his race and royal descent 
 to stoop willingly to take a subordinate position, however 
 high, in the Empire ; but he had been so deeply impressed 
 by its magnificence, during the ten years of his boyhood at 
 Constantinople, that he did not wish to overthrow it; he 
 respected and retained the Roman law and administration. 
 Like Ataulfus he appears to have consciously aimed at pre- 
 serving the ancient commonwealth with its laws, and restoring 
 the Roman power by the force of Gothic arms, but not 
 in any sense at subverting or even Gothicising imperial and 
 municipal institutions'. To make such an attempt could never 
 have occurred to a heathen conqueror''; and but for the con- 
 version of the Goths, it could not have had even a temporary 
 success. After all, the conquerors and conquered alike pro- 
 fessed Christianity, and though they diflfered theologically", they 
 had a common standard of political right and wrong. This 
 state of affairs rendered it possible for Theodoric to found a 
 kingdom in which Gothic warriors and Roman subjects lived 
 side by side, each preserving their own customs and living by 
 their own laws. The establishment of law and order was a 
 fundamental need for the prosperity of both races*. 
 
 ^ Orosius, vii. 43. Hodgkin, Italy, 1. 822, iii. ■249. 
 '^ Dr Hodgkin remarks that much of Theodoric's scheme must have 
 jarred on Gothic sentiment. Italy, in. 245. 
 
 • The theological difference was not insignificant even economically, 
 so far as future developments were concerned. Arianism tended to be a 
 mere Theism, and could offer no effective resistance to Mohammedanism. 
 On the contrast between Christianity and Mohammedanism in their bearing 
 on economic life, see below, p. 118. 
 
 * To preserve peace appeared, under existing circumstances in Italy, 
 even a higher duty for the civil ruler than that of maintaining true rehgion ; 
 in the kingdom of Theodoric, for a time, the Catholic and the Aryan lived 
 
CHAP. I.] The Foundations of Society. 27 
 
 With the view of maintaining these favourable conditions 
 Theodoric's first care was for the protection of property. He 
 could not make himself responsible for the righting of wrongs 
 that had been perpetrated before he obtained control in Italy 
 at the battle of Isonzo, but he did his best to secure those 
 who came under his rule at that date in the enjoyment of 
 their possessions'. He was careful also to respect vested 
 interests, even when the right in question was an abuses- 
 certain persons had been tapping the Roman aqueducts and 
 diverting the water of the city to work mills or to water 
 gardens. Theodoric insisted oh behalf of the public that these 
 practices should cease, but at the same time enjoined that 
 compensation should be given to those who could plead thirty 
 years' prescription"- 
 
 If we contrast the institutions and administration of this 
 well-ordered realm with those of the Roman Empire, we find 
 considerable differences, which may be fairly ascribed to 
 Christian influence. 
 
 The ruthless manner in which taxation was exacted had 
 been a matter of frequent complaint in the ancient Empire^, 
 and there seems to have been little improvement in this 
 respect in the ordinary practice of the imperial administra- 
 tion in the sixth century*. But the frequency of the letters 
 
 side by side, enjoying what might be called concurrent establishment. As 
 we find it discussed in the letters of Cassiodorus, this toleration rested on the 
 sound reason of the power of truth to hold its own, and on the impossibility 
 of compelling belief. As Dr Hodgkin writes, "This tolerant temper of mind 
 is the more to be commended because it did not proceed from any indif- 
 ference on his part to the subjects of religious controversy." The letters 
 of Cassiodorus, p. 22. This attitude of mind is most obvious in the letters 
 granting privileges to the Jews, and at the same time protesting against 
 their rejection of the Christian faith. Variae, Ii. 27, v. 37. 
 
 * Hodgkin, Italy, III. 191. 
 
 ' Cassiodorus, Variae, ill. 31. * Vol. I. 184. 
 
 * The success of the imperial arms in Africa appears to have been 
 followed by increased rapacity in the collection of the taxes. Hodgkin, 
 n. 264. 
 
28 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 remitting taxation, on the ground of the poverty of the tax- 
 payers, is a very noticeable feature in the correspondence of 
 Cassiodorus. Such a remission was made to the inhabitants of 
 Apulia", to the citizens of Aries', and later to the people of 
 Venetia', in consequence of the damage sustained through 
 hostile invasions; and in Liguria on account of imminent 
 famine*. The principle was laid down that the willingness 
 of the people should be to some extent a limit to the de- 
 mands of the prince °; and the rates were revised from time 
 to time and lowered when they pressed too heavily'. It was 
 clearly the intention of the government to adjust the taxation 
 so that the cultivator should be able to live and thrive, and 
 should not be forced to deprive himself of the means of pur- 
 suing his calling'- This is a sound principle of finance, but 
 the imperial advisers were slow to recognise it as such; and 
 it was a benevolent practice that was at any rate consonant 
 with the dictates of Christian charity. 
 
 There appears also to have been a good deal of difference, 
 in the manner in which another important civic duty was 
 performed. In the time of Diocletian an attempt had been 
 made to limit the opportunities and gains of middlemen by 
 fixing a maximum price for corn and other articles of ordinary 
 consumption, but this edict expressly disclaims any desire to 
 fix the precise rates at which commodities might be sold, so 
 long as the price did not exceed the maximum laid down 
 by law. But from the instructions given to the defensores, as 
 well as from incidental references, we gather that Cassiodorus 
 had a different conception of a magistrate's duty in this matter. 
 The phrases which he uses seem to involve the Christian 
 
 ' Variae, I. i6. 2 Ih. iii. 39. 
 
 " lb. XII. 7. i lb. XII. 28. 
 
 " Ih. III. 40, XI. 7. In practice (he complaints of Inability to pay were 
 of course scrutinised. lb. VII. 45. 
 
 8 /*. IX. 10. 
 
 ' Compare the exemptions in the English assessment of the 15th in 
 A.D. 1225. Cunningham, Growth of English Industry, i. 152, 296. 
 
CHAP. I.] The Foundations of Society. 29 
 
 conception of price as expounded some centuries later. The 
 curator was enjoined to fix "moderate rates' " and not to allow 
 the seller to get the best of the bargain, and the defensor 
 was called on to fix the prices for the citizens "according to 
 the goodness or badness of the seasons'"." There was also, in 
 a time of scarcity, a special effort to prevent forestalling and 
 regrating^j the whole of the phraseology suggests mediaeval 
 analogies and presents points of contrast with the practice 
 of the ancient world. It seems not unlikely, however, that 
 Cassiodorus only gave expression to the principles which 
 had more or less consciously influenced the bishops in super- 
 vising bargains about bread and other articles of common 
 consumption*. 
 
 Such links with things ancient and such affinities with 
 the mediaeval world give a special interest to the story of the 
 Gothic kingdom; it was a judicious compromise, but it had 
 the inherent weakness of all compromises. There was no 
 fusion between the two races on Italian soil ; the Goths could 
 not be adapted to the imperial system, and they did not 
 become the patrons and protectors of Latin Christianity. 
 
 80. Though Theodoric did so much to introduce law 
 and order within his realm, he had little success ^he conver- 
 in establishing peaceful relations with neigh- sionofthe 
 
 "*!,,. ^ ? Franks and 
 
 bourmg states. Chronic warfare was a crymg therecog- 
 evil in the sixth century, and he sought to limit coJj,mo°n ecde- 
 it by creating a system of alliances between the siasticai 
 ruling families. His wife was the daughter of the west^*/ '" 
 king of the Salian Franks. His sister was married Europe, 
 to the Vandal king, and his daughters to Burgundian and 
 
 ' Cassiodorus, Variae, vil. n. 
 " lb. vil. II. 
 
 * lb. IX. 5. There had also been legislation under Zeno against 
 monopoly prices for wares and combination by artisans. Codex Justin. 
 IV. tit. 59, c. I, sections i, 2, 3. 
 
 * Corpus Juris Civilis, Digest L. tit. 4, sec. iS. 7. 
 
30 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 Visigothic monarchs'. But the family ties thus formed were 
 not effective in securing European peace. Nor was there any 
 real hope, even in the days of Belisarius and Narses, that the 
 Emperor would recover his ancient sway and wield authority 
 over the Western world. The attempt to restore imperial 
 power served to increase the miseries of Italy, and the tem- 
 porary success of Justinian only made the burdens of life 
 heavier than before. The pax Romana could not be re- 
 established in the provinces of the Empire ; but the gradual 
 recognition of ecclesiastical authority, as wielded all over the 
 West, and as centralised and strengthened by the influence 
 of the Bishop of Rome, helped to supply the defects of civil 
 rule. The Catholic bishops, with their political and social 
 influence in their dioceses, did much to secure iiiternal peace ; 
 they were drawn into a practical federation by their common 
 hostility to the Arian monarchs of the Goths, Burgundians, 
 and Vandals; and this widely extended power was supported 
 and consolidated by the action of the Roman See. When 
 the baptism of Clovis and the conversion of the Franks 
 changed the balance of theological opinion in the West, the 
 triumph of Catholic doctrine gave a decided impetus to the 
 growing power of the leading bishop in the Latin church. 
 From that time onward the eventual recognition of one 
 common ecclesiastic authority"'' in Western Christendom was 
 ensured. Civil government, when acting independently, had 
 failed to restore law and order; there was better hope that 
 they would be successfully fostered when spiritual power was 
 also brought to bear. 
 
 It was of the first importance that the new authority was 
 
 1 Hodgkin, Italy, in. 321. 
 
 2 We are not concerned either with subsequent efforts to justify this 
 ^laim in the Forged Decretals, or with the question whether ecclesiastically 
 
 the papacy was a. legitimate development of the Christian hierarchy, 
 but only with the fact that the authority was recognised, and that the 
 recognition of common authority of any sort made for law and order in 
 Christendom. 
 
CHAP. I.J The Foundations of Society. 3 1 
 
 spiritual, and demanded obedience not as a natural right but 
 as due to God. It sought to assert an absolutely just WilF as 
 binding upon all men, and thus endeavoured to resftain the 
 self-will of Emperors and potentates, and the arbitrary govern- 
 ment which they might choose to exercise. The claim was 
 formulated most plainly in the conflict about Investitures, but 
 there had been practical assertions of it long before. When 
 S. Ambrose insisted that Theodosius should make public 
 acknowledgment of guilt in connection with the massacre at 
 Thessalonica, he was maintaining the principle that an earthly 
 ruler was responsible to God for his actions, and that in deal- 
 ing with him^ God's ministers were bound to have no respect 
 of persons ; Agapetus showed himself equally firm in refusing 
 to comply with the commands of Justinian'. The clergy of 
 the East were not so successful in taking their stand on this 
 principle, and partly on this account they have played a less 
 important part in the history of Europe. As the spiritual head 
 of Christendom, the Bishop of Rome claimed to exercise a 
 universal supremacy in God's name ; and obedience could be 
 rendered to such an authority without any sense of servility 
 or personal degradation. 
 
 81. The power of the head of Latin Christianity 
 gradually increased, and it accomplished the The fusion of 
 work of unification which Theodoric had at- the Franks 
 tempted by means of family alliances, and in Romans. 
 
 1 Cassiodoras had viewed the matter from a philosophical standpoint 
 and advocated obedience on grounds of Right Reason. From a religious 
 point of view, the duty of obedience depends on the conception of a per- 
 fectly good Will. Christianity lays the foundation of all civil liberty by 
 insisting that it is only as a man speaks for God, or holds office in God's 
 name that he has any right to demand obedience. To barter a portion 
 of personal liberty for the sake of retaining property is a mean method 
 of establishing law and order; but this was the best basis which Locke 
 could suggest as the foundation of civil government. Civil Government, 
 
 § 123- 
 
 " In A.D. 390. See Hodgkin, Italy, 1. 533. '; 
 • In A.D. 530. Hodgkin, Italy, iv. gi. 
 
32 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 which he had failed. Ecclesiastical authority had served the 
 double purpose of preserving elements of Roman life and of 
 moralising the barbarian, and thus it helped to bring about the 
 fusion of the Prankish rulers with the Gallo-Roman subjects' — 
 a result at which the Ostrogoth had not even aimed. We can 
 trace in the barbarian codes how the modification of ancient 
 custom tended to remove the principal barrier between the 
 two races which were living on the same soil and accepted 
 the same faith. In the Salic Law — the earliest Latin code 
 of Frankish custom — the racial distinctions are preserved, and 
 a severer penalty is imposed for the murder of a barbarian 
 than for that of a Roman'; but still, this code, by the mere 
 fact of definition, made the way easier for gradually bringing 
 both races under one legal system'. 
 
 A more striking proof of the amalgamation of the two races 
 is seen in the common action of the leaders of the two parties 
 in political affairs. So early as the seventh century we find the 
 Frankish aristocracy making common cause with the clergy in 
 opposition to the Crown. At the council of Paris in 614^ each 
 of these parties obtained the redress it was seeking ; the Franks 
 resisted the encroachmehts of the Crown, and the clergy 
 secured the right of free election to bishoprics, as well as 
 other important privileges. The whole incident shows that 
 the clergy and the Frankish aristocracy were coming to a 
 closer understanding. 
 
 The Franks were able, too, to utilise some parts of the 
 
 ^ The Franks were willing to accept some of the civilisation of their 
 subjects, along with their religion. But the Greeks in the Eastern Empire 
 were less able to meet the barbarians half-way. There was less oppor- 
 tunity for the fusion of the new and old in the East, and this seems to 
 have been one reason for the stagnation of Eastern Christendom. 
 
 " Lex Salica, XLI. i, 6, XLil. 4. Pardessus, p. 23. 
 
 * Fusion had already begun, since the term ingenuus appears to include 
 Romans as well as Franks (Pardessus, Lex Salica, p. 540). The longer 
 preface shows that the code was compiled under Christian influence. 
 Pardessus, p. 344. 
 
 * Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire GiniraU, I. 154. 
 
CHAP. I,] The Foundations of Society. 33. 
 
 Roman system which survived, and these remains were not so 
 scanty as is sometimes supposed. There is indeed no reason to 
 believe that the administrative organisation remained unaltered ; 
 or that under the Merovingians the same officers, with the 
 same authority, went on discharging the same duties as their 
 predecessors had performed in Imperial times. We can never 
 assume from the use of similar names at two different periods 
 that there has been no change in the things designated'; when 
 these early times are viewed from a constitutional standpoint, 
 we may certainly doubt whether there was continuity in any 
 part of the governmental machinery. But for all that, there 
 seems to have been an unbroken economic life, not only in 
 many of the cities, but in large areas; the Prankish kings 
 endeavoured to collect taxation in much the same way as the 
 Romans had done, and maintained the old fiscal system ; they 
 inherited something more than a mere tradition and endeavoured 
 to work it to their own advantage. 
 
 It is clear, for one thing, that the official valuation of 
 estates was not allowed to fall into abeyance, and that the 
 land tax continued to be levied as it had been under the 
 Empire". Augustus" had instituted a cadastral survey of the 
 Roman Empire; and the census, renewed each fifteen years 
 at the indiction, was maintained in the East, though not, as 
 it would appear, in the Frankish realms. Much of the revenue 
 of the Frankish kings was drawn from the same sources* as of 
 old, and the fiscal obligation of Roman landholders remained 
 as a heritage from the Imperial system. 
 
 Again, this revenue system rendered it necessary to main- 
 tain or to organise a system of registration of title. Trans- 
 ferences of land from Romans to barbarians might often take 
 
 ^ Dareste de Chavanne, Histoire des daises dgricoles, 136. 
 
 ^ Dahn, Zum merowingischen Finanzrecht in Germ. Abhand. zum 
 LXX. Geburtstag K. von Maurers, 1893, p. 356. Fardessus, Lex SaKea, 
 vill"" App. pp. 559— S<5«' 
 
 3 Vol. I. p. 174- 
 
 * Fustel de Coulanges, Institutions; La monarchic franque {1888), 266. 
 
 c. w. c. II. 3 
 
34 Western Civilisation. [book IV. 
 
 place', and such transactions gave rise to the disputed question 
 whether the new proprietor should pay the old tax or whether 
 his new possession should become as free as the alleu he 
 enjoyed as a Frank. There was in consequence a systematic 
 registration^ of such instruments as deeds of gift or deeds for 
 the re-establishment of lost titles. A country is not wholly 
 •given over to barbarism where such a practice survives. 
 
 Nor was commercial intercourse entirely at an end'; the 
 customs continued to afford a revenue, and dues similar in 
 kind to those levied by the Romans* were exacted on water- 
 ways and in harbours, and as tolls on bridges. That commerce 
 had suffered greatly we may believe, but it seems unlikely that it 
 ever became wholly extinct, or that it had to start afresh from 
 such trivial beginnings as are indicated' in the early English 
 laws. Under these circumstances there is no improbability in 
 the survival of mercantile associations which are said to have 
 had a continuous existence since Roman times. The instances 
 are very few; but there is an inherent probability in the 
 allegation that the society of Nautae Parisiani, which existed 
 in the time of Tiberius, continued their organised trading on 
 the Seine through the early middle ages". 
 
 When we contrast the cases of England and France, we 
 may feel how much of the heritage of Roman life re- 
 mained in the continental country. In England the work of 
 civilisatipn consisted in modifying barbarian custom under 
 Christian influence and in fostering a rudimentary adminis- 
 tration, by the conscious imitation of foreign models. There 
 was no need for the fusion of two elements, for there was 
 ' For one case see Rocafort, Paulin de Pella, p. 83. 
 
 * Chfaon: op. cit. in Nouvelle Revue Historique de Droit (1889), xill. 52^. 
 3 The relays for the postal service were maintained in the sixth century. 
 
 Pigeonneau, Histoire du commerce de la France, I. 59. 
 
 * For many examples compare Pigeonneau, op. cit. I. 63 n. ; Fustel de 
 Coulanges, op. cit. 247. 
 
 ° Cunningham, Growth of English Industry, i. 128. 
 
 * Fagniez, Etudes sur {Industrie, 4. The Paris butchers also claim a 
 continuous history. ' 
 
CHAP. I.] The Foundations of Society, 35 
 
 only one social stock to be considered. But the Gallo-Roman 
 population survived in Gaul, and their customs and usages were 
 retained and made to fit in with the system of their Frankish 
 conquerors. 
 
 82. In the four preceding sections an attempt has been 
 made to show how Christian teaching and eccle- 
 
 . . , The economic 
 
 siastical authority were brought to bear m favour influence of 
 of securing law and order throughout Western ™gricuitur"~ 
 Europe, and thereby helped to provide the industry, 
 conditions essential for material progress. When 
 we turn to another side of religious life, and consider the 
 results of the founding of monasteries, we find influences at 
 work that were plainly economic. These communities can 
 be best understood when we think of them as Christian in- 
 dustrial colonies, and remember that they moulded society 
 by example rather than by precept. 
 
 We are so familiar with the attacks and satires on monastic 
 life that were current at the Reformation period, that it may 
 seem almost a paradox to say that the chief claim of the 
 monks to our gratitude lies in this, that they helped to diffuse a 
 better appreciation of the duty and dignity of labour. By the 
 ' religious,' manual labour was accepted as a discipline which 
 helped them to walk in the way of eternal salvation ; it was not 
 undertaken for the sake of reward, since the proceeds were to 
 go to the use of the community or the service of the poor; 
 it was not viewed as drudgery that had to be gone through 
 from dread of punishment. There was neither greed of gain, 
 nor the reluctant service of the slave, but simply a sense 
 of a duty to be done diligently unto the Lord. It may be 
 said that this side of the monastic life was specially accentuated 
 as early as the fifth century, because of excesses and irregu- 
 larities that had even then brought scandal on the religious 
 profession'. S. Augustine insisted on the duty of honest 
 labour ; and this element of disciplined life found a prominent 
 
 ' S. Augustine, Dc op. ntonach. c. 36. 
 
 3--a 
 
36 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 place in the rule which S. Benedict drew up for the guidance 
 of his monks'. The practice which crept in later, of regarding 
 writing or illuminating as manual industry, tended to the 
 preservation of ancient learning, but it introduced a disastrous 
 division of employment within the community; and the 
 example set by monastic institutions, as Christian colonies, 
 became much less telling after the tenth century ^ Till that 
 time it may be said that they were living testimonies to the 
 duty of labour, and set forth the true character and dignity 
 of honest work'. 
 
 The wickedness of the Merovingian rulers was so gross 
 and palpable, that we can scarcely help feeling that their 
 nominal Christianity was an added offence. Nevertheless, 
 the fact that they made a profession of Christianity had real 
 importance. There was at least this difference between the 
 Prankish monarchs and their Saxon or Danish neighbours, that 
 the former encouraged the planting of these Christian colonies*, 
 while the latter continued to destroy them. Whenever and 
 from whatever motive a Benedictine monastery was founded 
 in France, a little territory was reclaimed, and a new centre 
 of civilisation was established. Much good work was accom- 
 plished by the monks in the keeping a love of learning ° 
 alive through the dark ages ; and it is easy to show that their 
 manual activity had great influence as an element in material 
 progress, and that they did not a Uttle to disseminate the 
 industrial arts, to improve agriculture, and to develop more 
 regular commercial intercourse. 
 
 ' Reg. S. Benedict, cap. XLvm. De opere manmim quotidiano. 
 " Lfvasseur, HUtoiredes classes ouvriires en France, I. 144. 
 
 * CuDDingham, Modern Civilisation, 101. This conviction about labour, 
 together with the inculcation of respect for life and property, are the 
 fundamental principles in Christian economic teaching. 
 
 * By endowments of laud, and by immunities which gave freedom from 
 toll, rights to the profits of jurisdiction and rights to take toll. Berthelot 
 in Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire gSnirale, I. 339. 
 
 » S. R. Maitland, Dark Ages, 172. 
 
CHAP. I.} The Foundations of Society. 37 
 
 • 
 
 Considerable tracts of Gaul had reverted to mere forest' 
 under the combined pressure of Roman misgovernment and 
 barbarian invasion ; there was hard work to be done in re- 
 claiming land for tillage, and frequent danger from the 
 brigands and even the wild animals that had come to haunt 
 the secluded neighbourhoods where monasteries were planted. 
 Each of the Benedictine houses was primarily a model farm, 
 preserving the external aspects of a Roman villa", and prose- 
 cuting agriculture according to the recognised methods. It 
 may be impossible to distinguish the improvements in cereals 
 or breeds which were due to the monks, from those that were 
 introduced by the Romans into Gaul and Britain, but at 
 least we may say that the religious colonists maintained the 
 practice of tillage in places where it was in danger of being 
 forgotten altogether. 
 
 The monastery perpetuated the traditions of the Roman 
 villa, not merely in regard to the cultivation of the soil, but 
 in its industrial activity as well'. It was essential for the 
 prosperity of these establishments that they should be, so 
 far as possible, self-sufiScing, and that the monks should be 
 able to provide necessary clothing and to repair the imple- 
 ments of husbandry without relying on outside help. The 
 abbot was therefore bound to organise the available labour 
 so as to obtain the best results for the community ; he might 
 set an artisan to work at his own trade; but the conception 
 of personal reward was rigidly excluded, and the skilled la- 
 bourer was discouraged from taking a pride in his work''; all 
 was to be done as part of the service of God and for the 
 
 ^ Montalembert, Monks of the West, II. p. 316. 
 
 ^ Paillard de St Aignan, Changevients de V&tat social en Belgiqttt in 
 Memoires de tAcadimie roycUe de Bruxelles (1844), xvi. p. 68. For a 
 description of the Roman Villa see Meitzen, Siedelung und Agrarwesen, 
 
 I- 35^- 
 
 ' Levasseur, I. 136, to which I am indebted for many of the subjoined 
 references. 
 
 * Reg. S, Benedict, cap. LVll. 
 
38 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 advantage of the community, in strict subordination to the 
 directions of the abbot'. The Celtic tradition, as we find it 
 in S. Columbanus, is equally strict in enjoining the duty of 
 assiduous manual labour ^ and the founders of the reformed 
 orders — the Cistercians and Carthusians — reverted strenuously 
 to this ideal, from which the Benedictines had fallen away'- 
 
 The most striking picture of this side of monastic life is to 
 be found in the description of the monastery at Solignac, which 
 was founded in a.d. 631 by S. Eligius, the celebrated gold- 
 smith, with the aid of his royal master, Dagobert. It contained 
 at one time as many as five hundred brethren ; it was so well 
 organised that the Archbishop of Rouen held it up as a model 
 for all other establishments. Among the residents were great 
 numbers of artisans who were skilled in different trades, and 
 trained as Christians to render prompt obedience*. When 
 we remember how easily the secret of a manual art may be 
 lost, we cannot but feel how much the industry of mediaeval 
 Europe owed to the scattered centres where an unbroken 
 tradition of skilled labour was maintained, in the seclusion 
 of the monastery and under vows of obedience^ 
 
 In so far as the monasteries developed special industrial 
 activity, they would have surplus commodities which it was 
 advantageous to sell; in some cases they might require to 
 
 ^ J. Cassianus, De coenobiorum instiiutis, IV. cap. xil. 
 
 2 See authorities in Levasseur, i. 138. 
 
 ' As the Benedictine monks confined themselves to artistic or literary 
 labour, they were dependent on outside help for the necessaries- of life, 
 and their houses came to be the nuclei round which towns grew up. 
 Levasseur, i. 141. 
 
 '^ Vita S. Eligii, c. XVI. 
 
 ' See below, Appendix. Household arts would also be perpetuated 
 by the nuns, who devoted themselves to ordinary domestic duties in the 
 kitchen and laundry, and also to the textile arts, including spinning and 
 dyeing, and to such fine arts as embroidery. Levasseur, i. 139. Eckenstein, 
 Woman under Monasticism, p. 222 and fol. There would be much 
 economic convenience in the double monasteries like that of Hilda at 
 Whitby or the houses of Gilbert of Semprinjiham. 
 
CHAP. I.] The Foundations of Society. 39 
 
 purchase materials for their industry ; at any rate it was only 
 natural that they should develop a commercial side, and thus 
 be brought as communities into constant economic relation 
 with the outside world. This important business was assigned 
 to an official specially selected for the purpose — the nego- 
 ciator ecclesiae^; and the principles of fair dealing, by which 
 he should be guided, were carefully laid down. The "immu- 
 nities" granted to abbeys by the Merovingian kings enabled the 
 inmates to purchase the goods they required and to transmit 
 them free of toll ; the religious houses gradually increased their 
 commercial connections, and not only bought for themselves 
 but traded on a considerable scale. The wine of Burgundy was 
 transported in large quantities down the Seine by the negotiators 
 of S. Wandrille, Jumieges and Fecamp; and Rouen^ served as 
 a port from which it could be shipped across the sea. Our best 
 evidence of the early development of the clothing trades in 
 Flanders comes from the fact that in the eighth century the 
 agents of the monks of S. Wandrille went thither to purchase 
 woollen stuffs ; while the merchants of Priim are mentioned as 
 travelling to Aix, Cologne, Coblenz and other towns along the 
 Rhine'. After the establishment of the Carolingian Empire 
 there was an extension of this monastic trading, and Louis the 
 Debonnaire granted to the monks of Tours freedom from toll 
 in Provence and Italy, and throughout his dominions*. 
 
 The existence of this large trade gave the monasteries a 
 commercial as well as a religious interest in the improve- 
 ment of internal communications. The repair of bridges and 
 maintenance of roads was, it is true, an Obligation on land- 
 
 ^ Negociator ergo -Ecclesiae talis sit, ut nunquam, vel raro decipi 
 valeat et studiose neminem ipse decipiat : qui nee, tit charius vendat, nee 
 ut vilius emat, ore suo fallaciam proferat, vel juramentum ab his exigat aut 
 ipse exhibeat. Reg. B. Petri de Honestis, iii. c. xxix. 
 
 ^ De Freville, Commerce m.arithne de Rouen, p. 50. 
 
 ' Imbart de la Tour, Des immunites coinmerciales in Etudes du Moyen 
 Age, d^diees k G. Monod, p. 74, 
 
 * Levasseur, i. 141. 
 
40 Western Civilisation. [book IV. 
 
 owners generally', but it was also regarded as a pious labour, 
 and is treated as such in the beautiful legend^ of S. Chris- 
 topher. This useful work was undertaken by many of the 
 abbeys, and in the twelfth century some religious houses were 
 specially founded to perform the duty'. We can also trace 
 the beginnings of a regular system of transport. The great 
 abbeys on the Loire and the Seine had large numbers of 
 vessels for carrying on their trade ; , and the peasants on their 
 estates were required either to provide oxen and carriages for 
 land transport or to pay a commutation which enabled the 
 monks to organise an independent service*. The foundations 
 of this traffic were laid before the time of Charles the Great : 
 but under his protecting care it was greatly expanded, so that 
 religious houses became the chief centres of mercantile activity. 
 When we realise the extent to which this commercial side of 
 monastic life was developed, we can the better understand why 
 Danish raids were so frequently directed against these es- 
 tablishments*. Perhaps they paid an even heavier penalty for 
 their commercial success ; for devout men seem to have felt,- 
 as early as the ninth century, that there was a danger that 
 the business enterprise of the monasteries would divert the 
 brethren from sacred occupations ^ 
 
 83. The effective rule throughout the West, which was 
 
 The Empire revived by Charles the Great, was dependent on 
 
 of Charles, its his own personal ascendancy, and the partition of 
 
 importance, ,. . . -,, ,.,, 
 
 and its nis Jimpire was mevitable at his death ; it was 
 
 comp^edwith "°' possible to perpetuate Charles's system of 
 
 the realm of government in the separate kingdoms inherited 
 
 eodoric. ^^ j^j^ successors, and Europe was left to pass 
 
 ' Capitulare, A.D. 803; Migne, I. col. 264> >-• 18. 
 
 ' A. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art, 11. 433. 
 
 ' Levasseur, i. 143. 
 
 * Imbart de la Tour, of. cil. 75, 76. 
 
 ^ Keary, The Vikings in WeHern Christendom, l^^. 
 
 ' Levasseur, i. 143. Also Capit. Migne, I. ool. it,";, c. if. 
 
Menctian ot Ort-enwich 
 
 Dominion & Conquests of Charles the Great. 
 
 CAMB. UNIV. PRESS 
 
 To face p, 40 
 
CHAP. I.] The Foundations of Society. 41 
 
 through centuries of disorder and degradation. But though 
 his rule was so short-lived, Charles has left a very deep mark 
 on all subsequent history : he made a magnificent effort to 
 organise society through the influence of one civil but conse- 
 crated authority; and he so far succeeded that his reign is 
 a turning point in the history of Western Europe. When we 
 compare the centuries before his time with the succeeding age 
 we see that in his reign the various elements which had been 
 contributed by Romans and barbarians were at last _amalga- 
 mated under Christian influence into one great polity. The 
 government which he created, though so personal to himself, 
 was not a mere transitional form, like the kingdom of 
 Theodoric; the Capitularies continued to have direct effects 
 on the subsequent history of France and Germany; while 
 Charles was taken as a model, consciously or unconsciously, 
 by kings in Scandinavia' and England". All the vague 
 reverence for the name of the Roman Empire which survived 
 in the West attached itself to his personality. From his time 
 onwards it is to the Empire as revived by Charles that men 
 looked for the type of what a well-ordered polity should be ; 
 and the administrative tradition' of classical antiquity only 
 exercised a living influence, in so far as it had been per- 
 petuated in the institutions which he established*. 
 
 It is also true that the epoch of Charles is the beginning 
 of the modern world, because the political problems with 
 which we are still struggling are very similar to those which 
 
 ^ Compare the story of the baptism of S. Magnus. Laing, Heimskringla 
 of Snorro Siurleson, II. i8l. 
 
 " The activities of Alfred so closely resemble those of Charlemagne as 
 to suggest conscious imitation. 
 
 ' The reintroduction from Constantinople of commercial habits and 
 industrial arts as practised in ancient Rome, or the rediscovery of any of 
 them from literary references, is not in question here, but only the tradi- 
 tional survival. 
 
 * Court etiquette he seems to have consciously copied from Byzantium. 
 Gibbon, Decline and Fall, c. 58. 
 
42 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 he tried to solve. We still aim, as he did, at bringing Christian 
 influence to bear on political and economic life. We are still 
 confronted by the problems presented by racial differences, and 
 the difficulty of bringing all the subjects of a realm under one 
 system of morality and justice '. Rulers still feel the public duty 
 not merely of obtaining revenue but of developing the resources 
 of the country to the best advantage. These are the recog- 
 nised ideals of the great world-empires of the present day; 
 and when we notice that Charles was dealing with modern 
 problems, with which the ancient world hardly attempted to 
 grapple, we shall feel that there is much to be said for the 
 opinion of those who fix on the year 800 a.d. as the beginning 
 of modern history. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to call attention to the contrasts 
 between the realm of Charles and such precursors as the 
 empire of Alexander or that of Rome. The Hellenistic 
 world was so imperfectly organised that few elements of 
 common law or administration have survived; it was only 
 in city communities that the tradition of civilised life was. 
 maintained and handed down; but city life was the least 
 noticeable feature of the empire of Charles. Some of the 
 contrasts between the Roman Empire and Christendom have 
 been already pointed out'^, and it is needless to dwell on them 
 at greater length or to try to accentuate the differences in detail. 
 It is, however, particularly instructive to compare the realm of 
 Charles with that of Theodoric, and to notice that Charles, 
 owing to the fusion of races and the wide extent of his rule, 
 was able to aim at so much that had lain quite outside the field 
 of practical politics at the time when the Ostrogothic kingdom 
 
 ' There is, of course, o. parallelism with the Roman Empire here, but 
 the attempt to introduce similar morality differentiates the modern from 
 the ancient world. The abolition of Suttee in India and the objection to 
 Polygamy in the United States would hardly have occupied the attention 
 of the civil government in the ancient empire. 
 
 " See above, p. 7, fol. 
 
CHAP. I.] The Foundations of Society. 43 
 
 was founded in Italy. The most important difference for our 
 immediate purpose lies in this, that Theodoric seems to have 
 been contented if he could secure civilitas, while Charles set 
 himself consciously to promote utilitas. Charles was not 
 merely concerned to maintain law and order, though he knew 
 how necessary they were, and could champion them ruthlessly 
 in his dealings with the Saxons' : it was also his conscious 
 effort after beating back the barbarians to make the best use 
 of the peace he had secured and to develop the resources of his 
 empire for the benefit of the people under his charged He 
 endeavoured, not merely to obtain a revenue, but to foster the 
 prosperity on which sound finance must necessarily depend, 
 and set himself to reorganise the agriculture and industry of the 
 royal estates, and to promote commercial intercourse ^ The care 
 that was bestowed on the sources of wealth also distinguishes 
 the policy of Charles from that of his Frankish predecessors, 
 who were chiefly concerned in amassing the precious metals" ; 
 while there is also a wide difference between his scheme' for 
 
 ' The war against the Saxons was forced on by the difficulty of living 
 with such neighbours (Eginhardus, Vita, c. 7), and was followed by 
 systematic efforts to civilise the country (Giesebrecht, Kaiserzeit, I. 118). 
 
 ^ De communi omnium nostrorum utilitate. Capit. Duplex Aquisgra- 
 nense, A.D. 8ii, title to second part. Caroli Magni Opera Omnia. 
 Migne, I. 330. Nos considerantes utilitatem nostram at populi a Deo 
 nobis concessi. Capit. Ticinense, A.D. 8or. lb. 212. In communem 
 sanctae Dei ecclesiae et omnium nostrorum utilitatem. Ludovici et Lo- 
 tharii Capit. Aquisgran. A.D. 817. lb. 396. 
 
 ' The development of these resources was necessary for the main- 
 tenance of military equipment. With this compare Oman, Art of War 
 in Middle Ages, 78 — 83. 
 
 * Levasseur, i. 151 and notes. The contrast between the aims of the 
 Frankish kings as amassing bullion and those of Charles, is analogous to the 
 distinction between the bullionists and mercantilists in the seventeenth 
 century, or between the colonial systems of Spain and England. 
 
 ^ In the Eastern Empire very little effort was made to organise active 
 commerce, and a. good deal of attention was given to planting exotic 
 rather than to developing native industries. 
 
44 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 the material prosperity of his realm and the economic system 
 that had been in vogue in the Eastern Empire. 
 
 Some of the great difficulties with which Theodoric as an 
 Arian Goth had to contend, were due to the fact that the 
 Catholic clergy were always out of sympathy with his rule, 
 while throughout Charles's dominions the Latin Church was 
 established by his legislation. The Frankish kings had already 
 given a great deal of encouragement to religious institutions, 
 and much wealth had been devoted to the endowment of 
 monasteries; but Charles' set himself to carry through the 
 complete establishment of Christianity ; that is to say, he used 
 the civil power to support spiritual authority, partly by insistence 
 on the performance of certain Christian duties, and partly by 
 strengthening the position of the clerical administration. We 
 find in his legislation or that of his sons, canons against 
 holding markets or courts on Sundays' ; and the observance of 
 this day was imposed as a duty not only on the Franks but 
 upon the Saxons'; both peoples were also required to devote a 
 tenth of their substance to religious objects*. Attempts were 
 begun to combat the evils of beggary by providing local 
 maintenance for the poor" ; in the case of religious foundations* 
 this duty was specially insisted on, and it had a prominent 
 part in schemes of monastic reform'. An endeavour was made 
 
 ' Charles endowed new monasteries at Corbie and Fulda; the Fulda 
 charters with his signatures are still preserved at Marburg. 
 
 = Capit. A.D. 813; Migne, I. 363, c. 15 (also I. 318, c. 9). 
 
 ' Capit. A.D. 782; Migne, I. 146, c. 18. 
 
 * Capit. A.D. 782; Migne, i. 146, c. 17. The State in imposing an 
 ■ obligation to pay tithe enforced a Christian duty on the subjects, and did 
 not endow religion from royal property. Charles set an example by paying 
 a tithe on royal revenue. lb. c. 16. 
 
 " Capit. A.D. 806; Migne, i. 303, c. g. 
 
 ^ See Ludovic and Lothaire; Migne, i. 389, c. 49. 
 
 7 The Capitulare of Ludovic and Lothaire (a.d. 817; Migne, I. 383) is 
 very interesting from the manner in which it goes into details, advising that 
 the work on fast-days should be light (c. i8), and referring to the practice 
 
CHAP. I.] The Foundations of Society. 45 
 
 to bring the monasteries under better rule', and the total 
 mass of legislation on such subjects as these shows clearly 
 how much Charles felt it his duty to follow the example of 
 Josiah, and on the one hand to reform ecclesiastical abuses^, 
 and on the other to recall the kingdom committed to his 
 charge to the worship of the true God^ It had been im- 
 possible for Theodoric to attempt such a decided course; and, 
 as we find a closer connection between Church and State under 
 Charles, so too we may feel that the influence of Christian 
 teaching on civil duty is more strongly marked in the Prankish 
 Empire than in the Ostrogothic kingdom. The responsibility 
 of Christian princes to God for the manner in which they 
 exercise their powers is very explicitly stated in the Capitularies 
 of Ludovic and Lothaire*; while there is an attempt to im- 
 pose a higher standard of fair dealing in commercial trans- 
 actions" than that aimed at by Theodoric, and there are 
 signs of an increasing disposition to put limits on the traffic 
 in slaves". 
 
 of lending books from the library during Lent for private study by the 
 brethren (c. 19). 
 
 1 Capit. A.D. 802; Migne, I. 248, c. 19. 
 
 ^ There was need to guard against the malversation of ecclesiastical 
 property (Co/iV. A.D. 806; Migne, I. 303, c. 4), extravagance in building 
 and disregard of the duties of devotion (a.d. 811; Jb. I. 332, c. 11), and 
 to warn against the evils which arose in connection with the develop- 
 ment of monastic commerce. (A.D. 789 — 794; lb. i. i8s, c. 6, and 195, 
 cc. II, 14.) 
 
 3 Cafdt. A.D. 782; Migne, I. 152. 
 
 « Capit. A.D. 817; Migne, I. 393. 
 
 " The principles are laid down clearly, and an attempt is made to 
 define usurious and sordid gains (a.d. 806; Migne, I. 304, cc. i, 8); we 
 may note the condemnation of some special forms of bargain (a.d. 809 ; 
 lb. I. 318, c. 12). There is also famine legislation (a.d. 805; Jt^ I. 284, 
 c. 4), and in some cases the setting of a maximum price (a.d. 794; lb. 
 I. 193, c. 4; also A.D. 808; lb. I. 313, c. 5). 
 
 ' Pigeonnean, Histoire du commerce de la Fratue, i, 'jt). See below, 
 p. 133- 
 
46 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 84. When we turn from ecclesiastical to economic affairs 
 
 Commerce ^6 may See that Charles took a new and very 
 
 under Charles important departure ; he seems to have made 
 
 the Great. ^ '^ ■ 1 ^ ^• 
 
 some attempts to open up commercial relations 
 beyond the area of the Empire, as well as to provide improved 
 conditions for internal trade. Even though his endeavours had 
 little immediate result, they are interesting anticipations of lines 
 of progress that were subsequently pursued. 
 
 The Mediterranean had come to be practically a Mo- 
 hammedan lake; and though Charles was not very successful 
 in his attempt to drive the Moslems back beyond the Ebro 
 and free the north of Spain from their control, he was able 
 to obtain some important concessions for Marseilles and 
 Narbonne', which began to be staples for trade with the 
 Levant. His friendly relations with Haroun-al-Raschid^ not 
 only enabled Charles to establish these trading connections but 
 also to secure privileges for pilgrims to the Holy Land. 
 
 The long campaigns which he and his son Pepin 
 waged against the Avars gave greater security along an im- 
 portant route, but even before the practical extermination of 
 that tribe, we find some occasional references to trading 
 communications through the valley of the Danube". Charles 
 attempted to construct a canal which should join the Danube* 
 and the Main; though this seems to have been primarily 
 intended for military transport, it would also have served to 
 bring the commercial traffic of the Danube and the Rhine 
 into direct connection at Mayence. 
 
 This city was the starting point of a great commercial route 
 in another direction. The conquest of the Saxons had added 
 
 1 Figeonneau, I. 73; Abel and Simson, Jahrbiicher des frdnkischen 
 Reichs unter Karl dem Grossen, I. 257. 
 
 * Eginhardus, Vita Caroli, c. 16. 
 
 ^ Kurz, Oesterreichs Handel in dlteren Zeiten (1822), p. 4. 
 
 ^ Eginhardus, \<4««a/f, 793. Heyd (Commerct du Levant, i. 80), 
 shows that it had military rather than mercantile importance. 
 
CHAP. I.] The Foundations of Society. 47 
 
 an enormous area to the Frankish Empire, and had given 
 the opportunity for extending commercial enterprise among the 
 wilder tribes in Pomerania and the Baltic lands ; access had 
 also been .obtained to Bohemia and Moravia. Caravans of 
 merchants traversed these dangerous regions at no little risk', 
 and made large profits by their importations of furs and amber. 
 There were depots for trade with the Saxons at Erfurt and 
 Magdeburg"; and Jumna ^ at the mouth of the Oder rose 
 into prominence as a centre for Northern products. 
 
 We also find that attention was given to maritime commerce 
 as well. The Channel ports, Rouen and Boulogne, were of 
 considerable importance. Nantes, at the mouth of the Loire, 
 had doubtless prospered through the activity of Bishop Felix^, 
 and Bordeaux had mercantile intercourse with the Iberian 
 peninsula, and also with Ireland °. The trading relations with 
 England were interrupted in 790 a.d.°, to the loss of the men 
 of Boulogne; and the treaty with Oifa of Mercia in 796 a.d., 
 by which they were re-established, gave security to English 
 merchants and pilgrims who travelled in the Frankish Empire. 
 
 Commerce must have benefited by the provision that was 
 made for protecting the coast from pillage; Charles had a 
 fleet on the Mediterranean which guarded the waters of Sep- 
 timania and Italy against the Moors ; while he also kept ships 
 in the northern rivers to provide against the attacks -of the 
 Norsemen ^ Boulogne appears to have been the principal 
 port on the Channel, and it was improved by the erection of 
 a lighthouse". 
 
 ' Pigeonneau, I. 61. The story of Samo, a Frankish trader, shows tliat 
 merchants visited this region in the seventh century. 
 
 2 Capit. A.D. 805 ; Migne, i. 285. 
 
 " Heyd, Commerce du Levant, i. 77. 
 
 ' Fortunatus, liv. ill. c. 10. 
 
 " PigeonneaUi i. 60. ' Pigeonneau, I. 74. 
 
 ' Eginhard, Vita, c. i?. 
 
 ^ Carlier, Commerce en France sous les rots de la premiere et de la 
 deuxiime race (1752), in Leber, Collection, xvi. p. 113. 
 
48 Western Civilisation. [BOOK iv, 
 
 The extension of foreign commerce must of course have 
 reacted on internal trade. The towns along the Rhine 
 valley, — Cologne, Coblenz, Mayence, and Strassburg — entered 
 on more prosperous times than they had enjoyed for centuries ; 
 and a great impulse must have been given to the trade of 
 the old established fairs of Troyes' and Paris'. The increased 
 number of similar fairs ^ made it necessary to attempt to improve 
 the facilities for internal communication. The Capitularies 
 insist on the duty of keeping the roads in good repair, and 
 Charles expended much time and money on the construction 
 of a bridge at Mayence*. 
 
 But great as were the physical obstacles with which the 
 trader had to contend, he must have suffered even more from 
 frequent and arbitrary exactions to which he was subject. 
 Charles was of course careful to collect the ancient revenue 
 from merchandise, and he organised a customs department 
 at different points along the frontier of his enlarged realm*; 
 but he was also at pains to put down novel and extortionate 
 demands". Doubtless there were many local magnates who 
 took tolls from the merchants on the flimsiest of excuses, 
 and Charles had to legislate against those who compelled 
 travellers to use an inconvenient route in order to force them 
 to pay the toll at some particular bridge'. Such instances 
 are instructive, not only as indicating the arbitrary extortion 
 
 1 Sidonius Apollinaris, Epist. lib. vi. 4. 
 
 " The fair lasted for four weeks in October, commencing on S. Denys. 
 Pigeonneau, i. 63. On other fairs see Huvelin, Droit des marchis et des 
 foires, p. 146. 
 
 ^ Inama Stemegg, Deutsche Wirthschaftigeschichte, I. 433 and refs. 
 
 * Eginhardus, Vita, c. 17. 
 
 ^ Pigeonneau, i. 75 ; Abel and Simson, 11. 333, and Cqpitutare, a.d. 
 805, c. 7; Migne, I. 285. 
 
 ' Capitulare, A.D. 805, c. 13. The practice of stretching a rope across 
 a river and demanding a fee from travellers passing it was regarded as 
 specially reprehensible. See also A.D. 806; Migne, i. 304, c. 10. 
 
 ' A.D, 809; Migne, 1. 317, c. 8: also a.d. 817; Migne, I. 408, c. 17, 
 
CHAP. I.] TJie Foundations of Society. 4g 
 
 from which merchants suffered, but as showing the value of 
 the immunities which had been conferred on so many monas- 
 teries. 
 
 It would be interesting if we had fuller information about 
 the men who had enterprise enough to face these difficulties 
 and to devote themselves to commerce. It is probable that 
 a very large part of the active trade was still in the hands 
 of aliens. At an earlier date the Syrians — a term which in- 
 cluded all merchants from. Egypt and Asia Minor — had been 
 the chief agents in the traffic between East and West ; they 
 had had a considerable settlement at Paris and had been 
 able to exercise much influence there' ; but we do not hear 
 explicitly of them in the time of Charles, though they may 
 of course have been commercial intermediaries in commu- 
 nicating with Constantinople. It seems more probable, how- 
 ever, that they had been superseded by the Jews, who had 
 begun to come to the front during the reign of Justinian^, 
 and who enjoyed great privileges in the Frankish Empire'. 
 They were better able than Mohammedans to trade in Chris- 
 tian lands, and better able than Christians to carry on business 
 among the Mohammedans, so that the expansion of Islam 
 gave them great opportunities. They had an ancient colony 
 at Cologne* which may possibly have survived, and consider- 
 able numbers were settled at Aix, Magdeburg, Paris, Orleans, 
 Clermont, and Narbonne; they were well established at the 
 principal centres of trade. But though they may have been 
 the most wealthy merchants in the time of Charles, they had 
 no exclusive possession of the field. His biographer shows 
 that there were Christian merchants, as well as Jews, even in 
 
 * Gregory of Tours, x. 26; Boichorst, Zur Geschichte def Syrer in 
 Abeiidland in Mittheilungen fiir oesterreich. Geschichte, vi. 535. 
 
 ' Vol. I. p. 203. 
 
 ' Pigeonneau, I. 70; also Depping, Les Juifs an Moyen Age; Huvelin, 
 Droit des marchls et des f aires, p. 151. 
 
 * Hegel, Entstehung des deutschen Stadtewesens, 112. 
 
 C. W. C. II. 4 
 
50 Western Civilisation. [BOOK iv. 
 
 the Levantine trade' : monastic commerce must have assumed 
 considerable proportions, and important immunities were 
 granted to the Archbishop of Strassburg^ for the advantage 
 of the men of that city. 
 
 Charles exerted himself in another economic matter, and 
 his legislation would have been of decided advantage to 
 trade if it could have been carried out practically. He 
 attempted to reform the standard of weights and measures', 
 and also to deal with the problem of currency*. There was great 
 risk of confusion in all calculations, as Roman and barbarian 
 methods of reckoning existed side by side, and so many distinct 
 authorities exercised the right of coining. The monetary 
 system had been farther complicated by such general con- 
 ditions as a scarcity of the precious metals', and a partial 
 return to natural economy. But the precise motives which 
 induced Charles to take this matter in hand are not clear. 
 He may have desired to issue a standard rate at which 
 revenue should be assessed when it was collected in kindV 
 or he may have been anxious to establish a scale of reasonable 
 prices, and to put an end to the sordid gains of middlemen' 
 who traded in the necessaries of life. Accurate definition of 
 weights and measures and values was a necessary preliminary 
 for either object, and it would have also been a general 
 advantage to the trading class to give precision to the terms 
 they used in bargaining. He had little success in imposing 
 the uniformity he desired ; but his attempt has had a lasting 
 influence on the metric system of a country which lay beyond 
 the limits of his empire. The pound of silver, consisting of 
 twenty solidi of twelve denarii each, was adopted by Charles" 
 as his unit of currency, and this practice was introduced by 
 the Normans into England, where it eventually displaced the 
 
 • Eginhard, Vita, c. 27. 2 a.d. 775; Migne, I. 938. 
 
 8 Inama Stemegg, i. 456. * Inama Stemegg,- 1. 458. 
 
 ^ Pigeonneau, i. 83. " lb., i. 469. 
 
 ^ Inama Sternegg, i. 480. » Jd., i. 456. 
 
CHAP. I.] Tlie Foundations of Society. 5^ 
 
 old method of reckoning by marks consisting of eight ounces 
 of twenty pennies each. The English monetary system is a 
 symbol of the long-abiding influence which Charles exercised, 
 even in matters where his efforts seemed to fail utterly. 
 
 85. Even greater interest attaches to the famous capitulare 
 de villis in which Charles dealt with the economic ^he house- 
 activities of the household. We are fortunate '^o''* ^^ the 
 
 . . , unit of society 
 
 m possessmg so much mformation about his for economic 
 efforts to foster civilisation in a territory where pi'i^po^^^- 
 city life was so little developed; the normal economic unit, 
 alike on royal lands, in monastic institutions, and in the 
 possessions of lay proprietors, was fhe household. This may 
 be a very large social group, but the mutual offices of the 
 members are rendered as a matter of obligation, not as the 
 result of agreements between men who are personally inde- 
 pendent and drive their own bargains. It was already the 
 military unit responsible for the defence of the realm', and 
 was the territorial basis for the administration of justice and 
 provision for the poor. In addition to this Charles aimed 
 at so organising household life that agriculture and industry 
 might be stimulated and improved. 
 
 The capitulare de villis was not propounded as a mere 
 fiscal measure with the view of increasing the royal revenue ; 
 it aimed at increasing the efficiency of the economic organi- 
 sation^ of society as a whole. Charles was of course chiefly 
 concerned with the administration of the royal domain; the 
 judices^ were to overhaul the administrative work of the 
 majores*, and to see that the king's estates were properly 
 cultivated and the local products well utilised. But the royal 
 example would find imitators, and pressure was brought to 
 bear on the monasteries and lay possessors of beneficial, who 
 
 ■^ A.D. 807 ; Capit. Aquense in Migne, I. 307, cc. i, 1. 
 
 ' Inama Stemegg, i. 349. 
 
 ^ Capit. de Villis, 3, 8, 9, 14, 29. 
 
 *' lb., 10, 26. ' Inama Sternegg, i. 351, 
 
 4 -3 
 
52 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 held portions of the ancient Crown lands. The necessity of 
 being provided with the men and military equipment they 
 were required to furnish would tend to induce other magnates 
 to adopt improved methods of estate management. As it 
 appears that these large households were steadily increasing 
 and attracting the possessors of small holdings to become 
 members of larger organisations', the rules which were laid 
 down for the royal villae would serve, so far as their form 
 was concerned, for the economic regulation of the whole 
 territory. 
 
 The de villis recapitulates the matters into which the 
 judices ought to enquire, so that the estate management might 
 be carried on properly and efficiently both on its agricultural 
 and industrial sides". To enable them to perform this duty 
 it was desirable that the condition of the estates should be 
 exhibited in writing, so that everything might be easily 
 checked, and the general state of the property readily gauged. 
 There were surveys, which gave a complete inventory of 
 the villa, including a statement of the labour available and 
 the personal obligations of each man, as well as an enume- 
 ration of the live stock, horses, cattle, and hens, and also 
 information about the condition of the buildings and the 
 supply of implements'. It was part of the duty of the judices 
 to keep regular accounts, with separate books for revenue 
 and for outlay, and to inform the king of the state of the 
 balanced The surveys are closely analogous to the extenta of a 
 mediaeval manor, while the accounts, of which no specimen 
 
 ^ Inama Sternegg, I. 295; Lamprecht, Deutsche Geschichte, II. 89. 
 
 " On the industrial organisation of the villa compare Gareis, Bemer- 
 kungen zu K. Karl's Capitulare de Villis in Germanistische Abhandlungen 
 zum LXX. Geburtstag K. von Maurers, p. 246 ; Biicher, art. Gemerbe in 
 Handwirterbueh der Staatswissenschaft, in. 926; Gu6rard, Introduction to 
 the Polyptyque de VAbbe Irminon, I. 617; Explication du Cafit. de Villis 
 in Bihliolhique de t&cole des Charles, ser. iii"". t. iv. (185a), pp. 324 7. 
 
 3 A.D. 812 ; Migne, I. 341. Compare Ulpian, in Digest L. tit. 15, c. 4. 
 
 * Capit. de Villis, c. 55. 
 
CHAP. I.] The Foundations of Society. S3 
 
 seems to have survived, may well have set the type of the 
 mediaeval reckonings which are commonly known as ministers' 
 rolls. 
 
 The institution which is thus depicted for us, and the 
 system which Charles introduced with the view of regulating 
 it, give us a Hnk with the distant past and help us to look 
 back to the Roman villa, with its ergastula and its tillage, its 
 vineyards, and its cattle breeding. This capitulare is also ot 
 great interest on its own account, since it shows us an almost 
 unique effort to organise a highly civilised life on a basis 
 of natural economy. Military obligations, justice, and poor 
 relief are inseparably linked with the household, within which 
 there is no money circulation. Money and commerce were 
 not excluded ; but the prosperity and strength of the realm 
 were dependent primarily on the management of natural 
 resources, and not on the accumulation of treasure. The 
 amassing of bullion had been the Merovingian expedient' for 
 equipping armies, and it gave the means for bribing barbarians 
 to abstain from plundering. 
 
 Necessity was doubtless the mother of invention ; and we 
 need not suppose that Charles had consciously formulated any 
 principles of political economy ; but it is worth while to notice 
 that the wisdom of his methods has been endorsed in later 
 times. It was his policy to make the most of native resources, 
 as the secret of strength ; to promote agriculture, but without 
 disparaging industry; and especially to encourage the manu- 
 facture of native products. This was practically an antici- 
 pation of the economic policy which was successfully applied«to 
 England in the days of Burleigh, — the development of industry 
 generally, but in conscious subordination to the needs of agri- 
 culture, while the special advantages of particular districts for 
 mining'' or for the manufacture of salt were not neglected 
 either in the empire of Charles or in the realm of Elizabeth. 
 
 ' Dahn, op. cit. p. 343. 
 * Inama Sternegg, I. 426. 
 
54 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 There is even greater interest in following out the sub- 
 sequent history of the economic organ which Charles utilised — 
 the household. The system which he formulated was adopted 
 by the Normans, and was introduced into a country well 
 prepared for receiving it, when William conquered England. 
 The great household, as the centre of rura;l life, has had an 
 extraordinary influence on English development ; it has shaped 
 the ambitions of the English plutocracy from the days of 
 William-de-la.-Pole, and has led them to set their faces from 
 the towns where they made their money to the country, where 
 they exercised great power: it survived to stimulate the 
 energies of the great landowners of the last century, when 
 money economy had become completely prevalent, and in- 
 duced them to give their energy to the improvement of English 
 tillage. In the ancient world, and in much of the modern 
 world, the city has had exclusive attractions as the centre 
 of social life J but English civilisation has proceeded on the 
 basis that is implied in Charles's maxims of social regulation'. 
 
 86. The political history of the three centuries that 
 
 followed the partition of the Carlovingian Empire 
 
 itsmeaningT seems to be a mere record of social disinte- 
 
 eiements, and gration and internecine warfare, and to have 
 
 conditions. ° , . . 
 
 been mcompatible with material progress. There 
 
 ' In the expansion of English influence beyond the seas, this household 
 type has sometimes been retained, but sometimes we have the land settled 
 in small homesteads. The resultant civilisation in each case has varied 
 immensely. In the tropical climates of India and Ceylon, of the West 
 In^es and the Southern States, with the exception of some parts of 
 Georgia and West Virginia, there are planters with labourers in practical 
 dependence, even where slavery is extinct and cash relations exist ; and in 
 the pasture farms of Australia there are rich squatters. In these lands 
 we get a diffusion of wealth and culture beyond the limits of cities. In 
 the Northern States, in Canada and in South Africa, the rural districts 
 were occupied by little homesteads. There are great drawbacks in this 
 latter system, since it concentrates all social advantages in urban groups 
 and leaves the rural population to a sordid struggle for independence, or 
 monotonous drudgery under giant capitalists. 
 
CHAP. I.] The Foundations of Society. 55 
 
 is reason to believe, however, that there was more oppor- 
 tunity for cultivating the arts of peace than might at first 
 sight appear; there seems to have been such an increase 
 and diffusion of Teutonic population'' that large areas, first 
 in the south and then in the north of Germany, were occupied 
 by agriculturists'- But more than this, the eleventh and twelfth 
 centuries supply ample evidence of the existence of vigorous 
 urban life in France, Flanders and the Rhineland : while 
 the founding of new towns in these districts and other parts of 
 Germany went on in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries^. 
 Such commercial and industrial centres could not have come 
 into prominence unless there had been a real improvement in 
 the economic conditions of Western Europe. 
 
 There is no more complicated problem in mediaeval history 
 than that which is raised by this revival of town life. An 
 immense amount of research has been recently devoted to 
 the legal and constitutional aspects of the enquiry ; for us this 
 is a subordinate consideration. The full solution of the 
 economic question can only be found by an investigation 
 of the special history of particular communities; but it is 
 perhaps possible to state the problem in general terms, and 
 thus to indicate the directions in which detailed research may 
 be pursued with profit. 
 
 One of the principal difficulties to be faced lies in the 
 uncertainty, or rather the want of agreement among historians, 
 as to the characteristic feature of town life; we want so far 
 as possible to be clear what we are looking for. If all that 
 we mean by a town is an unusually populous village* or 
 
 1 On the motives for this colonisation see Lamprecht, Deutsche Ge- 
 schichte, in. 351. 
 
 ^ Lamprecht (Deutsche Geschichte, in. 299) points out that the oscilla- 
 tion in migration began at least as early as the time of Charles. The 
 Germans ceased to move westward, and commenced to colonise towards the 
 east. Inama Sternegg, III. p. i. 
 
 ° Hegel, Die Entstehung, p. 3^ — 47,, 
 
 * Green, Short History of the English People, I. 369. 
 
56 Western Civilisation, [BOOK IV. 
 
 even a place which contained merchants among its inhabi- 
 tants', we can hardly hope to distinguish it from other social 
 groups. There were monasteries that had hundreds of in- 
 mates and dependents^, and that were deeply interested in 
 trading concerns. There is, however, some possibility of 
 discriminating, when we look at the matter in its economic 
 aspects. In the household there is only one proprietor, who 
 has a power of controlling the resources of the establishment ; 
 the town is a social group in which there are several pro- 
 prietors', and therefore several households. If these house- 
 holds were each self-sufficing, they could exist side by side, 
 without entering into any relations with one another; but 
 the group of households in a town supplement one another's 
 industry and are mutually dependent for the necessaries of 
 life. The town consists of an aggregate of households; each 
 householder is free to manage the internal economy of his 
 establishment — so long as he does no injury to the common- 
 weal — and therefore each is economically distinct In the 
 religious houses and other large establishments there might 
 be much division of labour, and the community might engage 
 in constant trade with the outside world; but however nu- 
 merously a monastery was inhabited it would only be a 
 household in the economic sense, and not a town, so long 
 as there were no separate proprietors, with exclusive rights 
 in their possessions, and consequent independence within the 
 group. 
 
 For the continued existence and growth of such a group 
 of households, facilities of interchange are requisite; it may 
 be impossible to say whether trade called forth a town, or 
 
 1 Pirenne in Revue historique (1895), Lvii. p. 70. 
 
 " See above, p. 38. 
 
 • "Proprietors" is here used in the widest possible sense, for all those 
 who have exclusive rights to use land, or other requisites of production, 
 whatever might be the precise terms of their tenure, or their legal status 
 as persons. 
 
CHAP. I.] The Foundations of Society. 57 
 
 whether the presence of a town gave the opportunity of trade' ; 
 as a question of priority it is as insoluble as the problem 
 about the first hen or the first egg ; logically, and as observed 
 fact, the existence of a town and the existence of internal trade 
 are inseparable; the progress of one would stimulate the 
 increase of the other. Something of the nature of a market, 
 in fact if not in law, is involved in the economic idea of a 
 town; such a market would be possible wherever the house- 
 holds, large or small, of distinct proprietors were closely 
 associated together, and were in any way inter-dependent so 
 far as their economic requirements or abilities were concerned. 
 But within the monasteries or large villas there was no similar 
 need or opportunity for the development of habitual inter- 
 changes and bargaining. Hence it seems to follow that 
 though towns were found under the shadow and protection 
 of monasteries and palaces, they consisted of the establishments 
 of several distinct proprietors, and therefore were outside the 
 organised life of any one household. 
 
 The formation of such groups and their increase in size 
 and importance could hardly have proceeded unless they had 
 been reinforced by the inhabitants of surrounding districts. 
 Herein is our difficulty. When society was organised in 
 households, and men were bound to the soil either by 
 proprietary rights or personal obligations, there could be little 
 freedom of movement ; it is not easy to see from what sources 
 the population that was aggregated in the towns could be 
 drawn. It may be that there really was more fluidity than 
 is commonly supposed^; but in any case it is possible to call 
 attention to some social elements which were capable of 
 taking a part in facilitating the growth of towns, as populous 
 places with internal trade among the inhabitants. 
 
 We must remember, moreover, that there is no difficulty about 
 the origin of some of the most important towns of Christendom ; 
 
 ' Arnold, Vtrfassungsgeschichle, II. 126. 
 ' Inama Slernegg, II. 31, and III. 29. 
 
58 Western Civilisation. [book IV. 
 
 Cologne, Mayence, Strassburg, Paris, Bordeaux, and many 
 others had probably survived as populous centres from Roman 
 tijnes ; the inhabitants seem never to have lost their habits of 
 economic independence even though their powers of municipal 
 self-government were swept away. In many places in France 
 the citi remained as a monument of the old days, to be the 
 nucleus of a new growth ' ; and in all such cities there would 
 be several proprietors, and facilities for the purchase of food 
 and opportunities of hiring labour, or being hired as a labourer, 
 would be perpetuated. The Roman cities of northern France 
 and of the Rhine valley may have been reduced to the greatest 
 poverty, but it appears that they continued to exist as towns, 
 in the economic sense of the term. 
 
 The growth of a town at a wholly new centre presents 
 greater difficulty; but where several distinct proprietors were 
 residing in close proximity to any point which was favourable 
 for trade, there would be at lea,st the nucleus of a true town '. 
 There were other social elements, however, which were ready 
 to group themselves round this nucleus, and as they prospered 
 they secured possessions and a footing in the towns. So far as 
 the towns which grew up round monasteries are concerned, 
 we see that the increased trade of religious communities 
 during the eighth and ninth centuries involved the employ- 
 ment of a considerable number of outside agents. Whatever 
 the precise status of the negociatores may have been, they are 
 definitely distinguished from the colon i a.nd serfs; if they were 
 not so far dependent on the monastery as to be able to claim 
 allowances from it, they would have to procure supplies by 
 purchase and would find a market a convenience. 
 
 * Flach, Let origines de I'ancienne France, II. 244. 
 
 ' The possessors of land on the site where trade was springing up were 
 the ancestors of the urban aristocracies of which we hear in the eleventh 
 and twelfth centuries. This was the principal period of the straggle 
 between the landed aristocracy and the trading interests, for power to 
 control the government of the towns. 
 
CHAP. I.] The Foundations of Society. 59 
 
 Other elements would help to swell the lower grades of 
 society in the nascent towns. Places which enjoyed the right 
 of asylum and sanctuary' would attract fugitives from justice. 
 Charles the Great insisted on the return of robbers and 
 fugitive slaves", but other refugees were apparently retained; 
 and as there was no obligation to maintain them in idleness 
 they would probably be set to work for wages. There were 
 other elements of roving population ; pilgrims were passing to 
 and fro, and alien merchants were constantly on the move. 
 They were definitely recognised in the Carolingian legislation, 
 for the missi were to report to Charles on the advenae^ that 
 came into their districts ; some of them might be attracted to 
 settle permanently and contribute to the growth of a town. 
 Some of the artisans appear to have been free ; but even those 
 who were not their own masters might occasionally migrate; 
 Bishop Gebhart was able to secure that a large number of 
 his people should settle in the neighbourhood of the monastery 
 he had founded at Petershausen*. 
 
 One great reason which would induce men to draw together 
 and reside in contiguity with their neighbours was the need 
 of protection. This was especially felt in districts which were 
 exposed to the ravages of the Norsemen and the Huns"; and 
 the humbler classes would find it to their advantage to live 
 under the shadow of a royal palace, an episcopal residence, or 
 a great monastic household, where defence could be regularly 
 organised. In its external aspects the tenth century town 
 was before everything else a burg or fortified place, and many 
 continental towns long preserved the character of military 
 strongholds. The neighbourhood of a monastery might be 
 less secure than that of a fort, but the trading immunities 
 
 ' Imbart de la Tour, op. cit. p. 80. 
 
 ' Capitular., A.D. 806; Migne, I. 303, c. 5. 
 
 ^ Capitular., A.D. 806; Migne, i. 303, C..5, 306, c. 5. 
 
 * Hegel, Entstehung des deutschen Stddtewesens, 117. 
 
 ° W. Arnold, Verfassungsgesckichte, II. 130. 
 
6o Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 possessed "by many of the religious houses must have been an 
 attraction to settlers who hoped to share in these commercial 
 privileges. 
 
 The towns of the thirteenth century were not, however, a 
 mere congeries of atoms attracted by the opportunity of 
 protection and maintained by the facilities for trade; there 
 were connecting ties in each town, consisting of the rights and 
 obligations which were common to the inhabitants, or to some 
 portions of the inhabitants, and which helped to give these 
 groups some semblance of unity. 
 
 There was, for one thing, in many of the Roman towns, 
 common ownership of land. Besides the arable fields, which 
 belonged to particular proprietors, there were common lands 
 which supplied pasturage for the cattle'. The history of 
 Nimes supplies a case in point ^; and in many other instances 
 when an agricultural unit developed into an industrial or 
 commercial town, the existence of the common fields must 
 have been an important bond of union among the inhabitants', 
 while it served as the basis for the usual food supply*. 
 
 The common enjoyment of market rights was another 
 bond of union among the townsmen. Practical facilities for 
 the exchange of goods are, as we have seen, involved in the 
 very idea of a town j but it seems to have been only gradually 
 that the privileges, fiscal and legal, connected with the holding 
 of a market were clearly defined ; the grant of such privileges 
 by charter may in some cases have instituted a market and 
 in others have transformed an irregularly held market into a 
 
 * Lamprecht, Deutsche Geschichte, iv. •214. 
 
 ° Daieste de la Chavanne, Classes Agrkoles, 117. Rietschel, Die 
 Civitas, 61, 87. 
 
 ' Maitland, Township and Burgh, 50. 
 
 ■■ On the agricultural organisation at Rome in 1030 A.D., see Rodo- 
 canachi, Corporations ouvriires H Rome, I. x. When new towns were 
 planted in the twelfth century the agricultural conditions were carefully 
 considered. S. Thomas Aquinas, De reg. princ. 11. 4. 
 
CHAP. I.] The Foundations of Society. 6i 
 
 tnercatum legitimum^. Markets are frequently mentioned in 
 the Capitularies, and Charles endeavoured to keep the right 
 of making these grants entirely in his own hands. It is 
 by no means clear in many documents whether the market 
 referred to was an annual fair which served as the resort of 
 strangers and a centre for foreign trade, or merely the weekly 
 market which furnished supplies to the townsmen. In either 
 case transactions were carried on under regal (or seignorial) 
 authority 5 this was symbolised by the market cross, bearing 
 the glove and sword, as tokens of the impersonal presence 
 of the king and the duty of preserving his peace". Where 
 a market was thus legally established it became the interest 
 of neighbouring proprietors to obtain a house in the town', 
 so as to share in these privileges, and bring their estates 
 within the range of the increasing opportunities of trade. 
 
 The common obligations, which drew the townsmen to- 
 gether, were in part connected with the rights already specified ; 
 there were fiscal burdens connected with the ownership of land, 
 and compositions to be paid in order to free the trade of the 
 townsmen from the usual tolls. There were also military duties 
 to be discharged ; and the maintenance of the walls of mediaeval 
 towns, together with the duty of manning them, must have 
 been a very heavy burden on the property and the time of 
 the burgesses. Much of the interest of the constitutional 
 history of the towns lies in the story of the efforts of the 
 inhabitants to free themselves from the discharge of these 
 obligations, and to extort rights of self-government from the 
 royal, noble, or ecclesiastical authority under whose patron- 
 age and by whose favour the town had grown up. 
 
 ^ 'RoM^xu, Droit des marMs, 145, 175. 
 
 ' R. Sohm, Entstehung des deutschen Siddhwesens, 18. Of course suc- 
 cessful attempts were made to encroach on this royal right, as on others, 
 Huvelin, op. cit., 183. 
 
 ^ In Domesday Book such houses were rated along with the estates, and 
 did not form part of the town for fiscal purposes, e.g. Brightwell, D. B. l. 58 ; 
 Mailland, Domesday Book and Beyond, 179. 
 
62 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 Such were the chief elements which went to constitute twelfth 
 century cities, and which were differently combined in the 
 history of particular places. We certainly cannot account for 
 the revival of city life in general by reference to any single 
 element alone ' ; the increase of trade could not by itself bring 
 about the growth of towns as distinguished from the expansion 
 of households. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the 
 constitution of a town and the importance of fostering town 
 life were generally recognised and understood ; and conscious 
 efforts were made by kings and nobles to plant such centres, 
 and thus to develop the trade of their territories. Many 
 towns' were established in Saxony in the thirteenth century 
 in connection with the mining industry, and free towns were 
 founded in the English possessions in France at favourable 
 points for trade*. 
 
 We may now turn from the consideration of the conditions 
 under which towns originated and came to be organised 
 communities, to look at their internal life before the thirteenth 
 century. The scattered hints furnished by contemporary his- 
 torians throw but little light on the subject; there is good 
 reason to believe, however, that those who had proprietary 
 rights in the land of the tovm formed a local aristocracy', 
 and that their descendants long continued to enjoy a superior 
 status; but they were not able to maintain their position as 
 an exclusive caste permanently. The trading interests came 
 more and more to be the leading factor in the prosperity 
 of the towns; and the institutions which were organised for 
 commercial purposes and which did not exclude either the 
 
 1 Flach, II. 3^6; also see Pirenne (Revue historique, 1895, vol. LVII. 
 P- 65), who shows by specific instances that the origin of towns cannot 
 be attributed either to monasteries, fortresses, or markets alone. 
 
 2 Pirenne (Revut historique, 1895, vol. LVII. p. 6S), "Les villas sont 
 n^es spontanement sous Taction des causes economiques qu'a suscitees en 
 Europe la renaissance du commerce et de I'industrie. " 
 
 ' Inama Sternegg, in. i. 1, 11. n. * See below, p. 91. 
 
 " W. Arnold, Zur Geschiehte des Eigentkums in den deulschen StadCen 10. 
 
CHAP. I.] The Foundations of Society. 63 
 
 landed or the landless man, gradually attained to considerable 
 power. Some of these gilds and associations can be traced 
 back to very early times, and we may also detect rudimentary 
 forms of commercial regulation. The history of these bodies 
 is exceedingly obscure, but it becomes less confusing if we 
 fix our attention on the different functions they subserved. 
 
 The active^ trade of the Carolingian period was carried 
 on by caravans of merchants who travelled together for mutual 
 protection, since solitary travelling was practically impossible. 
 The caravan might swell to an extraordinary size as the 
 merchants might be accompanied by a crowd of pilgrims who 
 were glad of the convoy through perilous places; and some 
 sort of rule and governance was necessary among this moving 
 throng °- The organised caravan is the most primitive type 
 of association among enterprising merchants ; and would easily 
 lead to the institution of depots at the points which these 
 travellers habitually visited, and where they desired to find 
 warehouses for their goods and accommodations for man and 
 beast. The commercial factories of foreign merchants, like 
 the Steelyard in London, where the men of the Emperor 
 resorted', seems to follow naturally on the localisation of 
 organised bodies of travelling merchants^ Such depots, which 
 furnished permanent links between a town and distant lands, 
 seem to have arisen with the growth of mediaeval commerce, 
 but it is at all events possible that other forms of mercantile 
 association survived from Roman times. In any case where 
 the food supply of a city was drawn, not from its own fields, 
 
 ' Active trade is done by merchants who buy goods and adventure with 
 them, seeking for purchasers. 
 
 " Doren, Untersuchungen zur- Gesckichte der Kaufmannsgilden in 
 SchmoUer's Stoats u. socialwissenschaftliche Forschungen, xv. ii. 162 ; 
 Lamprecht, Deutsche Gesckichte, in. 27. 
 
 * Lappenberg, Geschichte des deutschen Staklhofs tu London, ii. i. 
 
 <" The hanse of which we read at S. Omer (Giry, S. Omer, 413) ap- 
 pears to be the local depot of Flemish merchants associated for active trade 
 to England. 
 
64 Western Civilisation. [book iv. 
 
 but by trading with outlying districts, the organisation of an 
 active carrying trade was almost essential ; the men who con- 
 ducted the traffic on the Seine and the Loire were well-known 
 associated bodies in the eleventh century; and it. is at least 
 possible that they were not a new creation, but maintained an 
 unbroken tradition from the days of the Empire'. 
 
 There is another commercial institution of which frequent 
 mention is made, but the hints regarding its character and 
 purpose are so meagre that it is impossible to speak of them 
 with any confidence. The information that has come down 
 to us is not, however, inconsistent with the hypothesis that the 
 gild merchant was an organisation which was formed in many 
 towns with the view of enabling the inhabitants to engage 
 in passive trade, on the most advantageous terms'*. The gild 
 merchant seems to have consisted of all the inhabitants of 
 a town, rich or poor, who had occasion to buy and sell'; 
 it would doubtless be an advantage to them all to have the 
 means of making purchases from travelling merchants by a 
 collective bargain, with the view of afterwards sharing the 
 goods among themselves. There seems to have been some 
 stage of municipal development when the gild merchant was 
 a highly prized institution; though many important towns 
 dispensed with it altogether, and others soon outgrew it and 
 allowed it to fall into desuetude. There does not seem to 
 be any analogue to this institution in the municipal life of the 
 Roman Empire. 
 
 ' Pigeonneau, i.*33, 114. 
 
 ' Rodocanachi (Corporations, p. xiv.) regards the possession of com- 
 mercial tribunals as the main element In the formation of the Mercanzia at 
 Rome. It appears to have arisen out of the combination of earlier asso- 
 ciations in the xiitli, and to have lost its importance as particular crafts 
 withdrew from it in the xivth century. lb. pp. xii, xviii. 
 
 ' See Gross, Gild Merchant, I. J07 ; M. Bateson, Leicester, p. xxix. ; 
 Mayer, Zoll, Kaufmannschaft u. Markt in Germanistische Abhandlungen, 
 p. 450: Gild Merchant of Shrewsbury in Royal Hist. Soc. Trans. N. S. 
 IX. 99; Giry, S. Oiner, a8i; also Pirenne, Revue historique, LVil. p. jy. 
 
CHAP. I.] The Foundations of Society. 6$ 
 
 The organisation of industry in craft gilds comes into 
 clear light in the twelfth century, when we have documentary 
 evidence of the cordwainers at Rouen, and the weavers at 
 London and elsewhere. It seems possible that they are a 
 branch of household organisation^, which came to have a 
 public position when any occupation ceased to be a domestic 
 employment and was organised on an independent basis. 
 But the analogy between the mediaeval craft gilds and the 
 Roman collegia is so close that it is difficult to suppose that 
 the craft gilds or industrial organisations were never a survival 
 which was maintained among the economically independent 
 inhabitants of ancient cities, but always a new development 
 transferred from the royal household to the population that 
 gathered beside it. There seems to be no conclusive evidence 
 of the continuous existence of the collegia even in Rome itself, 
 and the hints which we get of their persistence at other centres 
 are very scanty"; but they are sufficient to make the hypothesis 
 of survival in Roman cities and diffusion from them more 
 probable than the view which assigns to them an entirely 
 independent origin. 
 
 Of institutions which were formed for other than trading 
 or industrial purposes it is unnecessary to speak here, though 
 they may doubtless have had much to do with the develop- 
 ment of municipal constitutions. There were gilds which 
 Charles attempted to suppress*, they seem to have been 
 analogous to the English frith gilds" which served as associa- 
 
 ' On the anticipations of craft organisation in the time of Charles, see 
 Gareis, op. cit. p. ^247. Compare the Assize of Bread under Henry II. 
 Cunningham, Growth of English Industry, I. 568. In cases like the 
 moneyers, when public administrative functions and worlc were com- 
 bined, the household is a probable source of derivation. 
 
 ^ Rodocanachi, Corporations ouvriires h Rome, pp. viii, xi. 
 
 ' Martin Saint L^on, Corporations de Metiers, 28 ; E. Mayer, Deutsche 
 u. franzosiche Verfassiingsgeschichte, I. 330. 
 
 •• Inama Sternegg, I. 263. 
 
 * Pirenne in Revue historique, LIIT. 63. 
 
 C. W. C. II. J 
 
$6 Western Civilisation. [book iv. 
 
 tions for the prosecution of felons. They possibly helped to 
 train the inhabitants of a town to mutual help, and gave them 
 practice in self-government so that they may have served as 
 a preparation for the growth of the communes, when civic life 
 received its great impetus at the era of the Crusades'. But 
 from the economic standpoint such associations were not of 
 first-rate importance ; and the city life to the growth of which 
 they contributed was after all not a new social type, but only 
 the reviving of a form that had already played a notable part 
 in the history of the world'^. 
 
 87. The resuscitation of town hfe was the last stone' 
 
 in the foundations of mediaeval Christendom; 
 Obedlenc"^" many flourishing towns had revived or grown 
 
 up in Flanders, Germany, France, and Italy 
 before the thirteenth century, and if we attempt to survey 
 society in Western Europe at that date, we cannot but feel 
 that despite the political and racial divisions, and the area ovei 
 which it extended, Christendom was extraordinarily homo- 
 geneous and was bound together by very firm ties deeply 
 imbedded in its structure. Just as in India at the present 
 time the common institutions of Brahmanism give a unity to 
 the social system of all Hindus, whatever may be their lan- 
 guage or their polity, so the common religious life of Chris- 
 tendom affected every aspect of society. We should remember, 
 too, that there was a body politic, or at least a social organism, 
 in the twelfth century : the peoples of Western Europe were 
 no longer a military Empire held together by the personal 
 ascendancy of a single ruler, Jike Charles the Great, but 
 formed a vigorous polity which" |iad grown up everywhere 
 under similar influences, and which was in all its parts con- 
 nected with the centre at Rome. 
 
 1 See below, p. 89. 
 " See vol. I. p. 93. 
 
 ' It had been the first thing of which we have any knowledge in the 
 growth of Phoenician, Greek, and Roman civilisation, ' 
 
CHAP. I.] The Foundations of Society. 6j 
 
 The monasteries, as Christian colonies, had been brought 
 to conform to the rule of S. Benedict, and thus came to have 
 a special allegiance to the Holy See^ ; to Rome the trains of 
 pilgrims wended their way along the commercial routes ; while 
 it was from Rome that archbishops received the pallium which 
 marked the dignity of their office^; and the papal theory of 
 the relations of Pope and Emperor triumphed at last. Each 
 of the elements in the reviving civilisation of the Dark Ages 
 had close connections with the Eternal City, from which the 
 known world had been ruled in imperial times. 
 
 There were three great threads that ran through the whole 
 social system of Christendom. First of all there was a common 
 religious life, with the powerful weapons of spiritual censure 
 and excommunication which it placed in the hands of the 
 clergy, so that they were able to enforce the line of policy 
 which Rome approved. Then there was the great judicial 
 system of canon law, a common code with similar tribunals 
 for the whole of Western Christendom, dealing not merely 
 with strictly ecclesiastical affairs but with many matters that 
 we should regard as economic, such as questions of com- 
 mercial morality, and also with social welfare as affected by 
 the law of marriage and the disposition of property by will. 
 Lastly, there was the payment of heavy dues to Rome ; these 
 were partly connected with the administration of canon law, 
 and partly consisted of papal taxation of various kinds. The 
 collection of this revenue gave rise to an enormous fiscal 
 system : the agents who administered it were Italian bankers 
 and their partners, and these papal merchants were settled all 
 over Western Christendom. 
 
 It was thus that a clerical organisation held the whole 
 social system together. Each of these sides of the united 
 life of Christendom, whether religious, legal or financial, came 
 to be the subject of attack at the Reformation. We may say 
 
 1 WorAAsmlottt, Monks of the West, ir. 345 — 347. 
 
 * Collier, Ecclesiastical History 0/ Great Britain, I. i6r. 
 
6S Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 that in Germany there was a genuine revolt against abuses 
 in connection with religious belief and practice; in Bohemia, 
 on the other hand, the pressure of papal taxation had given 
 occasion to indignant feeling for generations before the out- 
 break came; this was also true of England, though the final 
 breach in our country occurred in regard to the administration 
 of canon law, and the hearing of the king's cause. But the 
 violence of the rupture in each case helps to show how firm 
 the ligaments had been that bound the social system together. 
 
 The advantages of the new order, as compared with the 
 ancient empire of the Caesars or with the chaos that followed 
 on its fall, are so obvious to us, that we are apt to underrate 
 the difficulty of accounting for the growth of the new society, 
 as we find it in the twelfth century*. If we are content to 
 draw on our imaginations and people the Dark Ages with 
 men of modern type capable of cherishing our ideals and 
 being influenced by our motives, we can then trace the course 
 of the change in terms that are plausible throughout, and 
 that lay stress on utilitarian aims and motives of political 
 expediency as accounting sufficiently for the progress that 
 occurred. 
 
 But the problem is not so easily solved; we have to do 
 not merely with the revival of ancient society in its old- form, 
 but with its transformation. To maintain law and order 
 when once they are established is comparatively simple ; it is 
 a very different thing to create respect for Ufe and property 
 anew. We can only understand the course of the recon- 
 struction of society when we enter into the definite ideals 
 which the men of the Dark Ages set before themselves as 
 concrete things to be aimed at, and the motives which appealed 
 to them personally, with their experience and their beliefs. 
 
 1 After the twelfth century there was more' direct influence from 
 imperial institutions through the revived study of Civil Law, and also 
 through the more frequent intercourse with Constantinople which was 
 brought about by the Crusades. 
 
CHAP. I.] The Foundations of Society. 6g 
 
 We must not only consider the enormous difficulties to be 
 faced, but the means that were available for dealing with 
 them. When we thus understand the complexity and con- 
 ditions of the problem, we may see that there is only one 
 suggestion which offers a simple, and at the same time a 
 sufficient, solution of all the difficulties of the case. Chris- 
 tianity furnished the new ideals, and furnished also new and 
 powerful motives which appealed to individuals strongly, so 
 that they set themselves to realise their aims. The Roman 
 Empire had lingered on as the type of a decadent society, 
 which offered no high views of life, and supplied few effective 
 motives for individual self-discipline and energy'. Christianity 
 brought about the resurrection of a new society, because it 
 was not the mere sentiment of pious individuals, but a living 
 force which permeated all the remnants of civilisation, and 
 guided the energies of those by whom these various elements 
 were built up into the great mediaeval polity. 
 
 ^ Vol. I. p. 192. 
 
CHAPTER II, 
 
 NATURAL AND MONEY ECONOMY. 
 
 88. In the preceding paragraphs we have endeavoured 
 
 Material to point out the chief factors in the recon- 
 
 reiics of struction of civilised society in Western Europe ; 
 
 mediaeval -i i r i. 
 
 prosperity; we must now descnbc the character of the 
 ecclesiastical, economic institutions of mediaeval Christendom, 
 domestic. and examine their working when they were at 
 
 their best. Nor need we have much doubt as to the period 
 during which Christendom reached the highest point of ma- 
 terial well-being, according to the test we have habitually 
 used'. The thirteenth century was one of the great eras of 
 the world's history, an age of remarkable artistic and poetic 
 production, of unrivalled philosophical and legal acumen^, of 
 military expeditions and commercial enterprise. It was an 
 age, too, that has left abundant evidence of its material pros- 
 perity in the magnificent buildings which remain; sometimes 
 they are in ruins, and sometimes they have been restored ; but 
 however they may have suffered, they force us to feel what 
 large resources were at the command of those who were able 
 to carry out their designs on so grand a scale. 
 
 The churches of Christendom — cathedral, parochial, and 
 conventual — as they still remain, are among the most im- 
 pressive monuments of the architectural activity of the twelfth 
 
 1 Vol. I. p. 8. 
 
 * On the study of Roman Law, see below, p. iji. 
 
CHAP. II.] Natural and Money Economy, 71 
 
 and thirteenth centuries ; but many of them have perished 
 utterly. The changed taste of a later age has done much to 
 obliterate the evidence as to the number and grandeur of the 
 edifices which were erected by the Normans in the lands which 
 they conquered'. Not only was there a very general recon- 
 struction of the older and more meagre ecclesiastical buildings, 
 but there were also many wholly new foundations. The 
 reform of the monastic life which emanated from Cluny 
 and Citeaux, and gave rise to the new orders, was the sign 
 of a fresh enthusiasm for a stricter religious life, which 
 expressed itself most fittingly in the severely beautiful churches 
 of the Cistercians. The witness of the ecclesiastical buildings 
 is writ large as one of the features of the landscape through- 
 out Western Christendom, and tells of a lavish devotion of 
 wealth and vigour to the maintenance of Christian worship 
 and the furtherance of pious objects. 
 
 There had of course been numerous sacred temples in 
 the old world, and a great deal of art was lavished on the 
 service of the gods ; it is easy to trace analogies between the 
 practices of paganism and the superstitions of the middle 
 ages; it is not hard to shew that rites and legends from 
 the old world had survived, and were sometimes revested 
 in a Christian dress, when they were not so plainly unchristian'' 
 that it was obviously necessary to stamp them out. But 
 it is of less importance to note these superficial and occa- 
 sional resemblances than to mark the fundamental differences. 
 In the ancient world, religion, springing as it did from family 
 rites and civic duties, was intensely local; the philosopher 
 could find resemblances between the gods of different lands 
 and give the cults a spiritualised significance ; but the religion 
 of the individual, or of the city, was imbued with material 
 elements, personal and local*; the one common bond 
 
 ^ E. S. Prior, History of Gothic Art in England, 34. 
 
 * L. Eckenstein on S. Agatha in Woman under Monasticism, p. 15. 
 
 * Fustel de Coulanges, La citi aiitiqtte, (1895), pp. 37, 167. 
 
^2 Western Civilisation. [book IV. 
 
 through the ancient empire was the worship of the Emperor 
 — of arbitrary human will. In Christendom there was one 
 religion which was common to all; it might be localised at 
 some particular spot, which had been the scene of a spiritual 
 triumph— like the sepulchre at Jerusalem, or in a far less 
 degree the cave at Subiaco — it might be hallowed by the 
 treasured relics of some victor for the faith; but this was a 
 spiritual faith and therefore without distinctions of person, 
 place, or time, even when it was localised here by special 
 associations and degraded there by admixture with pagan 
 survivals. The internal struggles of Christendom gave rise 
 to the scandal of conflicting appeals to one God to support 
 the cause of rival claimants, but we no longer see the struggle 
 of gods with gods'. There was a fundamental unity of Chris- 
 tian faith and sentiment underlying all the differences of race 
 and interest. Religious motives might be brought into play 
 so as to give more vehemence to human passions; religious 
 principles might be alleged to excuse the direst crimes ; but 
 there was after all a common ground on which men could 
 meet, one centre to which they could look, and a definite cause 
 which they had at heart. The churches of Christendom are 
 the outward and visible signs of a common religious life such 
 as was entirely strange to the ancient world ; they are monu- 
 ments which serve to remind us of the fact that one religious 
 and legal organisation ran through the whole social structure. 
 
 Churches and ecclesiastical edifices are among the most 
 prominent vestiges of mediaeval culture ; but there are, besides, 
 buildings which remain to testify to the high development of 
 other sides of life. The crusades were the outcome of re- 
 hgious enthusiasm, but they were also partly due to com- 
 mercial motives, and they proved to be the means of 
 introducing a new era of mercantile enterprise, which greatly 
 affected the towns of Italy and Flanders, and to a certain 
 extent of Germany, France, and England. Costly Town Halls 
 
 ' Fustel de Coulanges, La citi antique, p. 175. 
 
CHAP. II.] Natural and Money Economy. 73 
 
 survive to commemorate the greatness of some of these trading 
 centres. Such civic buildings served the same purposes as the 
 basilicas of the ancient world; and, though there were no 
 edifices which attained the magnificence of the range of fora 
 which were grouped near the Capitol of Rome', there was 
 enough grandeur to excite the admiration of those who look 
 back from a utilitarian age. The piazza S. Marco at Venice, 
 the Loggia at Florence, the city buildings at Bruges and 
 Ghent, are at least striking memorials of newly developed 
 commercial intercourse and of a municipal prosperity which 
 had been unknown for centuries. 
 
 Though the arts of peace were thus flourishing once more, 
 the thirteenth century was an age of frequent warfare ] houses 
 of every kind were .built in a fashion which rendered them 
 susceptible of defence. The great castles which overshadow 
 the towns of France and Germany have their counterpart in the 
 fortresses which Edward I created around and throughout 
 the principality of Wales. The art of military^ fortification 
 had been greatly developed by contact with the East, and 
 the means of defence far excelled the forces of offensive war- 
 fare. The castles of great nobles were places from which 
 defiance could be easily hurled at an emperor or king; the 
 walls of the cities enabled the burgesses to struggle for the 
 maintenance of liberty ; while the towers of parish churches 
 and the buildings of mediaeval manors were capable of offering 
 protection from hurried raids. The military and domestic, 
 no less than the ecclesiastical and civic buildings which sur- 
 vive, tell us something of the characteristic features of life 
 in the halcyon days of mediaeval Christendom. 
 
 The enumeration of these architectural monuments may 
 serve to remind us of the different types of institution which 
 we must study in turn, if we hope to understand their eco- 
 nomic working. On the one hand these edifices bring before 
 
 1 Hodgkin, Italy, IV. 104. 
 
 " As «^. at Chateau Gaillard, Oman, ^ History of the Art of War ,'^. t^'i,^. 
 
74 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 us the far-reaching ecclesiastical system which had been con- 
 sciously developed on similar lines throughout the whole of 
 Christendom. Other buildings enable us to recall the city 
 institutions, with the facilities they afforded for intercommuni- 
 cation and trade between different points throughout Europe. 
 There are others still which help us to form a vivid image 
 of household administration of different sorts, as it existed in 
 the castles of kings and barons, the palaces of bishops, and 
 even in the monasteries or the manors. The principal groups 
 of architectural remains correspond to the three different types 
 of social organisation which have left their mark on Modei-n 
 Europe. 
 
 89. The thirteenth century was, as has been pointed out, 
 
 a period of great material prosperity : but it was 
 
 tion from also an age of rapid transition, one might almost 
 
 natural to gg^y gf economic revolution. The revival of 
 
 money ■' 
 
 economy— commercial intercourse and development of 
 
 pro"gress!'°"^' trading centres had brought about a wide 
 diffusion of money, which tended to the sub- 
 stitution of money bargains for payments rendered in service 
 and in kind. The government, ecclesiastical as well as civil, 
 was keenly alive to the financial convenience of a money 
 revenue, in respect to collection, transmission, and methods 
 of account. The system of natural economy as embodied in 
 Frankish institutions was passing away ; and the pressure of 
 the demands of fiscal officials forced proprietors generally to 
 reorganise their establishments with the view of obtaining a 
 money income from their estates. The course of the transition 
 from natural to money economy — from barter and payment 
 in service to the use of coin — gave rise to many practical 
 problems, and called forth a great deal of learned discussion. 
 A mass of records and some literature survive, especially 
 from English sources, which enable us to study some typical 
 phases of society, as drawn by contemporary hands, and to 
 distinguish the factors which contributed to this important 
 
CHAP. II.] Natural and Money Economy. 75 
 
 change. We can best understand the working of the social 
 institutions of the day when we view them in connection with 
 this economic revolution. 
 
 In the preceding volume of this essay it has been necessary 
 to call attention to other instances of the same revolution, 
 and to note the substitution of money for natural economy, as 
 we find it in the ancient world'. The difificulty of collecting 
 a money revenue from the rural population was one that taxed 
 the ingenuity of Babylonian and Ptolemaic financiers. We 
 have also seen what dangerous power was exercised by the 
 moneyed class in Rome, and how greedily they availed them- 
 selves of their opportunities for becoming rich at the expense 
 of subject peoples. Money economy had also imposed a 
 heavy burden on the poor cultivators of Attica in the time 
 of Solon. On the other hand we may remember that the 
 introduction of a money economy into the Greek cities was 
 one of the conditions which rendered the diffusion of political 
 interest and power possible. All these phenomena may be 
 found once more, in different forms and on a different scale, 
 but with results that are at least so far analogous that they 
 prove very instructive. 
 
 Though there were many mitigating circumstances in 
 mediaeval as compared with ancient times, the pressure of 
 the change was doubtless very severe ; and there was a bitter 
 feeling against the Jews and other bankers who had a partial 
 monopoly of the medium of exchange. The convenience of 
 the monetary system was, however, so great, both for fiscal 
 purposes and as a means of opening up the possiKility of 
 commercial and industrial development, that the revolution 
 was inevitable : had it not occurred, all human progress would 
 have been arrested at a primitive ' stationary state,' with society 
 organised in household groups. The economic advantages 
 which have accrued from the general introduction of money 
 are clear, if we contrast Western civilisation to-day with the 
 
 1 Vol. I. 73, 100, 114. 
 
76 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 condition of Europe in the time of Charles the Great; and 
 we must remember that this economic step in advance rendered 
 political and constitutional progress possible, both in the 
 ancient and in the mediaeval world. It was not until public 
 burdens were reckoned and collected in terms of money, 
 that it was feasible for the subjects to aim at controlling 
 the power of the purse. So long as revenue was obtained 
 in different forms, it was very difficult to unite the various 
 sections of the community in common action, and it was im- 
 possible to criticise the financial administration intelligently and 
 effectively. The connection between the new economic con- 
 ditions and political progress is most noticeable in the history 
 of the European country which first adopted representative 
 institutions. Constitutional progress followed very closely on 
 the administrative changes which took place in England be- 
 tween the time of the Confessor and the time of Edward I. 
 The system of collecting revenue in money, instead of relying 
 on payment in kind and on service personally rendered, made 
 for more effective government in every department, and it 
 was a necessary step for the attainment of the prized power 
 of the English citizen to control and to adjust taxation. When 
 the customs on imports consisted chiefly of tuns of wine, and 
 traditional dues were habitually levied, there could neither 
 be the control of taxation, nor the attempts to adjust its 
 incidence with which we are familiar. The introduction of 
 money economy had been a necessary step without which the 
 Greek citizen could not be his own master and have free 
 time fot political duty ; it was also a necessary step in English 
 political development; it brought into light what concerned 
 all, and made it possible that the common obligations should 
 be discussed by all. 
 
 In the thirteenth century the life of cities, the ecclesiastical 
 organisation of Christendom, and the administration of king- 
 doms, were all becoming permeated by money economy ; but 
 there must have been many relations of life into which it 
 
CHAP. 11.] Natural and Money Economy. 77 
 
 rarely entered, even in advanced communities. After all, the 
 towns of Western Christendom were comparatively small ; the 
 rural population was relatively far larger than it is to-day, 
 and among the rural population in the thirteenth century 
 natural economy was dominant^ and recourse to money 
 payment was not habitual, even when it was frequent. The 
 serfs put in their work, and were generally remunerated by 
 rations and by the holdings which they cultivated on their own 
 account; in other cases the produce of a holding might be 
 divided proportionately between the cultivators and the owner 
 of the soil. Occasional pecuniary demands pressed heavily on 
 rural proprietors, who habitually dispensed with money and 
 organised their establishments on a self-sufficing basis, and it 
 is in their case that we realise most plainly the difficulties 
 caused by the transition from natural to money economy. 
 
 90. Commercial and financial questions became so promi- 
 nent in the thirteenth century that they attracted The me- 
 a great deal of attention from men whose intel- of^prfcel'ltr^ 
 lectual acuteness was very remarkable. A con- fundamental 
 siderable body of economic literature of various its practical 
 kinds has survived from that time. In so far applications. 
 as it is merely descriptive it is of great interest to the historian ; 
 but it has an even higher importance when it contains prin- 
 ciples and enunciates maxims for the practical conduct of 
 affairs. There were many evils in the business life of the time 
 which it was desirable to check ; and definite principles as to 
 what was right and wrong in monetary transactions were formu- 
 lated by contemporary moralists with the view of establishing 
 the grounds and limits of wise interference in matters of 
 trade. Their economic analysis was very defective, and 
 the theory of price which they put forward is untenable; 
 but the ethical standpoint which they took is well worth 
 
 1 In the middle of the eighteenth century a large proportion of the rent 
 of many estates in Scotland was paid . in kind. 11. G. Graham, Social 
 Life of Scotland, 1. 4. 
 
78 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 examination, and the practical measures which they recom- 
 mended appear to have been highly beneficial in the cir- 
 cumstances with which they had to deal. Their action was 
 not unwise; their common-sense morality was sound; but 
 the economic theories, by which they tried to give an intel- 
 lectual justification for their rules and their practice, were 
 quite erroneous. 
 
 In modern times the form of economic doctrine has been 
 affected by the fact that it has been so much discussed by men 
 who were accustomed to deal with physical and mathematical 
 problems, and who brought their habitual methods of reason- 
 ing to bear on the phenomena of supply and demand. In a 
 similar fashion the economic doctrine of the thirteenth century 
 in Christendom was affected, as far as its form was concerned, 
 by the engrossing studies of the time; economic problems 
 were discussed by men who were habituated to the methods 
 of metaphysics. In accordance with current modes of thought, 
 they tried to determine an ideal standg-rd which should be 
 realised in particular transactions, and sought for a definite 
 conception of a "just price"; the practical enquiries then 
 resolved themselves into means for discovering the just price 
 of each particular thing. From the modern point of view 
 this whole quest was quite chimerical : prices are always fluc- 
 tuating, and must from their very nature fluctuate. According 
 to the "plenty or scarcity of the time" there will be great dif- 
 ferences in the quantities available, and therefore in the 
 relative values, of wheat, cloth, coal and commodities of every 
 sort. We know too, that the commodity used for money 
 must vary in value from time to time, and that therefore there 
 must be continual fluctuations not only in values but in prices 
 as well. The attempt to determine an ideal price implies 
 that there can and ought to be stability in relative values and 
 stability in the measure of values, — ^which is absurd. 
 
 The mediaeval doctrine and its application rested upon 
 another assumption, which we have outlived. Value is not a 
 
CHAP. II.] Natural and Money Economy. 79 
 
 quality which inheres in an object, so that it shall have the 
 same worth for everybody ; it arises from the personal prefer- 
 ences and needs of different people, some of whom desire 
 a given thing more and some less, some of whom want to 
 use it in one way and some in another. Value is not objective, 
 — intrinsic in the object, — but subjective, varying with the 
 desires and intentions of the possessors or would-be possessors ; 
 and because it is thus subjective, there cannot be a definite 
 ideal value, which every article ought to possess, and still less 
 a just price as the measure of that ideal value. 
 
 This is one of the cases where the minute analysis of a 
 conception has had practical consequences of a very far- 
 reaching character. So long as it was held that every object 
 had a definite value of its own, it was plausible to say that 
 gain could never arise by a fair exchange between two indi- 
 viduals. If I give an equivalent in exchange for what I get, 
 there seems to be no room for me to gain ; if I have gained 
 by an exchange, it must be because I have not really given 
 an equivalent, but have enriched myself at the expense of 
 the man with whom I bargained. That one country was the 
 better for intercourse with other countries was plain enough, 
 since God had given different gifts to each, and the exchange 
 of superfluities was desirable ; but the calling of a merchant 
 who got rich in the process of exchanging was always more 
 or less under suspicion, as it was not possible to see, from 
 the mediaeval standpoint, how his gains could be really justi- 
 fiable. This was one reason why mediaeval writers so strongly 
 deprecated the action of the man who bought things in order 
 to sell them elsewhere at a profit, and raised the price against 
 another man who wanted to buy the same article for use on the 
 spot. This misunderstanding, with the consequent prejudice 
 against all commercial gain, was an element of confusion in 
 thirteenth century discussion of business morality. 
 
 While mediaeval economic theory seems to us to be non- 
 sensical, and we find it impossible to sympathise with tlie 
 
8o Western Civilisation. [book IV. 
 
 sentiment it encouraged, we may take a much more favourable 
 view of these writers when we turn from their doctrine of 
 what was right, to consider the practices they condemned as 
 wrong. This is a subject to which but little attention is given 
 in modem days : our economic analysis shows that wherever 
 an exchange takes place, both parties gain by it, and we are 
 apt to jump to the conclusion that if both parties gain the 
 transaction is fair — not perhaps according to any standard 
 of poetical justice — but as fair as can be expected in practical 
 life. But there may be very hard bargains when one man is 
 able to take advantage of the temporary distress of another, 
 or where, from superior knowledge, the merchant is able to 
 get the better of the native from whom he buys valuable pro- 
 ducts with some paltry truck. We feel that it is unfair for the 
 economically strong to wring all he can out of the economi- 
 cally weak, or to trade on terms in which "common esti- 
 mation" is notoriously set aside. We have given up as 
 impracticable many of the old attempts to put down hard 
 bargains with a high hand ; but modern moral feeling does not 
 sensibly diifer from that of mediaeval times in the desire, if it 
 were possible, to interfere with the action of any dealers who 
 are able to enrich themselves through the necessities or the 
 ignorance of others, and to gain at their expense. 
 
 If we tried to find a test by which to discriminate hard 
 bargains we could scarcely do better than adopt the medi- 
 aeval phrase and say that hardship arises when a bargain is 
 made without reference to " common estimation." " Common 
 estimation," according to mediaeval minds, was patent and 
 obvious in an open market, where buyers and sellers met to- 
 gether, and bargained over local products ; but the forestalkr, 
 who made purchases in a private way before the goods were 
 properly exposed to sale, seemed to be a suspicious character 
 and to be trying to enrich himself by obtaining special terms. 
 So far as manufactured goods were concerned, "common 
 estimation" expressed itself in the deliberate opiiuon of the 
 
CHAP, n.] Natural and Money Economy. 8i 
 
 good men of any craft, who understood the conditions of 
 production, the expense of materials and the cost in labour, 
 and who could thus calculate a reasonable price for one group 
 of commodities. The principle comes out in early regulations 
 for the price of bread, and gives some justification for the 
 statement that the reasonable price of the Middle Ages was 
 based on a calculation as to the cost of production'. 
 
 The prohibition of trading methods which ignored the 
 reasonable price seemed well adapted for guarding against 
 hard bargains : in some cases, however, it was possible to go 
 farther, and to lay down definite limits to the range of prices, 
 or even to prescribe lists which were to be authoritatively 
 enforced. A maximum limit was set for victuals in towns; 
 for there was reason to fear that if the licensed victualler was 
 too extortionate and tried to take advantage of the ignorance 
 and necessity of the travelling merchant^, he might drive away 
 trade from that place. On the other hand the assize of bread 
 and beer supplied a sliding scale, which would reassure the 
 public that a rise in the price of bread was really warranted 
 by the state of the market, and was not merely due to the 
 cupidity of the bakers. 
 
 The fixing of a minimum limit below which goods might 
 not be sold was probably less common, but it occurs in con- 
 nection with the English export of wool^ to the Continent. 
 Local feeling was very strong, and each little community 
 would insist that it should have a prior claim in regard to 
 the enjoyment of its own products, and that they should not be 
 purchased at wholesale rates for transport to distant markets. 
 The whole scheme of household economy was conducted on 
 the assumption that each estate should be, so far as possible, 
 
 ^ Ashley, Economic History, i. i. p. 138. 
 
 ^ On the fixing of reasonable prices in Rome, Rodocanachi, i. p. xxx. 
 Also for wages, ib. p. 20. Compare, for similar policy, Cassiodorus, 
 Variae, XI. 11, 12. 
 
 ' Cunningham, Growth of English Industry, I. 625. 
 
 c. w. c. II. 6 
 
82 Western Civilisation. [book IV. 
 
 self-sufficing, and that the bailiff should only sell the surplus 
 that could not be used; and, as a national economic system 
 developed, it took similar lines, and limited export trade to the 
 sale of the surplus for which there was no demand at home. 
 
 In these cases the range of prices was limited by authorita- 
 tive regulation, but there "were also many fixed or customary 
 prices, which arose from attempts to express payments, regularly 
 made in kind or service, in terms of money. Charles the Great 
 had devised a scale to show the rate at which tribute in kind' 
 should be accepted from the conquered Saxons. Similarly the 
 fir ma unius noctis^ appears to have had a definite monetary 
 equivalent in the Angevin fiscal system. In many manors too 
 the serfs paid quit-rents, or regular sums at which their services 
 were commuted, so that, instead of doing definite works as 
 an obligation incidental to the possession of a holding, they 
 enjoyed their land at a fixed money rent. In such cases the 
 customary money payment came into vogue when natural 
 economy was beginning to give way. 
 
 91. While so much thought was bestowed on a theory 
 
 of price, and its application to business practice, 
 
 rogative and it was Only natural that attention should be also 
 
 the Minting dcvoted to monetary theory. The best example 
 
 of Money. . ,. , . .' ■" , . , . . \ 
 
 of mediaeval opmion on this subject is to be 
 found in the Tractatus de mutatione monetarum of Nicholas 
 Oresme ; there is no reason to suppose that this author made 
 any considerable advance on the scientific opinion which was 
 current before his time'; though, both from its systematic 
 character and its popular form, this treatise has a very special 
 interest. The author, who rose to be Bishop of Lisieux, was 
 a scholar and a lawyer, but he was also a keen observer of 
 actual affairs; his pamphlet, which is entirely free from scho- 
 
 ^ Capitulare, A.D. 797, c. 11; Migne, 1. 202. 
 ' Viiiugradoff, Villainage in England, 303. 
 
 ' Endemann, Die nationaloekonomischen Grwtdsiilze der canonislisc/ien 
 Lehi'e, p. 75 n. Brants, V &cotwmie politique au luoyen dge, 187, 
 
CHAP. II.] Natural and Money Economy. 83 
 
 lastic ped:intry of every kind, was written with special reference 
 to the reckless debasement of the French coinage which had 
 taken place under John the Good of France. Much of the 
 interest in the treatise arises from the decided view which the 
 author expresses as to kingly responsibility, and the limits of 
 royal prerogative. The money of the realm belonged to the 
 community, and the king could have no right to treat it as his 
 own, or to alter it arbitrarily at his pleasure; if he stooped 
 to do so for the sake of gain, he was worse than an usurer, 
 for he was not driving a hard bargain, but extorting money 
 from those who never bargained with him at all. 
 
 His political philosophy defines the standpoint from which 
 Nicholas Oresme treated the questions of currency. He dis- 
 cusses the importance of the stamp on the coins, and shows 
 that the ratio of gold to silver coin depends on the relative 
 value of gold and silver as commodities. He deals with the 
 expedient of altering the denominations of current coins in 
 order to raise their nominal value, and with the mischiefs that 
 result from reducing the weight or debasing the fineness of 
 the money issued from the mint. He recognises that it may 
 be convenient to coin token money of some inferior metal, 
 but insists that the purity of the standard coin should always 
 be maintained. His exposition of economic doctrine is so 
 thorough and clear, that centuries were to elapse before his 
 treatment of monetary problems was superseded. 
 
 The treatise of the French bishop is an admirable ex- 
 position of the principles of a sound monetary system, but it 
 gave little guidance on the practical difficulty which was felt in 
 commercial circles of exchanging the money of one country 
 for the current coin of another. This was a very complicated 
 business, as there were real differences of size and fineness 
 with which travellers could not be fully acquainted; but ac- 
 count had to be taken of even more obscure phenomena; 
 the same coin might have a different purchasing power in 
 one country that was well supplied with the precious metals, 
 
84 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 from that which it had in a land where bullion was very 
 scarce, and the range of prices low. This simple fact of 
 commercial experience was entirely at variance with the theory 
 of a "just price," intrinsic in the thing itself; and the selling 
 of coins and making a price for coins, as was done at fairs 
 and other places of resort, appeared to be in itself a dis- 
 reputable occupation, by which the exchanger succeeded in 
 obtaining a sordid gain. The real justification for varying 
 rates of foreign exchanges was unintelligible to the ordinary 
 man of probity at the time; and the merchant had little 
 means of checking the cambist's calculations. In the interests 
 of commerce it was advantageous, when it was possible, to 
 commit money-changing to responsible officials', who were 
 under the direct control of the highest political authority. 
 
 (1) Ecclesiastical and Royal Finance. 
 
 92. Such was the condition of opinion on prices and 
 Ecciesias- Currency at the time when the system of money 
 ticai and payment was being rapidly introduced in con- 
 
 system? '* nection with transactions of every kind. The 
 Papal pressure of papal taxation, the necessity of 
 
 collection' and Collecting it, and the convenience of transmitting 
 transmission. jj ^^^^ widely diffused influences which were 
 steadily exerted in favour of the change. The popes had 
 created an immense fiscal system all through Christendom; 
 part of their income consisted of the rents drawn from the 
 patrimony of the Church of Rome in Italy and Sicily^; but 
 large annual payments were also received regularly from the 
 lands of the numerous monasteries that had commended 
 
 * The banker's business at Rome was regulated by the Holy See. 
 Rodocanachi, op. cit. 11. 6. Exchange tables were organised at Dover by 
 Edward I. in 1199. 
 
 '' Fabre, &tudi sur It Liber Censuum in £coles /laufoises d'Athenes el 
 de Rome, p. 8. 
 
CHAP. II.] Natural and Money Economy. 8$ 
 
 themselves to the Apostolic See'. Very large sums were also 
 levied as fees in connection with legal proceedings in the 
 ecclesiastical courts, or as taxation insisted on under various 
 forms. It would have been impossible to administer this 
 revenue if it had been taken in kind, but when it was 
 rendered in money it could be conveniently collected and 
 transmitted to Rome by authorised agents, who had established 
 themselves throughout the whole of Western Europe. 
 
 The Papacy was not uniformly successful in obtaining a 
 full recognition of its claims to raise revenue in all lands alike ; 
 some sources of income were available, however, to a greater 
 or less degree in all Christian countries. England was pre- 
 vailed on to bear the burden of ecclesiastical taxation in its 
 heaviest forms ^; the sums collected there were exceptionally 
 large, when estimated in relation to the total wealth of that 
 outlying and little developed land. Peter's pence had been 
 raised since the ninth century, and the success of the Norman 
 invasion, which had been in some sort a crusade, tended to 
 strengthen the papal influence over ecclesiastical affairs in 
 England". The re-organisation of the. ecclesiastical courts 
 opened the way for more frequent appeals to Rome ; while the 
 administration of canon law within the realm by papal officials 
 appears to have been much more general than is commonly 
 supposed^ These charges were a large item in the papal 
 revenue; the income drawn, under various pretexts, from the 
 endowments of different parishes, cathedrals or abbeys was 
 also large. In addition to these habitual contributions there 
 
 1 Fabre, op. cit. pp. 37, 116. 
 
 ^ Milman, Latin Christianity (31CI Ed.), vi. pp. 83, 290. For France 
 see Glasson, Histoire du droit et des Institutions de France, v. ch. v. p. 263 ; 
 also G^sqast, Prdcis des Institutions politiques en Pancienne Frame, II. 19, 24. 
 
 ' The monastery of Battle was placed under direct papal control, and 
 a great deal of English preferment came to be in the hands of papal 
 nominees. 
 
 ■• F. W. ^Maitland, Roman Canon Law in the Church of England, 
 113 fol. 
 
8G Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 were also extraordinary dues, such as the tithe of all eccle- 
 siastical property which was levied in connection with the 
 second crusade. The claim to tax the people and the clergy 
 was submitted to with a bad grace; but the ecclesiastical 
 contention that the temporalities of the Church should be free 
 from the payment of taxes to the Crown roused a prompt and 
 effective resistance. The demands of the papal court became 
 more and more exorbitant throughout Christendom generally 
 in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries'; the increased reve- 
 nues of the Church in Bohemia^, which had suddenly become 
 a wealthy country, excited widespread jealousy and gave rise 
 to premonitory symptoms of the Reformation. 
 
 The camera, as the papal treasury at Rome was called, had 
 an elaborate organisation^; and the money obtained in the 
 different countries of Christendom was collected by Italian 
 bankers who were generally known as the Pope's merchants; 
 the papal fiscal requirements were thus the principal cause which 
 led to the development of foreign banking*. The revenue from 
 England was transmitted by bills of exchange, which were 
 generally met by the exportation of EngUsh wool to Italian 
 markets; there must, however, have been a considerable drain 
 of bullion from the lands which were destitute of valuable 
 products for export traded The chief agents in forwarding the 
 money to Rome were known as depositaries, and they were 
 
 ^ Gottlob, Aus der Camera Apostolica, p. 1 83. 
 
 * Kautsky, Communism in Central Europe, p. 41. 
 ' Compare Gottlob, Aus der Camera, p. 70 fol. 
 
 * Military requirements sometimes necessitated the transference of large 
 sums of money. Servois, Emprunts de S. Louis in Bibliothique de Vicole 
 des Charles, 4"° serie, iv. 113. Besides the facilities for such business 
 afforded by the Italian bankers [Bond, Loans supplied by Italian Merchants 
 in Archaologia xxvin (1840)], an elaborate system for the transmission of 
 the precious metals had been built up by the Templars. Delisle, Opera- 
 tions financih-es des Templiers in Acad, des Inscrip. t. xxxill. (1889). 
 
 » On the collection of the tithes in Greenland in \i%i see Heywood, 
 Documenta selecta e tabulario secreto Vaticano quae Romanoruiii Pontificum 
 erga Amei icae populos curam testantur. No. 8. 
 
CHAP. II.] Natural and Money Economy. 87 
 
 almost exclusively Italians ; but the actual work of obtaining 
 the papal dues was done by collectors. Much of this income 
 was doubtless collected in coin; but some of it, such as 
 tithes, appears to have been paid in kind in the thirteenth 
 century, and it would then be the duty of the collectors to 
 realise the money worth of the corn or other products which 
 came into their hands. They had also occasional opportunities 
 of advancing silver to persons who were temporarily unable 
 to meet the papal demands, and of engaging in a great deal of 
 profitable, but not very reputable business. In so far as the 
 Pope's merchants gained by carrying on foreign exchanges, 
 they were condemned by the public opinion of the day ; and 
 in so far as they took advantage of the necessitous, they gave 
 rise to public scandal and brought religion into contempt. 
 
 93. The papal revenue system seems to have been 
 entirely organised on a monetary basis. When coUection 
 we turn to the administration of royal income ?f Royal . 
 
 ^ Revenue in 
 
 we get clearer light on the transition from kind and in 
 natural to money economy, especially in the """^y- 
 case of England, which is peculiarly rich in its financial records. 
 The organisation of the English Exchequer as it existed in the 
 twelfth century has been fully described by Bishop Richard 
 in the Dialogus de ^Scaccario ; and so many of the Pipe Rolls 
 have been published that there is abundant opportunity for 
 becoming acquainted with the whole system of account'. 
 
 There is an analogy between the sources of royal and 
 papal income; in both cases there were certain landed pos- 
 sessions which yielded a revenue; there were profits of juris- 
 diction and an income arising from taxation ; though the 
 items included, and the proportions of revenue obtained 
 under each title, would not correspond very closely. The 
 regular income of the king was assessed in one payment as the 
 ferm- of the shire ; and the sheriff of each county had also to 
 collect the sums that had accrued from any occasional or 
 ^ Hubert Hall, Introduction in Publications oi Pipe Roll Society. 
 
88 Western Civilisation. [book iv. 
 
 additional source. In cases where he had expended money on 
 the king's behalf, he was called upon to show his authority for 
 making the payment ; and the balance due to the Crown was 
 handed over in money. The coin was carefully scrutinised and 
 tested before it was accepted and the sheriff could be de- 
 clared quit of his responsibility as royal collector for that year. 
 The English evidence is especially interesting, not only because 
 it goes so fully into the system of account, the reckoning and 
 testing of money and the giving of receipts, but because we 
 find that so late as the early part of the twelfth century a 
 portion of the royal taxation had been collected in kind', and 
 the monetary fiscal system which is so fully described was, 
 at least in its completeness, of comparatively recent intro- 
 duction. 
 
 In the time of Edward I special arrangements were made 
 for the collection of the customs revenue. This is a matter of 
 considerable interest, as we see that in one branch of the 
 import trade payment in kind still held its own ; the ships 
 from Gascony were expected to contribute one tun of wine 
 from before and one from abaft the mast. During the reign 
 of Edward III we have other instances of collecting taxation 
 in kind, and the staple export trade of the country was seriously 
 affected by royal demands. Parliament voted supplies to the 
 king, to be taken up in the form of wool, and transmitted by 
 royal agents to Flanders, where the proceeds of the sale were 
 to be expended in military operations'. It thus appears that 
 the fiscal system of England in the fourteenth century was 
 not quite completely established on a monetary basis, since a 
 temporary reversion to the primitive methods of natural 
 economy was still possible. 
 
 This revolution in fiscal practice could only be accomplished 
 by the help of capitalists as intermediaries. It had been the 
 deliberate design of William the Conqueror to organise his 
 
 ' Diahgus de Scaccario, i. c. 7. 
 
 ' Cunningham, Alien Immigrants, 78. 
 
CHAP. II.] Natural and Money Economy. 89 
 
 revenues on a monetary basis, and he induced some Jews to 
 accompany him to England, as his scheme could not be carried 
 through without the presence and assistance of moneyed men. 
 The Crown desired to have command of money, and the wealth 
 of the subjects generally consisted of land and goods. The 
 Jews could be called upon by the Crown to make advances 
 in money, while the taxes were being collected in kind and 
 realised; or in other cases the capitalists might be willing to 
 lend money to a taxpayer, so that he could meet the royal 
 demands with current coin; the English Jews seem to have 
 been of little service either to industry or commerce, but they 
 undoubtedly facilitated the important fiscal changes which were 
 carried out in the period succeeding the Norman Conquest. 
 They attained their greatest prosperity and highest importance 
 in the Jewish world' in the latter part of the twelfth and 
 beginning of the thirteenth centuries. After that date, the 
 more general diffusion of money economy may have limited 
 the field for their operations, while their practical monopoly 
 was broken down by the Italian bankers. It is at all events 
 instructive to note that whereas William the Conqueror found 
 it necessary to introduce the Jews into England, circumstances 
 had so far changed that Edward I was able to dispense with 
 their services and to expel them from the country. 
 
 (ii) Civic Life. 
 
 94. When we turn from ecclesiastical and royal to civic 
 economy, we find ourselves in a sphere where j,. . , ., 
 the use of money had probably been in vogue Rise of the 
 from time immemorial, since facilities for trade ommunes. 
 were implied in the very idea of town life"; urban society and 
 the institutions it evolved necessarily rested on this basis I 
 
 ^ Jacobs, Jews in Angevin England, Introd. p. v. 
 
 ' See above, p. 57. 
 
 ' The full social effects of money-economy cannot be seen, however, in 
 
go Western CiviHsatioti. [book iv. 
 
 Commerce had been an essential condition without which the 
 towns of Western Christendom would not have come into 
 being, and the development of trading intercourse in the 
 eleventh and twelfth centuries afforded opportunities for the 
 growth of civic wealth and power. We can trace how the tide 
 of commercial prosperity flowed farther and farther north, first 
 affecting the 'Italian Peninsula and the towns of Septimania 
 and Provence, then showing itself in the Rhine lands and 
 Flanders and the north of France, and penetrating at last 
 across the Channel to England^ As the towns profited by 
 increasing trade, they were able to secure a larger measure of 
 political freedom. Sometimes, as in Languedoc, they fought 
 for it; in other instances, and particularly in England, they 
 purchased it; but by different stages and on different oc- 
 casions, the towns of Christendom were able to secure muni- 
 cipal liberties. Thus the growth of commercial prosperity 
 was the chief condition which rendered possible the great 
 movement known as the rise of the communes. 
 
 As we have seen above, many towns had had their be- 
 ginnings under ecclesiastical tutelage and protection; but in 
 the twelfth century they had so far outgrown it as to aim at 
 enjoying powers of self-government. They may have been 
 inspired to make this attempt by some tradition of popular 
 rights embodied in ancient customs I They would find en- 
 couraging examples as they came to understand the practical 
 independence which was enjoyed by Venice and Amalfi in 
 their relations with the Emperor at Constantinople; the free 
 cities of the Holy Roman Empire eventually attained to similar 
 political independence'. The townsmen in France came to 
 adopt one regular method of procedure in their opposition 
 to the arbitrary exercise of seigniorial authority ; they usually 
 
 those urban communities where elements of an old- order survived and 
 police duty was done personally, and office undertaken gratuitously. 
 
 ' Giry, in Histoire Generale, edited by Lavisse and Rambaud, II. 410. 
 
 ' Ibid. op. cit. II. 423, 424. ° Ibid. op. cit. II. 439. 
 
CHAP. II.] Natural and Money Economy. 91 
 
 formed communes which were sworn associations for mutual 
 support in their struggle for independence, and the wealthier 
 merchants appear to have taken a prominent part in organising 
 the movement. The formation of these communes could be 
 represented as the action of "usurers'," and it led to the 
 transference of power from the landed authority of Bishops 
 and Counts to a moneyed aristocracy in each town. This 
 revolution doubtless had its analogue in the history of ancient 
 cities', and it is also an interesting anticipation of the contest 
 between the landed and the moneyed interests over the power 
 of directing the national policy of England in the eighteenth 
 century. 
 
 There were two points in regard to which the townsmen 
 were particularly inclined to resent the interference of the 
 lord — on the one hand they desired to evade his rights in 
 connection with tolls, since these might prove very oppressive', 
 and on the other they preferred not to have their legal business 
 decided by tribunals which ignored law merchant. There was 
 ample justification for the desire of the townsmen to have 
 privileges of self-government; while the great landed pro- 
 prietors, under whose patronage and protection the town had 
 grown up, would feel a not unnatural resentment at the de- 
 mand of the townsmen to set aside immemorial obligations 
 and to withdraw themselves from long-established jurisdiction. 
 The clergy and the seigneurs were on the whole decidedly 
 jealous of the rising power of the communes. 
 
 But it would be a mistake to suppose that the townsmen 
 had to encounter uniform hostility. It was at least the occa- 
 sional policy of the French kings to play off the rising towns 
 against the great feudatories, and to show a friendly spirit 
 
 ' See the Synod of Paris in 1213. Giry, op. cit. n. 428. 
 
 " Fustel de Coulanges, La CitS Antique, p. 381. 
 
 ^ On tolls in the Prankish Realm see E. Mayer, Zoll, Kaufmannschaft 
 und Markt in Abhandlungen zum LXX. Geburtstage K. v. Maurers, p. 
 380 foil. 
 
92 Western Civilisation. [book iv. 
 
 towards communes outside their own domains. There were 
 seigneurs too who realised that the commerce which centred 
 in towns might be a source of wealth ; they allowed the villes- 
 de-bourgeoisie ' to obtain limited privileges", which were granted 
 by charter to townsmen, who yet had neither the common 
 seal nor the belfry, which were the outward marks of the 
 corporate life of a true commune. After the crusades had 
 opened the eyes of the western rulers to the value of 
 commerce, there was an additional incentive to the founding 
 of city colonies which has been noticed above^ New towns 
 and large suburbs were laid out on a definite plan, both 
 by French kings and by Edward I in his French dominions. 
 Montpazier* and Carcassonne are among the most beautiful 
 examples of the types that were preferred, when a town had 
 to be laid out afresh °, or when any considerable additions 
 were required beyond its existing limits'. 
 
 Among the cities of mediaeval Europe there were great 
 varieties of political status and prestige ; their constitutions 
 were very different, though most of the continental towns 
 were ruled by an oligarchy, and the commons had but little 
 voice in the management of affairs. The history of each town 
 was distinct; but in their economic conditions and in their 
 economic institutions they were much alike. Together they 
 formed a system of similarly organised but distinct commu- 
 nities, which served as depots for commerce, and provided 
 facilities for inter-municipal trade. 
 
 ' Giry, op. cit. II. 470. 
 
 ^ These have no analogue in England, but seem to correspond to the 
 Scotch Burghs of Barony as distinguished from Royal Burghs. 
 
 ' See above, p. 62. 
 
 * Turner and Parker, Domestic Architecture in England, 11. 154. 
 
 ^ Compare the migration from Old Sarum and the founding of Salisbury ; 
 see also below, Appendix. 
 
 ° Such as Bury, Norwich, and Peterborough. Compare my paper on 
 The Corrupt Following of Hippodamus of Miletus at Cambridge, Camb. 
 Ant. Soc. Communications, 1899, IX. 421. 
 
CHAP. II.] Natural and Money Economy. 93 
 
 Each of these towns was an independent centre of civic 
 life, and responsible for its own internal affairs; and each 
 was forced to raise considerable sums of money for the ex- 
 penses of its government and police, and the payment of the 
 composition by which its privileges were secured. This revenue 
 was raised by taxation, which seems sometimes to have been 
 assessed on the various mercantile and industrial companies 
 according to their standing, and sometimes to have been levied 
 on the inhabitants by a house rate. The burgesses who paid 
 their contributions and who had the freedom of a town 
 were always careful to guard themselves against any intrusion 
 on their privileges by outsiders ; as citizens the former had a 
 recognised status wherever they travelled, and hence there 
 came to be a marked distinction between them and those 
 who were mere upland men and had no footing in the com- 
 mercial society of Christendom. . 
 
 The importance of city life, as a factor in civilised society, 
 has been discussed in connection with the ancient world. 
 In mediaeval times cities such as Venice and Genoa rivalled or 
 excelled the commercial centres of classical times; they attained 
 to immense wealth, and their industrial development gave them 
 a measure of stability which Athens never enjoyed. Their 
 commercial colonies, unlike those of the Greeks, continued to 
 be a strength to the mother cities; but for our purpose it 
 is unnecessary to dwell on the greatness of their military 
 and naval power, since it was destined to pass away as national 
 government became more effective. Civic organisation for 
 commercial and industrial purposes has a more lasting interest; 
 for towns remain as great economic centres, though their 
 political importance as independent communities and the 
 power which many possessed of pursuing separate economic 
 aims have vanished. The very full information which survives 
 in regard to the mercantile and industrial associations of medi- 
 aeval cities, renders it clear that their gilds and companies were 
 more highly organised and enjoyed a better political status 
 than corresponding societies in the ancient world. 
 
94 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 95. The merchants engaged in active trade appear to 
 have been the leaders in forming the communes, 
 an'dFaire"** and they obtained a dominating influence in 
 the government of each town'. They were the 
 moneyed men and they naturally came to the front in an urban 
 community, though the particular commercial calling that had a 
 leading position in one city might not be specially prominent in 
 another. The bankers, who acted as agents for the collection 
 of papal revenue, were important people at many centres ; at 
 Florence the merchants, who imported cloth', had a leading 
 position; in London, the grocers, who dealt in bulky goods 
 which were weighed by the large beam, seemed to monopolise 
 all city dignities for a time, though the mercers, who dealt in 
 silk and other valuable goods weighed in a small balance, 
 had the older organisation there. These groups of merchants, 
 associated in companies for the wise regulation of their own 
 trades, had a practical control of the government of their' city. 
 
 The whole mechanism of the commerce of the day 
 becomes more intelligible when we study the regulations 
 of the fairs, which were the principal trading resorts of 
 Christendom. The most celebrated marts of the early 
 middle ages were held in Champagne and Brie'; but 
 there were similar gatherings in every land. The streams 
 of commerce were too feeble to provide a constant market 
 all the year round, at any one centre, for valuable goods 
 brought from a distance ; trade was only occasional ; and each 
 
 ' In England, where there were' few resident merchants engaged in 
 active trade, the wealthy oligarchies did not show themselves until the 
 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. 
 
 ^ The Arte di Calimala was engaged in the dressing and dyeing of 
 imported cloth ; the Jrle di Lana, a manufacture of cloth in Florence, was 
 a distinct trade which arose in the thirteenth century. Doren, Entwidelung 
 und Organisation der Florentiner Ziinfte (in Stoats- und socialwissenschafi- 
 liche Forschungen edited by Schmoller, xv. p. 7). 
 
 " Bourqueloti &tudes sur ksfoires de Champagne in Mem. Acad. Inscrip. 
 I™ Serie, v. p. 75. 
 
CHAP. II.] Natural and Money Economy. 95 
 
 fair in its turn gave the transitory merchant an opportunity 
 of attending and disposing of his goods. The rules for the 
 construction of the booths and the conduct of business were 
 very elaborate, and when disputes arose, the courts of pie- 
 powder exercised summary jurisdiction according to Law 
 Merchant. But there were differences that could not be so 
 easily settled, and that gave rise to long correspondence be- 
 tween the authorities of different cities. A creditor would 
 attempt to obtain payment by getting the mayor of his city to 
 correspond with the mayor of the place where his debtor 
 resided. We come to see that it was not as an Englishman 
 or a Frenchman that a merchant claimed commercial status, 
 but as a citizen of some one city; his position in his own 
 community gave him his status in any place where merchants 
 congregated, and assured him that any wrongs he suffered 
 in his transactions would be dealt with, not by a ~-local custom 
 of which he was ignorant, but according to the Law Merchant 
 which prevailed in similar form throughout Christendom. 
 
 96. In addition to these associations of moneyed men 
 engaged in active trade, there was also a great industrial 
 deal of industrial organisation in mediaeval Organisation, 
 towns. Manufacturing of various kinds was 
 doubtless stimulated by commerce; it had to be carried on 
 with a view to other than the local markets, or had at least 
 to meet an increased demand as the town grew in size and 
 population. It is difficult to believe that there could be much 
 local organisation in any industry until there was need for the 
 work of ten or twelve men engaged in the same craft; 
 and it is consequently surprising that societies of craftsmen 
 should be found so widely diffused in the twelfth century. 
 There were weavers' gilds in Marlborough, Beverley and 
 Oxford, as well as in London in the time of Henry I, and 
 there was a similar institution' among the cordwainers of 
 
 ' Mailin-Saint-L^on, Histoire des Corporations de Metiers, p. 57. 
 Inama Stemegg II. 323 — 325. 
 
96 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 Rouen, the tanners of Ghent and the drapers of Valenciennes. 
 Though these are the earliest recorded instances, it is highly 
 probable that some similar bodies were of very long standing 
 in certain continental cities ; we have an account of the crafts 
 of Paris in the thirteenth century, and when we see how largely 
 manufacturing was developed in that city and at that date, 
 and also how completely it was organised, we can hardly 
 suppose that the industrial associations were all of very recent 
 growth^ 6tienne Boileau ' set himself to give a complete account 
 of the corps de mktier as existing in his time, and in his book 
 we get a very clear picture of the habits and usages of the 
 aristocracy of labour^ There were no fewer than a hundred 
 such craft-gilds in Paris, and though they differed in many 
 matters of detail, their general character was similar. 
 
 The boy who desired to enter any of these crafts was 
 apprenticed to a master, who was responsible for supplying 
 the youth with food and shelter, and who was not only ex- 
 pected to train his charge in the knowledge of his business 
 but also to exercise such supervision over his apprentices that 
 they might form the habits of good citizens. After serving 
 his time as an apprentice, the workman became a valet or 
 journeyman, who was hired by the master for longer or shorter 
 
 ' The early rise of craft organisations in the mediaeval world, as con- 
 trasted with their late development in Greek cities, is very remarkable. In 
 so far as the gilds were utilised for grouping the inhabitants and assessing 
 taxation, it is possible to find a clear motive for the formation of such 
 bodies. But, when once formed, they supplied a recognised want in civic 
 life and they continued to exist in many places till the industrial revolution 
 changed all the conditions of work. The gild merchant was a passing 
 phase, the craft gild came to stay. 
 
 ' Le Livre des Mitiers. Edited by Lespinasse and Bonnardot. The 
 royal attention to the organisation of industry in France dates back to the 
 thirteenth century ; in England the organisation and control of craft gilds 
 was attended to by the municipal authorities, who were inclined to resent 
 outside interference in this matter. 
 
 ' The unskilled labourer seems to have been very little considered in 
 the labour organisation of the day. 
 
CHAP, n.] Natural and Money Economy. 97 
 
 periods to work for wages. If the journeyman saved or borrowed 
 enough money to start on his own account he would try to 
 qualify as master in the trade ; and for that purpose he was, at 
 least in later days, required to produce an essay or masterpiece 
 as proof of his qualifications. We are able to gather that 
 industry was generally conducted by small capitalists; they 
 were not mere employers, but worked themselves at the trade 
 in which they instructed the apprentices; they might how- 
 ever hire additional hands, and thus be employers on a small 
 scale as well as workmen. The masters associated in the 
 corps de mitier, or craft-gild, made regulations for the good 
 conduct of the trade, — not merely for the technical training of 
 workmen, but for the quality of the material and the con- 
 ditions of work. Within each city, the corps de tnktier was 
 empowered to- enforce its rules on those who were working 
 at the craft; no unauthorised men who did not conform to 
 its usages were allowed to work at the calling; and great 
 pains were taken to prevent outsiders from acquiring any 
 knowledge of technical processes, or other trade-secrets. In 
 order to make and enforce these rules, a good deal of govern- 
 ment was required, and it was necessary to provide for the 
 administration of common funds, which were obtained partly by 
 the entry money of apprentices and the gifts of members, and 
 partly by fines imposed for infractions of the rules. The funds 
 were occasionally used for charitable purposes among the mem- 
 bers, such as gratuitous loans to a needy brother ; and they were 
 sometimes increased by trading speculation. In some towns, 
 the members of a gild had the option of sharing in an advan- 
 tageous purchase made by one of their number ; and they were 
 drawn more closely together by the enjoyment of common 
 festivities and participation in the same religious rites. 
 
 Such was the general type of the craft-gild', but there were 
 
 ' The care of the mediaeval craft-gilds for the welfare of the skilled 
 labourer distinguishes them from their analogues — the collegia of ancient 
 Rome. Levasseur, Classes ouvrieres, i. 195. 
 
 C. W. C. U. 7 
 
98 Western Civilisation. [BOOK iv. 
 
 minor differences in different countries'. On the Continent, 
 generally, the artisan classes v/ere separated by a hard and fast 
 line from the moneyed men, as far back as we can trace the history 
 of town life; in London, the differentiation of the industrial and 
 the moneyed classes can hardly be observed before the fourteenth 
 century. In Germany, the valet or Geselle was encouraged to 
 travel and acquire a more complete knowledge of his trade; 
 in England, there seems to have been no such provision for 
 industrial intercourse between different towns. The distinc- 
 tions are so marked that it is important to study the craft- 
 system of each city and to be careful about the danger of 
 pressing analogies too closely. 
 
 The mutual supervision by respectable tradesmen which 
 was a prominent feature in the gild system operated in the 
 interests of the public and of the workmen alike ; it remained 
 in force till the organisation of business by large capitalists 
 superseded the older system by securing thorough-going super- 
 vision under a more flexible system. This latter method could 
 be successfully carried on with workmen scattered in rural 
 districts ; whereas gild supervision almost necessarily involved 
 the residence of the workers within easy reach of one another. 
 The highly skilled industry of mediaeval times was concentrated 
 in cities, where it was regulated by gild ofiScials in the exercise 
 of powers conferred on them by civic authority" ; but as 
 
 1 On the position of women in English and French craft-gilds re- 
 spectively, see E. Dixon, Economic Journal, V. 225. 
 
 ^ One important craft, that of the masons, necessarily had an extra- 
 municipal character. A great deal of castle and church building was 
 carried on on sites which lay beyond the range of any municipal powers; 
 and we may think of this craft in the thirteenth century as forming a part 
 of great royal or ecclesiastical establishments. We read of royal masons, 
 and of > a. school of masons at Saintonge. Isenbert, their master, was 
 recommended by King John to the city of London as a suitable person to 
 undertake the rebuilding of the bridge. (3 John, Rot. Lit. Pat. memb. 2, 
 no. 7.) We get much light from Cathedral fabric rolls on the organisation 
 of the building trades in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when it still 
 retained something of its exceptional character ; like other crafts, it was 
 
CHAP. II.] Natural and Money Economy. 99 
 
 it prospered and established distant connections there was 
 need for the intervention of capitalists. Many trades were 
 dependent on commercial facilities which could only be ob- 
 tained at such resorts of wealthy merchants as Venice and 
 Genoa, Florence, Augsburg or Bruges. The materials for the 
 manufacture of silk and the finishing of cloth were imported ; 
 and much of the wealth of these cities was due to their 
 success in catering for distant markets, but their progress was 
 incompatible with the maintenance of a purely civic policy. 
 The necessity of procuring materials or of controlling a food 
 supply forced some of the cities to take account of con- 
 siderable stretches of territory. The city was the all-important 
 unit for economic purposes in the later Middle Ages as the 
 households had been in the Carlovingian times ; but economic 
 necessities, no less than political ambitions, rendered a change 
 inevitable, and brought about a reconstruction of the economic 
 system, not on the narrow lines of a city community, but in 
 accordance with the resources and requirements of extended 
 territories'. 
 
 (iii) Household Economy. 
 
 97. Long after money economy hkd ' been taken for 
 granted in the industrial organisation of the Household 
 urban population, it was hardly known ip rural Economy, 
 districts, where natural economy still played an Management, 
 important part. There is, in English 1 sources, 1 i t?ommutation. 
 much literary evidence as to the adnjinistratiopii of a well- 
 managed estate in the thirteenth century. /Eqonomically con- 
 sidered, the best type known at that time was practically 
 
 identical with the ideal of proprietors a thouskrid years earlier. 
 
 ' > 
 conducted on a money basis, but as it had'n^t grown up under municipal 
 authority, it does not seem to have conlerred dn its members municipal 
 status till a comparatively late date. 
 ' See below, p. 148. 
 
 7—2 
 
lOO Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 Land was ownad in large areas, and cultivated by dependents 
 who rendered service or payrnents in kind. Such an institu- 
 tion was fundamentally the same as the^ Roman villa, though 
 there might be the greatest possible variety in the status 
 and obligation of the dependents; and it bore the closest 
 resemblance to the agricultural organisation in Carlovingian 
 times'. We -have ample evidence as to its working from the 
 countless surveys of estates", which are in existence and record 
 the precise local condition of particular places in detail ; but the 
 fullest description of the principles to be followed is to be 
 found in treatises' on estate management which obtained a 
 wide circulation in England during the thirteenth and following 
 centuries. The best known of these is the Husbandry of 
 Walter of Henley, which deals with practical problems 
 of agriculture; the Seneschaucie gives an account of the 
 various officials in a great household, "and their respective 
 duties; the Rules of Robert Grosseteste are also instructive 
 as showing the general scheme of household economy in a 
 well-managed establishment. When we remember that great 
 households — whether monastic or noble — were not only the 
 chief centres for regulating agricultural work, but served the 
 purpose of places of education, either in learning or in manly 
 exercises, we see the importance of the part they played, 
 and the interest of examining their economic side. 
 
 In many parts of the Continent, and at the great English 
 abbeys, tfiere were largd permanent establishments which could 
 be supplied WitH fooA 'fi'oAi adjoining territory ; but the policy 
 of the Corlqtibrbi' had been to give scattered and separate 
 grants to his 'fdllbwer^,- and tj»e lands held by any one of 
 the nobility were not ' contiguous, so that they found it con- 
 
 ' Besides the Capitai'Iary ZJp 'Villis, we have the detailed Polyptyque of 
 Abbot Irminon, edited by Guerard, and containing careful surveys of the 
 Abbey Estates. 
 
 ' Cunningham, Growth of English Industry, I. 576. 
 
 * Walter of Henley, edited by E. Lamond. 
 
CHAP. II.] Natural and Money Economy. lOi 
 
 venient to pass from one estate to another in turn. The long 
 cavalcade of the travelling household must have been a familiar 
 sight in mediaeval England, and its approach would often 
 cause consternation to the Abbot or Prior to whom it ap- 
 pealed for hospitality during its progress. The period which 
 the noble owner could spend on each of his estates was 
 calculated with care; the bailiff was responsible for the corn 
 which was gathered at Michaelmas, and for keeping accurate 
 accounts of the stock, as well as of the service of the villeins, 
 or payments made in lieu of services, and of other receipts 
 Each estate was meant to be self-sufficing, and to furnish 
 food for the owner's household ; but there might be a surplus 
 of produce which it was wise to sell, or there might be occasion 
 to replenish the stores by purchase. With all his careful 
 efforts, it was not possible for even the most prudent land- 
 owner to keep entirely outside the circle of commerce and 
 monetary transaction; and the more he was drawn into it 
 by the demands for payments to royal or ecclesiastical officers 
 or by other forces, the more ready he would be to reorganise 
 the internal management of his estate on a monetary basis. 
 
 The mass of manorial documents which survive will doubt- 
 less afford some future student of economic history the means 
 of tracing the progress of this change in great detail, as it 
 occurred on one estate or another. At present, we can only 
 trace the main types of economic relationship. We hear of 
 free tenants, who may be regarded as appendages to a 
 manorial estate rather than a constituent part of it. The 
 payments they made to the lord seemed to consist chiefly of 
 their contributions to the royal taxation, for the collection 
 of which he was responsible. Within the manerium or villa, 
 as an economic unit, the serfs were responsible for tilling the 
 domain of the lord, and received their recompense in the 
 form of land, which they cultivated on their own account, in 
 their own time. The extent of the manor carefully noted for 
 each season the precise number of days' work to which the lord 
 
102 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 was entitled, as well as the payments in kind which he had 
 an admitted right to exact ; the records of the annual reckon- 
 ings, — or minister^ accounts, — show what services were ren- 
 dered and payments received. In the thirteenth century 
 this seems to have been the prevailing system j but there 
 is ample evidence that it often proved convenient for the 
 lord to accept money payment in lieu of service; grudged 
 labour was not always worth having, and he might find it 
 more prudent to supply seed himself than to rely on the 
 quality which his serfs provided for him. Each part of the 
 serfs obligations was assessed in terms of money ; and we find 
 entries, even iri the earliest rolls, of oJ>era vendita when the lord 
 exercised his right of choosing to receive money-compositions 
 instead of exacting certain days or forms of work. In some 
 instances, this came to be a matter of formal and permanent 
 agreement ; but in such cases the payment made by the serf 
 had no direct economic relation to the precise value of the 
 holding he continued to enjoy, but was based on the value 
 of his services, from which he was now quit. In the rapid 
 changes which followed the Black Death, the substitution of 
 payment in money for the practice of rendering service went 
 on apace' ; but there was a more startling revolution im- 
 pending. On the one hand, the hired labourers, on whom 
 the landlords had come to depend for the tillage of their 
 domains, demanded that their wages should be settled by 
 competition, instead of being paid at the old customary rates 
 of assessment j on the other, the landowners sought to recoup 
 themselves for the loss of their power to exact labour by 
 adopting the principle of competition in the management of 
 their estates and letting the land to those who offered them 
 most money for the use of it'. It was not till the seven- 
 
 ' Trevelyan, Age of Wycliffe, 191. T. W. Page, Z)«« Umwandlung der 
 Frohndienste in Geldrente, 37, 38. 
 
 " In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the largest bids were made by 
 sheep formers. 
 
CHAP. 11.] Natural and Money Economy. 103 
 
 teenth century that the new method of estate administration, 
 on a monetary basis, came to be accepted as creditable, and 
 that the principle of competition was unhesitatingly applied 
 to the letting of land for arable purposes. The change, so 
 slaw and so painful, and accompanied as it was by so much 
 social disorganisation and misery in the rural districts, was 
 inevitable when agricultural life was drawn into the range of 
 monetary influence'. Permanent personal obligations were at 
 first only expressed in terms of money, and from mutual con- 
 venience they came to be more and more frequently discharged 
 in terms of money. These customary payments, whether of 
 rent or for work done in the rural districts, did not rest on 
 any clear economic basis, like that of the reasonable prices 
 which were calculated by the authorities of craft-gilds; the 
 sums demanded were only the expressions of servile obli- 
 gations, not the result of free bargaining over the terms 
 of voluntary exchange. The stability of customary rates had 
 many advantages; but occasional and obvious variations in 
 the value of service or the value of land gave rise to a sense 
 of grievance under this system ; and when once its advantage 
 was questioned, there was no possibility that customary rates 
 should be maintained. Competition was attractive, for it had 
 the appearance of fairness at each particular moment; while 
 rates fixed by custom only secured a fair average on the whole. 
 The misery which would accrue from the loss of stability was 
 not obvious; and despite the disadvantages in connection 
 with competition we cannot regret this step in progress : it has 
 given freedom to enterprising men to make the most of landed 
 resources, as they could never have done while they relied 
 on the household organisation of labour and were hampered 
 by the restrictions of natural economy. 
 
 98. This cursory survey of the economic life of Christendom 
 in the thirteenth century brings out some important contrasts 
 
 ' More, Utopia (ed. Lumby), p. 32. Discourse of Commonweal, edited 
 by E, Lamond, Introd. p. xlv. 
 
104 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 with the ancient world, not only in aspirations but in actual 
 „ ,. i institutions. Social progress had on the whole 
 
 Mediaeval . , . , , ■ i ^ -j » ■ 
 
 Rnd Ancient followed the hnes laid down m the Capitularies. 
 
 Institutions. j^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^j^^ ^^^^^ ^f ^ ^gjj. 
 
 organised empire of the West which Charles had had before 
 him was at length realised, though in other conditions, and 
 under the control of a spiritual head, not of a Frankish king. 
 The civilisation of Charles's realm had fired the imagination 
 of the northern peoples, and called forth their imitative efforts. 
 They inherited much from the old Rome, but they inherited 
 it in the form in which it had been recast by Charles the 
 Great, both as regards political and civic organisation and 
 in respect to commercial and industrial life, whether in town 
 or country. 
 
 This mediaeval society was in consequence permeated with 
 moral conceptions which had been entirely strange to the ancient 
 world ; the institutions of the Middle Ages had been gradually 
 formed under the influence of religious principles which the old 
 world would have explicitly denied. There was, first of all, 
 a keen sense of personal responsibility in the employment of 
 secular power of every kind; the responsibility of rulers to 
 God for the exercise of their power over their subjects was 
 strongly insisted upon, as well as the fact that the rich man 
 must render account of the use he made of his wealth; it 
 had been entrusted to him by God, and he ought to use it 
 for God. That the forms of using wealth, which piety and 
 beneficence dictated, were not always wise, is true enough. 
 The problem of applying wealth to the best purpose for the 
 good of man is not an easy one, even in the present day; 
 but there was an extraordinary contrast between the spirit 
 of the Roman Uke Cato, whose only sense of duty was to 
 become richer, and that of the mediaeval proprietor who had 
 learned that he was merely a trustee, and responsible for the 
 manner in which he used his money. This lesson, so deeply 
 ingrained in mediaeval Christendom, was an immense gain, as 
 
CHAP. II.] Natural and Money Economy. 105 
 
 we see when we compare the tone of opinion in the ancient 
 world ; it is a doctrine that can never be discarded without 
 serious danger so long as society continues on the lines of 
 personal possession. The truth that property has duties and 
 responsibilities must be realised with greater and greater 
 clearness. 
 
 The difference between the mediaeval and the ancient world 
 comes out still more clearly in the new conception of labour. 
 In the ancient world labour was drudgery ; and all possibilities 
 of human advance were connected with the possession of 
 leisure. This was fundamental in Greek life, and it was 
 adopted in the old Rome ; but Christianity insisted that labour 
 itself might be a discipline and might thus conduce to the 
 ennobling of human character. When the beneficent influence 
 of labour on character was once recognised, and a life of labour 
 was voluntarily adopted by those who were in positions to 
 escape it, it could no longer be regarded as in itself degrading. 
 Serfdom existed so long as natural economy lasted, and the 
 mediaeval conscience was only partially awakened to the evils 
 of slavery^ ; but the dignity of labour began to receive adequate 
 recognition. Here again we see a permanent gain for which 
 society is indebted to the Middle Ages; that work is a duty 
 to be done, and that a life spent in idleness and self-pleasing 
 is wasted, is another belief which has entered deeply into the 
 very structure of modem society in Western Europe and which 
 had no corresponding influence in the ancient world. 
 
 The main contribution of mediaeval society to the eco- 
 nomic progress of mankind lay in its success in moralising 
 industrial and commercial conceptions and institutions. Just 
 as the Greek made an advance on the Phoenician by 
 treating material plenty as subservient to human well-being 
 and regarding it as means to an end, so Christianity re- 
 constituted the economic life of the old world in accordance 
 with a fuller appreciation of personal responsibility in the use 
 
 ^ See below, p. 133. 
 
io6 Western Civilisation. [BOOK iv. 
 
 of property, and a recognition of labour as a method of 
 personal self-discipline. This moralisation was a very im- 
 portant change ; as we look back we are apt to say that there 
 were the strangest contrasts in the Middle Ages between high 
 ideals and gross outrages, and that though there was so much 
 parade of religion and so much machinery for the maintenance 
 of a better morality, they were merely superficial. It is easy to 
 assert that underneath the high claims of the papacy to repre- 
 sent God's Will there was only priestly ambition, and that 
 the great religious foundations of the Middle Ages were partly 
 due to vanity and partly to base attempts to cajole an offended 
 Deity with gifts. But it is an error to suppose that because 
 the religion of the age came prominently before the eye, 
 it was therefore merely external, with no real vitality; or to 
 imagine that because the moral conscience of the day ex- 
 hausted itself over casuistical distinctions between honest and 
 oppressive bargains, it had no real hold upon the minds of 
 men. The piety and morality of the age were very apparent, 
 but they were not empty and lifeless ; just because they had 
 expressed themselves in external forms and institutions, they 
 had a chance of influencing individual character and working 
 deeply into the moral consciousness ; at all events they were 
 powerful enough to stay the disasters under which the Roman 
 Empire fell to pieces and to pass on a great and improved 
 tradition of active economic life. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 CHRISTIAN RELATIONS WITH HEATHEN AND 
 MOSLEMS. 
 
 99. In describing the civic life of Christendom, and the 
 progress of commerce, it has been impossible to 
 avoid all reference to the non-Christian world ; in- . ''"'if 9f"sad- 
 
 ing Spirit. 
 
 tercourse with distant lands was one of the factors 
 which helped to develop trade and town life during the 
 twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and there have been occasional 
 allusions to it in the foregoing pages ; but these scattered hints 
 must now be gathered together, and we must try to take account 
 of the trading activities of men who lived in regions where the 
 papal power was not recognised as authoritative \ We may thus 
 come to understand more clearly the causes which were at 
 work in the movements that have been already discussed. 
 Such a survey is also necessary if we would trace the ten- 
 dencies which were leading up to the age of discovery and 
 preparing for the commercial revolution of the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 ' The trading relations with Constantinople are not treated separately ; 
 much of their importance was due to the fact that that city was a depot 
 for the commerce with more distant regions. In the period before the 
 Crusades the intercourse between Rome and Constantinople was frequent 
 (Heyd, op. cit. I. 94), while a great deal of commerce went on with Bari, 
 Amalii, and other towns of Southern Italy which still preserved a political 
 connection with the Eastern Empire. Heinemann, Cesehichte der Nor- 
 mannen in Unter-Italien, p. 22. 
 
loS Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 Unity of religious belief and similar ecclesiastical institu- 
 tions were the ties which bound Christendom into one 
 organic whole ; the outside world consisted of the lands where 
 these conditions did not obtain. There were heathen peoples 
 who had never come under the influence of Christianity at all, 
 and they had no scruple in plundering Christian shrines and in 
 destroying consecrated buildings. There were also Mohamme- 
 dans whose profession prepared them at any time to engage in 
 active attacks on the Cross ; at best they treated the Christian 
 population with contemptuous tolerance. The relations of 
 the people of Western Europe with outsiders were necessarily 
 affected by these religious differences, and were more often 
 hostile than friendly ; indeed they were coloured by what we 
 may call the crusading spirit. Devotion and commerce were 
 closely interrelated in the Christian attempts to recover posses- 
 sion of the Holy Land'. Mercantile enterprise combined with 
 religious zeal in subtle proportions from the outset of the 
 struggle, but the only lasting gain went to the trading interest, 
 as merchants obtained a permanent footing in lands where 
 the dominion of Christian rulers had been destroyed. The 
 initiative in the earliest interference with the Heathen and 
 Moslem worlds had been chiefly taken in the cause of 
 religion, though organised commerce soon seized upon the 
 lines which were thus opened up. It is most convenient to 
 describe in turn the relations of the men of Latin Christendom 
 with the non-Christian peoples on the Northern Seas, in the 
 Western Mediterranean, and in the Levant and to take the 
 beginning of the ninth century as our starting point in each 
 case. 
 
 100. There is no more pathetic incident in the history of 
 „. ,,., . Charles the Great than the account of his sorrow 
 
 Tne Vikings 
 
 and the Baltic at Seeing the sails of the Norsemen in the Medi- 
 ommerce. terranean^ and his premonition of the mischief 
 
 * Heyd, Commerce riu Levant, I. 131. 
 
 ' Monach. SangalUiisis II. 14 in PerU, Mon. Germ. Script, li. 757. 
 
CHAP. III.] Relations with Heathen and Moslems. 109 
 
 which they would work in his dominions. Their rude and 
 vigorous energy proved the scourge of many parts of Christen- 
 dom for generations ; but when it was gradually absorbed and 
 controlled, it furnished one of the most potent factors in the 
 subsequent triumph and diffusion of the civilisation which 
 Charles appreciated so highly. In the history of the lands 
 over which Charles ruled, it has not been easy to distinguish 
 the various racial elements, or to say how much of his system 
 was due to Roman survivals, and how much to the Teutonic 
 grafts which had been introduced in larger or smaller propor- 
 tions by successive conquests. But at all events none of these 
 peoples had betaken themselves to maritime enterprise; the 
 piratical expeditions of the Norsemen were a new element, 
 with which the nascent civilisation had to engage in a life and 
 death struggle. It was the crucial test whether the new empire 
 would succeed where the old empire had failed, and would be 
 able to convert this strenuous barbarian life to be its defence 
 and the means of extending its boundaries. 
 
 The sagas, and the relics which have been discovered in 
 the north, reveal the existence of a vigorous commercial life in 
 the Baltic lands during the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries. 
 It offers points of comparison which take us back to the 
 Homeric poems and the early days of Phoenician trading in 
 the Mediterranean. The picture of the Viking — halfmerchant 
 and half pirate — reminds us of old acquaintances in the Odyssey 
 and in Herodotus^ The seafaring man made a raid on the 
 banks of the Seine or the Trent, and then, as a merchant, 
 disposed of his booty and captives at one of the great seaside 
 fairs. The description which Adam of Bremen gives of Birca^ 
 supplies an instance of the commercial activity which was 
 found at different points all through the Baltic lands, but 
 which centred chiefly in the island of Gothland. 
 
 So far as we can gather, however, this commercial activity 
 
 1 Vol. I. p. (A. 
 
 ' Adam of Bremen, Gesta Hammabiirgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum, I, 63, 
 
1 lO Western Civiiisalion. [BOOK IV. 
 
 was different from that of the Phoenicians and their Greek 
 imitators in two important particulars. It was much less 
 completely organised; the Phoenicians had settled factories 
 at special points ; and these were permanent off-shoots of the 
 mother-city in distant lands, and had recognised rights and ob- 
 ligations. But the Norse commerce does not appear to have 
 arisen between towns and colonies; the Viking was rather 
 the adventurer who went out to improve his fortunes as best 
 he might, and who, if he found a favourable opportunity, 
 established himself on an estate. The Norsemen may have 
 had more aptitude for town life than some of the other 
 Teutons ' ; but they were ready to become cultivators and 
 colonists, and did not confine their energies to industry and 
 trade. 
 
 From their sagas, too, wer get an impression of the 
 extraordinary individual enterprise in their voyages^ The 
 most profitable commerce of the Norsemen was apparently 
 conducted by the Elbe and the Oder and their tributaries, 
 till they came within reach of areas from which they could 
 find their way to the Black Sea and Constantinople. It 
 was probably along the primeval amber routes that the vast 
 quantities of Arabian coins were carried which have been 
 found in Sweden'; but the Vikings ventured far beyond 
 these limits and forced their way round the North Cape to 
 Archangel; they even saUed to Iceland and colonised it 
 after their fashion*. The story of the voyage of Eric the 
 Red to Greenland gives a singular picture of their audacity; 
 and though doubts have been cast on the alleged discovery of 
 
 ' A Danish settlement was the nucleus of Cork, Waterford, and 
 Dublin, and an important element in Derby, Leicester, London, and 
 many English towns. 
 
 " Toulmin Smith, Discovery of America by the Northmen, 311. 
 
 » Montelius, Civilisation of Sweden, 191; Heyd, op. cit. I. 58. 
 
 * The contrast between the legal and social conditions in Iceland 
 (Dasent, Burnt Njat, I. xi., xlv.) and at Carthage (Vol. I. 145) accentuates 
 the differences between Norse and Phoenician colonisation. 
 
CHAP. III.] Relations with Heathen and Moslems. 1 1 1 
 
 America by the Norsemen, there is no inherent improbability 
 in the accuracy of the legend'. The whole description of 
 their ruthless activity and grim humour in the sagas is of the 
 keenest interest, as it describes the new strain which was 
 introduced into Christendom, and which has perpetuated itself 
 in the maritime enterprise and individual energy which charac- 
 terise the modern world. 
 
 101. Such were the meii who were harrying Western 
 Christendom from the north in the ninth, tenth, 
 and eleventh centuries; but as they were gra- L^gu^^"** 
 dually converted to the profession of Christianity, 
 the danger which threatened the rising civilisation was averted. 
 We need not pause to consider how far this process implied a 
 complete alteration of personal religious belief; however un- 
 intelligently and unwillingly they may have accepted the new 
 faith, it brought them into line with the other peoples of the 
 West. They ceased to plunder sacred places ; and, as a con- 
 sequence, the most important centres of agriculture, industry, 
 and commerce were respected, and opportunities for the unin- 
 terrupted pursuit of peaceful avocations were greatly increased. 
 
 There were various agencies through which this change 
 was brought about : it was accomplished partly by the indi- 
 vidual heroism of missionaries like S. Boniface, and partly 
 by the militant Christianity of the soldiers of Charles the 
 Great or the Teutonic knights; and despite its defects and 
 weaknesses, the civilisation of Christendom could not but com- 
 mand the respect of the peoples of the North. The tradition 
 of the Imperial name was impressive ; the arts and culture of 
 the great monasteries would move the barbarians' admiration. 
 When any considerable bodies of the Norsemen came to settle 
 on the territories they had ravaged, they were soon brought 
 under the influence of the Christian religion, and adapted them- 
 
 ^ The evidence has been discussed with great care by Dr O'Gorman 
 in an article on the American Mediaeval Church in the Catholic University 
 Bulletin (Washington D.C.), I. 41C. 
 
112 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 selves to the habits and usages current in Christendom. The 
 transformation in the case of the Dukes of Normandy was 
 singularly rapid ; and the rule of Cnut must have done much 
 to leaven lands which were still half heathen, with influences 
 derived from his Christian dominions. 
 
 The progress of Christianity, by limiting the field for 
 Viking enterprise, appears to have exerted a repressive influence 
 on the vigorous life of the north. Much of the Scandinavian 
 commerce passed into other hands, especially into those of 
 the Germans. There was a remarkable power of combination 
 among the German townsmen in the thirteenth century; the 
 cities on the Rhine' formed a political confederation for the 
 security of merchants engaged in trading along the river ; and 
 the towns of northern Germany worked in unison for the 
 object of promoting active commerce. There had been plenty 
 of personal enterprise in the Baltic trade from time immemorial, 
 but the new movement, which emanated from Liibeck^, led to 
 the founding of regular factories; an element of organisation 
 was introduced, and Wisby became the centre of trade which 
 had been previously carried on at other points. The German 
 influence had made itself paramount by means of colonies 
 established in Denmark and Prussia, and the associated towns' 
 were able in 1284 to force the Norwegians to accord to the 
 men of the Emperor commercial privileges of which they 
 availed themselves greedily. These mercantile colonies of 
 the Germans really had a civilising influence; among other 
 things, they helped to extinguish the traffic in slaves which 
 had been a regular and flourishing business in heathen times. 
 Towns which had grown out of factories established in con- 
 nection with trade served as centres where new churches were 
 planted, so that there was a genuine expansion of Christendom 
 
 ' Frignet, Histoire de V Association Covtmerciak, 131. 
 •■ Laraprecht, Deutsche Geschichte, iv. 146. 
 
 ' Liibeck, Riga, Wismar, Stralsund, GreifswaH, Rostock and Wisby. 
 Beer, Allgcmeine Geschichte des IVelthanJels, i. 241^. 
 
CHAP. III.] Relations with Heathen and Moslems. 1 1 3 
 
 towards the North and East^ The work was carried still 
 farther by the Teutonic Order, in accordance with the militant 
 Christianity of the day, so that the whole of the southern 
 shores of the Baltic, as well as Scandinavia, were brought 
 wiJhin the circle of Western Christendom. 
 
 Under the influence of these German towns the occasional 
 commerce of the Norsemen was systematised and developed ; 
 Liibeck, the leader, controlled the policy and directed the 
 energies of the associated cities which eventually came to be 
 known as the Hanse League. This body succeeded in putting 
 down the bands of pirates, who maintained something of 
 the old Viking tradition j they rendered the Baltic an inland 
 sea from which intruders were warned off; and they secured 
 a practical monopoly in the export of amber, of furs and tallow 
 from Russia, and of fish, iron and copper from Sweden'', and 
 they imported cloth and other manufactures in return. They 
 had important factories at Bergen, the staple town of the Iceland 
 trade, while they had access to Eastern routes through their 
 establishment at Novgorod". They thus commanded lines of 
 trade which lay beyond the purview of Charles the Great, and 
 they had also important connections with the Danube valley, 
 with Italy'', and with Bruges and London. During their most 
 flourishing period they present a picture of intermunicipal 
 commerce at its very bestj they formed a great mercantile 
 federation, the members of which were independent internally, 
 while they pursued a common policy in distant lands°. Their 
 
 ^ Laraprecht, Deutsche Geschichte, III. 395. 
 ^ Worms, La ligue hansiatique, 84, 90. 
 
 ' Buck, W., Z>er deutsche Handel in Novgorod bis zur Mitte des xiv. 
 Jahrhunderts, 37. 
 
 * W. Stieda, Hansisch- Veneiianische Handels-beziehungen im i j Jahr- 
 hunderte. 
 
 * There was considerable friction between tlie different groups of towns 
 in the League, but the union was none the less remarkable. The Con- 
 lederation of Rhodes is an interesting analogy in ancient times. The 
 
 C. W. C. II. 8 
 
114 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 subsequent fall is often ascribed to the discoveries of the 
 fifteenth century, and to their inability to adapt their restric- 
 tive methods to the new fields of commercial activity that were 
 then opened up ; but it seems to have begun before that era, 
 through a general antagonism to the League as a monopoly, 
 and in consequence of the rise of new nationalities which 
 resented the presence of alien merchants enriching themselves 
 out of native products. In the fourteenth century the English 
 forced their way into the Baltic^ and deprived the League of its 
 exclusive trade in cloth. This attack from the West was almost 
 simultaneous with strenuous measures which were temporarily 
 taken against the merchants of the Hanse League in Russia^ ; 
 and eventually they fell before the rising spirit of English and 
 Russian nationality; but yet it must not be forgotten that, 
 divided as Germany has been since the sixteenth century, the 
 Hanse towns by their combination and by the manner in which 
 they organised the commerce of the north, initiated a national 
 commercial policy' at a time when trading was ordinarily 
 regulated in the exclusive interest of particular cities. 
 
 102. Charles the Great had been called upon to take an 
 active part in rolling back the other great wave 
 piKite. '^*''' which threatened western civilisation. The in- 
 coming tide of Arabian victory had already 
 been checked by Charles Martel; but Charles the Great 
 assisted in the first stages of the conflict which was to last 
 for so many centuries. During his reign the Crescent was 
 driven from the Pyrenees, and Christian kingdoms were 
 established on the north-east side of Spain. Septimania and 
 Provence, thus set free from the fear of subjugation, formed a 
 suitable area for the revival of Mediterranean commerce and 
 a basis for farther encroachments on the territory of the infidel. 
 
 Italian cities were much less able to lay aside their mutual jealousies and 
 combine together for common purposes. 
 
 ' Daenel, Geschichte der dmischen Hanse, 44. 
 
 " im. 47. ' Ibid. 191. 
 
Some Important Trade Routes in the X1V-- Century. 
 
 To /ac< 
 
 UNIV. PRESS 
 
CHAP. III.] Relations with Heathen and Moslems. 1 1 5 
 
 There are, however, many striking contrasts between the 
 struggle in the north against the Norsemen and that in the 
 south against the Arabs. The English, and the dwellers in 
 Germany, the Low Countries, and France, were forced in 
 self-defence to attempt to subdue the Danish plunderers; 
 the warfare in the south was an act of Christian aggression. 
 In the north militant Christianity had to deal with expeditions 
 hastily set on foot by particular leaders ; in the south it had to 
 face well-equipped armies backed by the resources of a well- 
 organised state. The results, too, were very different. In the 
 north, the people of the Baltic lands were converted; there 
 was a real expansion of Christendom, such as there had also 
 been along the Danube valley through the conversion of the 
 Hungarians. On the south, however, though new territory was 
 added to Christendom, the people were not christianised ; they 
 withdrew before the advances of Spanish chivalry, and many of 
 those who attempted to remain on the Peninsula were even- 
 tually expelled by Philip IV. The Moslems were not willing, 
 like the Norsemen, to adopt the Christian faith, and to range 
 themselves among the Christian nations. Bitter hostility 
 between the two continued by sea and land, though their 
 supremacy on the Mediterranean was gradually wrested from 
 the Arabs and they were at length forced back to the African 
 shore. 
 
 The success of the Christian arms in this struggle with an 
 organised society is all the more remarkable, if we remember 
 that the civilisation of the peoples under Arabian rule was, 
 when tried by almost any test, and certainly by any economic 
 test, incomparably higher than that of Christendom. The 
 court of the Caliphs was the resort of men who were eminent 
 in mathematical and astronomical science, and who had made 
 considerable progress in chemistry and in medicine. They 
 were acute and enthusiastic students of philosophy and cul- 
 tivated an elegant taste in literature. They had carried the 
 arts to a very high degree of perfection, both as regards metal- 
 
 8—2 
 
1 1 6 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 working and the textile trades ; they were adepts in irrigation, 
 and made the most of all opportunities for horticulture and 
 agriculture. There was no art in which they could not have 
 given much instruction to their Christian antagonists. Even 
 though so much hostility severed the two polities, there was 
 sufificient intercourse between the Arabs and their northern 
 neighbours to exert a very great influence on the thought and 
 art of Languedoc and Provence. The admiration which Arabian 
 society excited and the infiltration of their ideas, came in the 
 thirteenth century to be a serious danger to the Christian faith 
 in academic centres like the University of Paris, and the 
 Emperor Frederick II was practically a convert to their tenets'. 
 It is no exaggeration to say that the Arabian conquerors 
 had accomplished much that Alexander the Great seems to have 
 aimed at. In their hands there was a curious fusion of the 
 East and the West; the long heritage of both was combined 
 in the learning and material prosperity of the Caliphate. 
 Acceptance of the teaching of the prophet — a pure Theism — 
 was an easy condition for religious consciences that were half- 
 prepared for it by the prevalence of Arianism ; and all forms 
 of secular activity and learning ultimately found a home under 
 this common conviction. The Arabian civilisation thus pre- 
 sented a curious amalgam of elements that had little in 
 common ; Hellenism, as it had survived in the East, furnished 
 its quota, and the remnants of ancient philosophy and Greek 
 science, in so far as they were kept alive in Armenia and were 
 not destroyed at Alexandria, continued to influence men's 
 minds; while the luxury of oriental courts was reproduced 
 in the palaces of the West, and the industry and commerce 
 which ministered to it were prosecuted with success. The 
 Caliphs had the wisdom to give full scope to the talents of the 
 conquered, when once they accepted Islamism; and thus, 
 
 ^ Frederick II was much influenced by Arabian models in the adminis- 
 tration of Sicily. Nys, Researches in the History of Economics, 36 foil. ; 
 IIuillarrd-Br^holles, Historia Diplomaiici Fredeiici II, Preface, ccccxxii. 
 
CHAP. III.] Relations with Heathen and Moslems. 1 17 
 
 while the Arabs originated so little themselves, they raised a 
 great civilisation that was brilliant for a time, though it was 
 barren in its after-results. 
 
 There was, however, a curious want of vitality in the Arab 
 civilisation, when the period of conquest had come to an end ; 
 and though it is easy to represent the Latin Church as merely 
 obscurantist in her constant hostility to such a highly cultivated 
 society, we cannot but recognise that subsequent events have 
 done much to justify this attitude. As we look back, we can 
 see that the Arabian society was lacking in the physical and 
 spiritual qualities which would have fitted it to take a great 
 part in contributing to the progress of the race ; it did collect 
 and disseminate the elements of well-being that remained from 
 the old world, but it did not carry them farther, ,or found 
 anything that was really new. There was a strong probability 
 for a time that the heritage of ancient civilisation would be 
 taken up by the Moslem peoples, and diffused over the world 
 under their guidance. The brunt of the struggle was borne 
 by the Greeks of Constantinople ' ; and the Crusaders, all 
 unconsciously, took action which helped to decide that this 
 thing should not be, and that the progress of the world should 
 be continued, not under the auspices of the Crescent, but of the 
 Cross. When we see the decadence of society in lands where 
 Mohammedanism has had a dominating influence, we may feel 
 that the issue was of vital importance for the whole future of 
 the race. 
 
 The fundamental weaknesses of the Arab civilisation can 
 be noticed as we look back even to its greatest times. On the 
 physical side we may contrast the Western Arabs with the 
 northern races, who were then mere ruthless barbarians and 
 who had little in common with the cultivated gentlemen of 
 the south; but the northerners had a special aptitude for 
 individual enterprise which rendered them ready to go out 
 
 ^ Lenormant, La grande Gike, II. 376. 
 
Ii8 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 of the beaten tracks, not merely as soldiers obeying a divinely 
 commissioned commander, but from the very love of adventure ; 
 of this racial characteristic, however, enough has already been 
 said. 
 
 There is a striking contrast too between the religion of the 
 Prophet, inspiring as it was and is, and the Christianity to which 
 Mohammedans were actively opposed. Their pure Theism, just 
 because it is a pure Theism, could not give fruitful maxims for 
 mundane affairs, or lay the basis for a doctrine that should 
 ennoble secular life. The rule of the Caliphs was, in its 
 ultimate basis, a theocracy ; it would submit to no limitations, 
 and the objects which it set before itself, in the conquest of 
 the world to the faith and the attainment of paradise by 
 fighting for it, gave no scope for a doctrine of the responsibility 
 of civil rulers, and of duty towards the governed. The popular 
 imagination which filled the future life with dreams of sensuous 
 enjoyment gave no check to reckless indulgence in luxury here \ 
 and failed to lay down any clear and effective teaching on the 
 obligations of those who were possessed of wealth; nor was 
 there any doctrine of the value of human personality as such, 
 to tell in favour of the gradual extinction of slavery or the 
 improvement in the position of women. Work was encouraged 
 not as a wise discipline, but merely because of the remuneration 
 of the work, and the independence it afforded. From every 
 point of view we see that there was no advance beyond the 
 doctrine of secular life which we find in the Old Testament. 
 Christianity is not a pure Theism, but a worship of an Incar- 
 nate Deity, Who has established a kingdom among men ; it is, 
 in its very essence, a religion of Humanity j it has proved itself 
 capable of inspiring an enthusiasm for the service of man 
 which lies outside the sphere of any mere Theism. Christianity 
 had the power, which Islam had not, of bringing the highest 
 motives and the loftiest principles to bear on mundane affairs, 
 and of remodelling political, civic and industrial life. Islam, 
 with all its enthusiasm and all its faculty for adopting alien 
 
CHAP. III.] Relations with Heathen and Moslems, iig 
 
 elements, failed to supply a firm basis for social life, or to give 
 inspiration for human progress. 
 
 103. In the relations between Arabians and Christians on 
 the Western Mediterranean, during the early The Western 
 Middle Ages, we have much that is analogous Mediter- 
 with the intercourse between Phoenicians and '^*"^°°- 
 Greeks in earher times. There is the same racial conflict of 
 Semites and Aryans ; there is the same apparent superiority of 
 the Semitic race at the outset, and the same steady encroachments 
 of the Aryans, who succeeded in wresting point after point from 
 the power of their rivals. The precise course of the struggle 
 is very obscure in each case ; for though we have some 
 mediaeval chronicles, and even important civic and ecclesiasti- 
 cal documents bearing on the later contest, they only throw 
 occasional light on particular incidents, and hardly help us to 
 understand the course of the struggle as a whole. There were, 
 besides, so many conflicting interests at work that the tale is 
 hopelessly tangled, and one which it would be impossible to 
 attempt to unravel here. The Arab empire, like Western 
 Christendom, was split into many separate groups, which 
 neither supported each other's interests in war, nor followed 
 a similar policy in their peaceful relations with Christian 
 powers. Without dwelling on minor divisions, we have only 
 to remember that Charles the Great had been in friendly 
 communication with the Caliph of Bagdad, while he was 
 raising armaments against the Arabs of Spain; and that 
 the rulers of Morocco were developing commercial relations 
 with the cities of Italy and the South of France at the very 
 time when the crusading wars were being carried on most 
 assiduously in Syria.- In the East, as in Spain, there was 
 constant hostility between the representatives of the Cross 
 and the Crescent; but though a great struggle was waged 
 by sea, as well as by land, it was less persistent. At the 
 end of the eighth century the Arabian influence had been 
 paramount in the Mediterranean; before the close of the 
 
120 Western Civilisation. [noOK iv. 
 
 reign of Charles, the maritime towns of Italy were beginning 
 to send out their fleets and to contest the Arab supremacy; 
 while two centuries later the Normans established themselves 
 in parts of Southern Italy, which had been the prey of Mo- 
 hammedan invaders, and effected the conquest of Sicily. After 
 the loss of Sardinia and Majorca, the Arabs were thrown more 
 and more upon the defensive, so far as their African dominions 
 were concerned; but during this long and bitter struggle the 
 maritime relations between Christians and Moslems were by 
 no means uniformly hostile. It may suffice to indicate and 
 to illustrate the different occasions of intercourse by which 
 the Arab civilisation was brought to bear upon the relative 
 barbarism of Western Christendom. 
 
 In pursuing their career of conquest in Africa and Spain 
 the Arabs had been glad to preserve the Christian population, 
 and assure to them the enjoyment of rights and privileges, in- 
 cluding the exercise of their religion, on the condition of their 
 paying a regular tribute ; hence there was a considerable, though 
 diminishing. Christian population in Morocco and other parts 
 of the Arab dominions. When Cordova was recovered by the 
 Christians in 1085 a.d., they found that the churches had not 
 been desecrated during centuries of Arab domination ; and in 
 similar fashion, there was a large Mohammedan population 
 which preferred to remain in Sicily under the protection of the 
 Norman Conquerors, rather than to seek new homes among 
 their co-religionists. As the wave of Christian conquest rolled 
 onwards, it swept over, rather than swept away, some elements 
 of Arabian civilisation. The habits and tendencies of thought, 
 which took such a firm hold in Languedoc and called forth 
 the Crusades against the Albigenses, were partly due to a 
 deeply rooted oriental influence in that area.. The territory 
 which passed from one set of masters to another formed a 
 fringe where the two civilisations met, and to some extent 
 blended. 
 
 The existence of a Christian population under Moslem rule 
 
CHAP. III.] Relations with Heathen and Moslems. 121 
 
 also brought about a certain amount of ecclesiastical inter- 
 communication. In the tenth or eleventh century there were 
 still forty-seven bishops in the, north of Africa; and in 1053 a.d. 
 the Roman pontiff intervened to maintain the ancient supremacy 
 of the Archbishopric of Carthage among the other remaining 
 sees'. Though the settled Christian population was steadily 
 decreasing, new elements were added; war and piracy were 
 frequent, and many Christians were carried away to languish 
 as captives in Moslem lands. The order of the Redemptionists 
 was founded with the view of aiding in their release" ; it was 
 commended by Innocent III to the good ofiSces of the Sultan 
 Almanzar, while the Dominicans and Franciscans also took an 
 active part in this charitable work, which continued to be a 
 recognised duty of Christian philanthropy in the seventeenth 
 and the early part of the eighteenth centuries. This intercourse, 
 for religious objects, between Christendom and the Moham- 
 medan rulers of Africa, is of interest ; it at least indicates one 
 kind of intercommunication, and it shows that the prohibition 
 of commerce, from which Genoa suffered in the fourteenth 
 century, is not to be regarded as the constant and permanent 
 policy of the Holy See at earlier times. 
 
 Morocco had access by caravan routes to the products of the 
 East, while it could also draw gold and ivory from the interior 
 of the dark continent; but it required the oil and wine and 
 wood, as well as furs and metals, which were produced or 
 could be purchased in Italy, France and Spain. These mutual 
 needs rendered commerce inevitable, even though religious 
 differences, and inter-municipal jealousies, frequently inter- 
 rupted it and enormously increased the risks of tradings In 
 the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when the crusades were 
 being actively prosecuted in the East, there were ample and 
 regular facilities for Christian merchants trading with Morocco. 
 
 * Mas Latrie, Relations et Coniiiierce de VAjrique Septenirionale avec 
 Us nations chritiennes, p. 29. 
 " Ibid. p. 130. 
 
122 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 These were secured by numerous treaties, which specified on 
 one hand the privileges which Christian merchants were to 
 possess, and on the other, described the conditions to which 
 they were personally to conform'. It is curious to observe 
 that there is little difference between the provisions laid down 
 and those which were necessary for the prosecution of ordinary 
 trade within Christendom, or even between the towns in any 
 one realm at the same date. 
 
 According to the most important stipulation, the persons 
 of Christian merchants were to be secure ; it was agreed that 
 they should not be held responsible for the debts of other 
 men, and that they should have legal protection and remedy 
 against wrongs done them. Each trading city had its own 
 consul, who had the right of direct access to the Sultan ; the 
 consul had complete jurisdiction over the merchants of his own 
 colony when alive, and administered their goods when dead ; 
 disputes between the merchants of two Christian cities came 
 before their consuls, without any interference on the part of 
 the Sultan and his officials. Each Christian city possessed 
 its own factory in Africa, where the merchants could live, 
 where their goods were stored and from which they might 
 be re-exported; these were mercantile strongholds, as they 
 were liable to attacks from many quarters and on many 
 occasions. There was, moreover, a common understanding 
 between Mohammedans and Christians as to the desirability 
 of suppressing piracy, and the protection of those who had 
 suffered shipwreck. It was also a recognised principle that 
 Christians were not to. run unnecessary risks by attempting 
 to trade at any points on the coast, and that they were to 
 show reasonable respect to the religious sentiments of the 
 Arabs; though they were free to practise Christian rites in 
 their own chapels, within their own factories, they were not 
 permitted to have public worship in Mohammedan cities, or 
 
 ' Mas Latrie, Relations c.t Commerce de I'AJrique i>eptentrionale avec 
 les nations chretiennes, p. 160. 
 
CHAP. III.] Relations with Heathen and Moslems. 123 
 
 even to sound a sanctus bell which might be heard outside 
 their own establishments. 
 
 The trading cities of the south of Europe were much less 
 inclined to combine for a common cause than those of the 
 north J each town pursued its independent policy and had its 
 separate factories. The men of Pisa had a specially favoured 
 position at Tunis in 1157 a.d.' The Genoese had a large es- 
 tablishment at Ceuta in 1234 a.d.^, and helped to protect that 
 city from the attack of a crusading fleet ; the men of Marseilles 
 also had a factory even earlier' ; and all these towns had es- 
 tablishments at Bougie. The factories appear moreover to 
 have been used to some extent by the merchants of other 
 cities. The Florentines trafficked for a time in conjunction 
 with the Pisans*, and the factory of the men of Marseilles was 
 used by merchants from other towns in Provence. The 
 Venetians also had a consul at Tunis in 1281 a.d."; they had 
 besides carried on a considerable commerce with Morocco 
 and enjoyed special privileges for the purchase of lead". 
 
 Such was the nature of the arrangements that were made" 
 for the traffic of Christian merchants in Morocco itself; and 
 enough information has survived to enable us to understand 
 the plan on which their voyages were organised. Associations 
 were formed by traders and other capitalists for the purpose 
 of engaging in a voyage to Africa, deeds of partnership were 
 drawn up, and on the return of the ship and sale of its cargo 
 the profits were paid to the various partners in proportion 
 to the sums they had contributed for the venture. This 
 coUectivist system is probably very ancient, and survived as 
 the business form which was adopted in the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries for undertaking distant voyages. 
 
 ' Mas Latrie, Relations et Commerce de VAfrique Septentrionale avec 
 les nations chretiennes, p. 71, also pp. 90, 107. 
 
 2 Ibid. p. ISO. ' Ibid. p. 154. 
 
 * They used Pisan ships though they had trade privileges of their own. 
 
 ' Mas Latrie, p. 170. ' Ibid. p. 162. 
 
124 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 104. The intercourse with Africa which had been estab- 
 lished on these carefully restricted lines was 
 sades and the beneficial to particular cities, but so far as Western 
 Opening of the Europe in general was concerned it had com- 
 paratively little importance. The awakening of 
 a spirit of adventure in the northern parts of Christendom 
 was due to the preaching of the Crusades. This movement 
 appealed to the two strongest sentiments of the age, and 
 found a ready response among all classes of the community; 
 it came as a call to fulfil a sacred duty, and it opened up new 
 fields for the boldest military undertakings'. Its effects were 
 very deep and lasting ; it did not merely afford scope for the 
 mercantile classes to carry on commerce at new points and 
 along fresh routes ; it also diffused new conceptions of civilised 
 life and its possibilities among the Germans, French and 
 English, and introduced a taste for Eastern products in places 
 where they had been hardly obtainable hitherto. 
 
 The reaction of this movement on society at large had 
 •fat-reaching consequences ; and it is almost impossible to 
 exaggerate the results on the mercantile class in particular. 
 There was much business to be done in assisting in the 
 equipment and transport of troops, as each new Crusade was 
 organised. The commercial colonies which were soon estab- 
 lished at Tripoli in Syria and elsewhere on the Mediterranean 
 were far more important than their analogues — the factories in 
 the cities of Tunis and Morocco ; for they gave access to more 
 important lines of trade with the East^, and furnished many 
 valuable products, such as sugar, cotton and silk, from their 
 immediate neighbourhood'. The trading connections which 
 were then established continued to be maintained-fthough not 
 without interruption — till the discoveries of the fifteenth century 
 
 1 The conquest of Sicily by the Normans was in part an anticipation of 
 the Crusades, and it gave a basis for conducting them on a larger scale. 
 ° Heyd, op. cit. i. 163. 
 8 Ibid. I, 178. 
 
CHAP. III.] Relations with Heathen and Moslems. 125 
 
 revolutionised the character of commerce with the East. The 
 prosperity of the mercantile classes also tended to improve their 
 political status; as the towns increased in wealth, they were 
 able as communities to purchase larger and larger privileges, 
 and even to assume the character of territorial powers ; but at 
 the same time the differences between the rich and poor 
 within the cities became more noticeable. The rise of 
 capitalist oligarchies, and the struggles against their pretensions, 
 were really though remotely connected with the impulse which 
 was given to commercial activity by the Crusades. 
 
 The Christian commerce of the Eastern Mediterranean was 
 never so completely extinguished as that of the West had 
 been; in the years when the Arabs ruled Septimania, Spain 
 and Africa, as well as Sicily, Sardinia and other neighbouring 
 islands, Constantinople still held her own; and under her 
 prestige the commerce of Venice and of Amalfi began to 
 flourish. The Norman invasion of the Mediterranean was 
 fatal to this latter city, but Venice made rapid advances ; the 
 Greeks were content that active maritime trade should be 
 undertaken by strangers, and the Venetians not only secured 
 an important establishment in Constantinople, but founded 
 depots at Caffa and other points on the coasts of the Black 
 Sea. They had little sympathy with the Crusaders at first, for, 
 like the Greek Emperor, they were tempted to look askance 
 on the crowd of military adventurers who flocked into the 
 territories where their trading interests lay. 
 
 Owing to these circumstances the Venetians held aloof on 
 the whole from the earlier expeditions', and the profitable 
 undertakings connected with the transport of the Crusaders 
 fell to a very large extent into the hands of their great rivals — 
 the Genoese. When we consider on what a small scale shipping 
 had hitherto been carried on, we see at once what an enormous 
 impetus must have been given to business of every kind by 
 ' W. Lenel, Entstehung der Vorherrschaft Venedigs an der Adria, 
 P- 35- 
 
126 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 the necessity of finding the means of conveying and of pro- 
 visioning whole armies. The Genoese, who had taken an 
 active part in the struggle with the Arabians in the West, 
 threw themselves heartily into the new field of maritime 
 employment which the Crusaders opened up. They were 
 perhaps better prepared than their neighbours to take advan- 
 tage of the great opportunity ; but Marseilles and MontpelUer 
 were also engaged in catering for the demands of the Crusaders 
 in the matter of equipment and transport. The successive 
 expeditions, which followed one after another, served at all 
 events to make money circulate among shipowners on the 
 Mediterranean, as it had never done before. 
 
 During the brief r'egime of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, 
 the merchants of Genoa and other cities of Italy and of Pro- 
 vence made the most of their opportunities and established 
 considerable factories on the coast of S3nia. The Italian 
 merchants had access for a time to the caravan routes which 
 had formerly contributed so much to the prosperity of Tyre 
 and to that of Antioch in Roman times j with the reassertion of 
 Mohammedan influence, the Christian traders failed to maintain 
 their position. Experience had aheady shown, however, that 
 crusading had its commercial aspect, and that it could be 
 made to pay ; and in the Fourth Crusade the religious interest 
 fell entirely into the background. It was an expedition which 
 was directed by the Venetians to forward their mercantile 
 projects; they succeeded in upsetting the Greek Empire in 
 Constantinople, and in reducing their Genoese rivals to a sub- 
 ordinate position in that emporium; for sixty years the Venetians 
 appear to have enjoyed a complete monopoly of the trading 
 stations in the Black Sea, and to have commanded the Northern 
 caravan routes to Persia and the East. But they were not 
 sufficiently careful to maintain the valuable monopoly they 
 had won : the Genoese were willing to assist' in restoring the 
 
 ' Michael Pala«ologus succeeded in his expedition before the Genoese 
 fleet arrived. Heyd, op. cit. i. 428. 
 
CHAP. III.] Relations with Heathen and Moslems. 127 
 
 Greek Imperial line in 1261 a.d., and in their turn attained a 
 supremacy which, though less extensive, was similar to that 
 which Venice had enjoyed ^ They concentrated their atten'tion 
 on the Black Sea trade ; while the Venetians developed their 
 Levantine trade from Cyprus^, and consolidated their position 
 in Egypt. The trade with this latter country had suffered, but 
 it had never been suppressed, either by the fortunes of war or 
 by papal prohibition'. The Venetians endeavoured to mo- 
 nopolise it, but they were unable to prevent the intrusion of 
 other merchants from the Adriatic^, and a very large commerce 
 was carried on by the Catalans^ and Provengals. At the be- 
 girming of the fourteenth century there were several well- 
 established lines of communication between Western Europe 
 and the East through the Moslem world. The Hanse towns 
 worked eastwards through Russia, and the Genoese from' 
 Constantinople ; Venice, Barcelona, and Marseilles had factories 
 in Egypt, and various Italian towns maintained prosperous 
 establishments in Morocco. It was of course restricted inter- 
 course, conducted at factories, but it was regularly organised 
 and fairly constant. 
 
 There was occasional agreement for common commercial 
 objects among the Provengals and Catalans', but between 
 the Italian towns there was little sign of any confederacy such 
 as grew up among the traders in the Baltic; and the rise or 
 fall of one or another of these centres was for the most part 
 due to political causes and had but little economic significance. 
 Intercivic quarrels were often connected with the desire of 
 each town to maintain its monopoly, and especially to secure 
 exclusive access to the harbours on the more important 
 
 1 Heyd, op. cit. I. 430, 441. 
 
 " Heyd, op. cit. II. 7. 
 
 ' After the fall of Acre in 1291. Heyd, op. cit. II. 34. 
 
 ♦ Heyd, op. cit. I. 418. 
 ' Heyd, op. cit. I. 421. 
 
 * Mas Latrie, op. cit. 213. 
 
128 Western Civilisation. [book IV. 
 
 commercial routes'. Genoa succeeded in establishing her 
 supremacy on the Western coast of Italy, and closed the 
 harbours of Messina and Syracuse to the Pisans' and Mar- 
 seillese^j while Venice continued to gain at the expense of 
 Ancona and Ferrara, and attained at length to the sovereignty 
 of the Adriatic*. Apart from these rivalries, the policy pursued 
 by these cities was economically sound ; since their commercial 
 prosperity and industrial activity were made to react on one 
 another^ Each had to some extent its own character; the 
 Venetians imitated the imperial policy in the endeavour to 
 introduce the manufacture of articles of luxury which had 
 hitherto been imported at great cost; they set themselves to 
 encourage the silk industry", as well as the production of glass 
 and mosaic, and the fine kinds of metal work. Genoa was 
 perhaps more of a mere commercial dep6t than her great 
 rivals, but her people were specially skilled in the manufacture 
 of arms and munitions of war. The Florentines had devoted 
 themselves to the textile trades and the dressing and dyeing 
 of fine woollen cloth' ; it was only gradually that they forced 
 their way to the sea, and superseded Pisa in a profitable trade 
 with Morocco ; but the prosperity of their town was built on 
 the most secure foundations, and they suffered less than their 
 neighbours from the changes which were brought about by the 
 age of discovery. 
 
 The impulse which was given to the Italian towns was 
 communicated with more or less rapidity to other centres in 
 Europe". The cities in the Danube valley must have profited 
 
 ' Compare Vol. I. 64, 89. 
 " Heyd, «>. cit. i. 183. 
 « Ibid. I. 188. 
 
 * Lenel, op. cit. 47—84. » Vol. I. 67, 119. 
 
 " Broglio d'Ajano, Die Venetianische Seidenindustrie, if. 
 
 ' E. Dixou, Florentine Wool Trade in the Middle Ages, in the Royai 
 Historical Societys Transactions, Xll. 158. Doren, Entwickelung und 
 Organisation der Floreniiner Ziinfte in SchmoUer's Forschungen, XV. iii 60. 
 
 * The increase of commercial intercommunication imdoubtedly affected 
 
CUAP. lli.J Relations with Heatfien and Moslems. 129 
 
 to some extent by catering for the armies which passed along 
 that route; while Augsburg and Nuremberg, which were in 
 direct communication with Venice, gained with the increase of 
 her commercial activity. Nor was it only by mountain passes 
 that communication with the North took place ; from the early 
 part of the fourteenth century regular commercial voyages were 
 organised from Venice to the Low Countries. The Flanders 
 galleys began to carry a portion of the trade which had gone 
 in previous times by the French rivers, and after the middle of 
 the fourteenth century, when the Hundred Years' War interfered 
 with the peaceful avocations of merchants, this stream of traffic 
 was almost entirely diverted to the Alpine and maritime routes. 
 In the fourteenth century we can estimate the full extent of the 
 impulse which had been given by the Crusades. We see the 
 organised commercial communication between all parts of 
 Western Christendom, and with the countries which lay out- 
 side, and we see too that a new development of industry 
 followed in connection with the improvement of the facilities 
 for trading intercourse. 
 
 105. It is rarely the case that the personal life of any 
 individual embraces and illustrates the most 
 momentous issues in the contemporary history the^Navigator! 
 of his country ; and it would be difficult to find 
 any single character that summed up the tendencies of his age 
 so completely as did Prince Henry the Navigator. His work 
 led to the discovery of the new world, and to the opening of 
 direct maritime communication with the East; through his 
 personal energy, and interest in founding a school of navigators, 
 
 the industrial arts in the North and West of Europe. This is particularly 
 clear in regard to the art of fortification (Oman, Art of War, 526). It is 
 noticeable that many of the terms in use in the building trades in England 
 are of Greek origin — laothonii, cheirotheca, schola — and that the organi- 
 sation of masons had little in common with that of other crafts in England, 
 while it was closely analogous to that which existed in Byzantium in the 
 ninth century. Jules Nicole, Livre du Prifet, p. 82. 
 
 C. W. C. II. 9 
 
130 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 the preliminary difficulties were overcome and compleJ;e success 
 was brought within sight. The change which has revolutionised 
 European trade and has drawn the whole world within the 
 influence of Western Civilisation was indirectly the doing of 
 this Portuguese Prince. Yet though his action rendered 
 modern life possible, with its cosmopolitan commerce and 
 giant industry which far outstrip the greatest efforts of the 
 ancient world, he was not in any sense before his time; he 
 was emphatically a man of his time. The various threads 
 which we have followed in the preceding paragraphs appear 
 to meet and to be united in him. Prince Henry came of a 
 stock which had a strain of the old Norse blood ; the kingdom 
 of Portugal had been founded by Norman adventurers ; and 
 his mother was a Plantagenet and therefore a descendant of 
 Norman William. Thus the first impulse in the age of dis- 
 covery came from a scion of the race that had made their 
 homes on all the lands of the Northern Seas, and had swept 
 the Mediterranean with their ships. He lived at a time, too, 
 when his native country had come to occupy a new place in 
 the commerce of the day ; the fleet of Flanders Galleys touched 
 at its ports, and native enterprise was fired more and more 
 with the ambition to obtain at least a share in the trade which 
 the Venetians found so profitable. It is noticeable also that 
 Prince Henry resided in the one corner of Christendom where 
 the old crusading fervour burned most fiercely ; the continued 
 presence of the Mohammedans at Grenada was an ofiFence to 
 Christian sentiment and a challenge to Christian chivalry. 
 Prince Henry had won his spurs in a briUiant attack on the 
 infidel fortress of Tangier ; and there was in him a combination 
 of the scientific and missionary interest in discovery with the 
 military and religious desire of conquest, which was charac- 
 teristic of the mediaeval world in which he lived rather than 
 of the modern life he was helping to introduce. Islam had 
 hemmed Christendom in on every side ; on the east as on the 
 south, the Crescent raised a barrier against the advance of the 
 
Cl-lAr. Ill] Relations with Heathen and Moslems. 131 
 
 Cross. It was the ambition of Prince Henry to turn the flank 
 of these ancient foes, and thus to obtain direct access to the 
 great world, and to the Heathendom that lay beyond the wide 
 belt of Mohammedan influence. 
 
 With this object in view he organised a school of maritime 
 exploration, where all the geographical knowledge of the day 
 and technical skill in seamanship might be combined for one 
 definite object. Year after year his expeditions were sent out, 
 and pushed their way farther and farther along the African 
 coast; but few of his emissaries were inspired by his far- 
 reaching ambitions; they preferred to reap the immediate 
 profits of commerce on the African coast, rather than to 
 push on to the continents that lay beyond. They obtained 
 gold from the Guinea coast by barter with the natives, and 
 made a new beginning of that trade which has been the 
 immemorial curse of Africa, by bringing negroes to work in 
 Portugal. 
 
 At the time of Prince Henry's death the Portuguese had 
 already found their way to the Madeiras (1418 a.d.) and 
 rounded Cape Bojador (1434 a.d.); and a few years later 
 they pushed as far as Senegal and the Cape Verde Islands 
 (1446 A.D.); the impulse which the prince had given was not 
 allowed to die out, and the work of discovery became a settled 
 part of Portuguese policy, though it was not pursued with the 
 same assiduity in every reign. Explorers were sent by land to 
 the East, and attempts were made to utilise the caravan routes 
 across Northern Africa ; but the crowning success was attained 
 in 1498 A.D. when Vasco da Gama arrived after a nine months' 
 voyage at Calicut. Six years previously Columbus, relying on 
 the experience accumulated by Prince Henry's school and 
 aided by the resources of Ferdinand and Isabella, had found 
 his way to the West Indian Islands, and fired the ambition of 
 a crowd of other explorers; so that in the course of a few 
 years the coasts of enormous continents were sketched in the 
 map of the world, and a field was opened for military and 
 
 9—2 
 
133 Western Civilisation. [BOOK IV. 
 
 commercial expeditions, which was wide indeed compared with 
 the narrow area which the Crusaders had striven to occupy. 
 
 It were invidious to compare the heroism and persistence 
 displayed by the discoverers in one great area with the virtues 
 of other men at other times. The Portuguese and Columbus 
 accomplished a magnificent work that has changed the face of 
 the globe ; but it may be doubted if they showed more enter- 
 prise in penetrating the unknown or more skill in seamanship 
 than the Phoenicians in their voyages or the Vikings of whom 
 we read in the sagas. The times were ripe for the fifteenth 
 century discoveries ; facilities were at hand to take advantage 
 of the new vista they opened up. The Norsemen had not had 
 the means to transport armies which could conquer the lands 
 they reached, or the skill to frame a government which could 
 even enable them to explore the new territories systematically; 
 but the world had advanced since their time. The business 
 training which had been developed by merchants in the 
 Mediterranean could be brought to bear in the Eastern 
 hemisphere ; the Portuguese did not fare forth half as pirates 
 and half as merchants, but as men who meant to obtain a 
 regular establishment from which they could organise a steady 
 trade. The preceding centuries, with their limited commerce 
 and futile expeditions, had been a long apprenticeship and had 
 fitted the men of the sixteenth century for the career of 
 conquest and commerce and colonisation which had become 
 possible for them alike in the East and the West. 
 
 ig6. However highly we may rate the gain that has 
 M diaevai accrued, On the whole, from the age of discovery 
 and Modern we should not Overlook the mischiefs that ac- 
 lavery. companied it. The moral results in Europe of 
 
 intercommunication between Christendom and the Moslem 
 world had not always been wholesome; and the contact 
 between Christendom and heathendom induced a terrible 
 relapse from the improving standard in regard to the treatment 
 of labourers, which had been the most striking economic 
 
CUAP. III.] Relations with Heathen and Moslems. 133 
 
 feature of mediaeval society, for it led to an immediate 
 recrudescence of slavery. When the African slave-trade had 
 once been started, it continued to develop and increase till the 
 horrors of the revived traffic nearly equalled or possibly even 
 exceeded the miseries endured by slaves in the ancient world. 
 
 The reintroduction of the slave-trade was a singular 
 aberration, for which it is not at first sight easy to account; 
 the influence of Christian sentiment and economic changes 
 had alike tended to raise the status of the labourer in Europe ; 
 but, for different reasons, these forces did not serve to prevent 
 or discourage the export of slaves to the new world. The 
 attitude of the Church towards slavery had always been 
 perfectly clear; from the time of S. Paul onwards there 
 had been no condemnation of slavery as an institution, or 
 attempt to interfere with it as a condition of life in ordinary 
 society; there was no assertion of any inherent right of man 
 as man to be free. While, then, there was no condemnation 
 of slavery as such, there were frequent efforts made to lighten 
 the lot of the slave, and to protect him from arbitrary and cruel 
 treatment by his master'. Many signs of this influence are to 
 be found in the legislative codes of the East^ as well as in the 
 Capitularies^ ; and the partial freedom which was afforded 
 by limiting the master's rights gave the slave an opportunity 
 for gradually bettering his position. Besides contributing in 
 this way to the gradual improvement of the circumstances 
 of the class, the Church treated freedom as an ideal, which 
 ought to be kept in view. The liberating of slaves was 
 encouraged as a form of charity, though it was not regarded 
 
 ^ Yanoslii, De Vabolilion de Vesclavage ancien au moyeii dge, p. 37 fol. 
 
 * Brownlow, Lectures on Slavery and Serfdom in Europe, p. 30 fol. 
 Cod. Theod. lib. I.X. tit. 55. 1, s; Cod. Justinian, lib. vn. tit. 15. i. 
 Wallon, Histoire de V Esclavage, III . 389. 
 
 ' Brownlow, op. cit. 69, Cafiitula excerpta ex lege Longobardoruni, c. 14 
 in Baluze, Capitularia (1677), I. 351; Gueiard, Polyptyque de tAbbe 
 Irmiiwn; prolegomenes, 331. 
 
134 Western Civilisation, [BOOK IV. 
 
 as a duty of strict obligation' ; to keep slaves was not wrong, 
 but to free them was kindly and commendable. Hence we 
 have the numerous wills, like that of King Alfred'', where the 
 manumission of slaves comes in as a generous benefaction, 
 much as the endf;wing of a college might appear in the 
 present day. There are other examples, such as that of 
 S. Eligius, whose methods of effecting the redemption of slaves 
 were so strangely unlike .those of modern abolitionists'. 
 
 There were, moreover, certain cases in which Christian 
 sentiment was not content with improving their lot or making 
 occasional efforts for setting individual slaves at liberty; 
 a traffic which consisted in removing men from Christian 
 homes and leaving them uncared for in pagan lands roused 
 the strongest indignation. To be willing for the sake of mere 
 money to sell a Christian man into a country where it was 
 hardly possible for him to maintain Christian habits of life, 
 and where he must die ' unhouseled, disappointed, unanealed,' 
 was an outrage on religious sentiment. Hence, while there 
 was little decided feeling against slavery as such, there was the 
 deepest pity for those who were sold into captivity beyond the 
 pale of Christendom* ; a pity which was based, not merely on 
 sympathy with their physical lot, but on fears for their loss of 
 the means of grace and the hope of glory. 
 
 The Christian sentiment on the subject was not primarily 
 humanitarian, but simply religious, and herein lies the secret of 
 its limitations. When the sphere of Mohammedan influence in 
 
 ^ A precisely similar distinction was drawn in regard to the use of 
 money; to lend money without interest was a commendable sort of charity 
 and kindliness, but it was not a duty incumbent on every man who had 
 wealth at his disposal. 
 
 * Thorpe, Diplomatarium Anglicuiii Aevi Saxonici, 492, also 513. 
 
 » S. R. Maitland, The Dark Ages, 88. For the Viking slave-trade 
 compare Torfaeus, Renim Norvegicarum Historia (1711), vol. II. p. 332. 
 
 * Great pains were taken by the Genoese to prevent the inclusion of any 
 Christian among the slaves they exported from Caffa to Egypt. Ileyd, 
 op. cit. II. 557. 
 
CHAP. III.] Relations with Heathen and Moslems. 135 
 
 Africa had been rounded by Prince Henry's exertions, and 
 Christendom had come into direct contact with heathendom, this 
 strong religious feeling was not shocked by the action of those 
 who imported heathen slaves into Christian lands; it would 
 have been possible to regard such conduct as a pious work, 
 since by its means the imported slaves were brought within 
 the range of Christian instruction. It does not appear clear 
 that any one ever advocated the trafiSc on this ground', and 
 Cardinal Ximenes and the Spaniards generally regarded the 
 trade with dislike, as at best a necessary evil, but a real evil ; 
 still the point remains that the Christian sentiment which had 
 protested vigorously against the export of slaves from Europe 
 was not roused by the importation of slaves to Europe, or to 
 lands dominated by Europeans and in which Christian insti- 
 tutions existed. 
 
 Apart altogether from this religious influence, economic 
 causes had been at work in improving the condition of the 
 rural labourer in Western Europe. They had doubtless had 
 something to do with the diminution of slavery ; for its decline 
 in the ancient world had been partly due to the fact that no 
 sufficient source of supply continued to be available^. It had 
 been necessary to introduce new methods of estate manage- 
 ment, and to rely on the labour of serfs who were restricted 
 to particular estates and remunerated by the assignment of 
 holdings which they worked on their own account. The medi- 
 aeval villein was in a very different position from the slaves 
 of classical times, for despite the disabilities to which he was 
 subject, he had a definite legal status, and he frequently 
 enjoyed proprietary rights which enabled him to improve his 
 position as opportunity arose. The gradual substitution of 
 money for natural economy in rural life told decidedly in his 
 favour j this gave him an increased measure of economic 
 
 ' Columbus appears to have taken this view in his treatment of the 
 natives of the Caribbean Islands. Ingram, History of Slavery, p. 142. 
 2 Vol. I. p. 179. 
 
13*3 Wesiern Civilisation. [book IV. 
 
 independence and much greater freedom for movement'. The 
 change has not proceeded at a uniform rate in all European 
 lands ; the occasions which have brought it about have been 
 different in each country, though the general result has been 
 similar in all alike^. For the most part this revolution occurred 
 at a date when there was little tendency to utilise capital in the 
 cultivation of land'; there was no considerable demand for 
 hired labour, and no need at all to import it into Europe. A 
 large body of peasantry, engaged in work upon their small 
 holdings, inhabited the areas that could be most profitably 
 cultivated'*. The circumstances in the New World were so 
 different that the importation to it of slaves from Africa 
 proved to be a remunerative business. There were many 
 large capitalists in America who were eager to obtain numbers 
 of labourers so that they might carry on mining operations and 
 work their plantations, while a supply that was practically 
 unlimited could be easily drawn from the dark continent. 
 These exceptional circumstances, under which the traffic 
 revived, bring into clearer light the reasons for its decline and 
 practical disappearance from European lands', and help us to 
 gauge more precisely the effect of religious ideals on the course 
 of affairs. In the one case where Christian sentiment failed to 
 make its protest, the horrors of slavery revived. The introduc- 
 
 ^ T. W. Page, End of Villainage in England, in the Publications of 
 the American Economic Association, 3rd series, I. p. 382. 
 
 * Ingram, History of Slavery and Serfdom, 91 fol.; see also Brownlow, 
 op. cit. p. 210, for the influence of the Crusaders. 
 
 ^ The large Tuscan estates appear to have been exceptional. Pohlmann, 
 Die Wirthschdftspolitik der Florentiner Renaissance, p. 5. In the Preis- 
 schriften gekront von der fiirstlich-jablonowskischen Gesellschaft, 1878. 
 
 * The pressure of the moneyed and industrial interests tended to depress 
 the condition of the peasantry both in France and Germany, but not to 
 enslave them. Lamprecht, Deutsche Geschichte, V. 87 fol. 
 
 " Slavery was not extinct in Europe so early as is commonly supposed. 
 Cibrario has collected numerous instances of sales of slaves in Italy in 
 the xiiith, xivth and xvth centuries. Delia' Schiavitit e del Servaggio, I. 
 pp. 227—235. 
 
CHAP. III.] Relations with Heathen and Moslems. 137 
 
 tion of money-economy gave the command of more capital to 
 invest in slaves ; the opening up' of commercial intercourse 
 afforded wider opportunities for engaging in the traffic; these 
 elements in material progress were perfectly compatible with 
 the maintenance of slavery and the oppression of the workman. 
 It was so far, and only so far, as Christianity made itself felt as 
 an effective force, by constant pressure exerted through many 
 centuries, that the condition of labour was sensibly improved 
 fiom what it had been in the ancient world. 
 
BOOK V. 
 NATIONALITIES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 SECULARISATION. 
 
 107. The resemblances between the Roman Empire of 
 _, _. the second or third century and the Latin 
 
 ruption of Christendom of the thirteenth have been already 
 
 Christendom. pointed out. Both attained to a high state of 
 civilisation, and a large part of the areas they occupied was 
 common to both ; they were ruled from the same centre and 
 included a similar independent city life. These points of 
 similarity lie so much on the surface as to tempt us to overlook 
 and ignore the deep and real differences which were inherent 
 in the very structure of these polities ; but the marked contrast 
 between them is forced on our attention when we compare 
 these two great systems of society in their decline. The Roman 
 Empire preserved its apparent grandeur, while it was tottering 
 to its fall, and one after another of its provinces sank 
 away into utter barbarism. In Christendom, however, there 
 was disruption rather than decay. The central authority fell 
 into disrepute and the cohesive influences gave way ; but the 
 distant provinces were by no means exhausted ; they were, on 
 the contrary, full of vigorous vitality, and were so far from 
 
CHAP. I.] Secularisation. 139 
 
 relying on the central power for defence, that they resented 
 attempts to exercise any interference and control. 
 
 The radical distinction between the breaking up of the 
 ancient and of the mediaeval system lies in the fact that the 
 Empire succumbed and fell to pieces as the result of a long 
 period of economic failure and decadence; the weakness was 
 obvious enough, even though there may be some dispute as 
 to the precise diagnosis of the disease with which the mischief 
 began. In Christendom however there was no similar blight. 
 The era of the Crusades had been a time of extraordinary 
 material prosperity ; even despite the devastation caused by 
 the constant struggles in Italy, and the Hundred Years' War 
 between England and France, in spite too of the destruction 
 consequent on the Black Death and of the commercial 
 readjustments necessitated by the fall of Constantinople, 
 economic progress continued in many directions. Under the 
 influence of developing trade, industry was stimulated ; the 
 towns of Flanders and of Germany are full of fourteenth and 
 fifteenth century monuments which testify unmistakeably to the 
 vigour of tljeir industrial life, and the wealth of the merchant 
 princes of the time. The outlying parts of the Empire had 
 been the first to show the numbness which betokens a mortal 
 malady ; .but there were no analogous symptoms in the distant 
 parts of Christendom. 
 
 A strange glamour had attached to the very name of the 
 Roman Emperor; the mere survival of the imperial dignity 
 had overawed the barbarian invaders; while their admiration 
 for the imperial authority persisted, in spite of their experience 
 of its inability to resist them. In Christendom, on the other 
 hand, the rivalry of Pope and Emperor was too intense, and 
 their struggle too long continued, for either to command the un- 
 questioning obedience of the world. The subsequent triumph 
 of the Papacy over the Emperor was spoiled of its effect by 
 the great schism and the Babylonian captivity, when the 
 spiritual head of Christendom became a mere puppet of France. 
 
140 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V, 
 
 When not one Pope but three demanded the obedience of 
 mankind, and the new era of Councils opened, there was a 
 patent confession that the Papacy had ceased to be an effective 
 instrument for the government of Christendom. Nor had the 
 Papacy been successful in organising effective resistance to 
 the common foe; the greedy intrigue, which brought about 
 the fall of the Templars, discredited its instigator, and opened 
 up fresh opportunities for Mohammedan aggression. The 
 Emperors had been forced to yield to the Popes, but the Papacy 
 was unable to wield the power at which it had grasped, and 
 failed to maintain its dignity as a spiritual head directing all 
 the energies of a great and complex civilised society. The 
 economic inanition, which proved fatal to the Roman Empire, 
 had nothing to -do with the disruption of Christendom ; that 
 was entirely due to the inability of the central power to 
 maintain an effective authority. 
 
 io8. This loss of prestige on the part of the ecclesiastical 
 head of Christendom became a serious danger 
 
 Secular . ° 
 
 Functions of to the mstitutions of the mediaeval world, be- 
 andCritSsm cause it directed attention to the principles on 
 of the existing which the whole social system rested and rendered 
 ys em. them the subject of much hostile criticism. The 
 
 claim that Christian influence should be supreme in all the 
 relations of life had been admitted in the foundation, and had 
 guided the construction of the fabric of mediaeval society ; this 
 principle seemed to imply that there was no sphere of human 
 interest which did not come under the cognisance of spiritual 
 authority, and with which the activity of ecclesiastics might 
 not be rightly concerned. Practical reasons rendered it con- 
 venient to entrust the management of civil affairs to the clergy, 
 as educated men ; they were also regarded as especially trust- 
 worthy, since bishops and priests were particularly bound to 
 discharge their duties with the . fear of God before them'. 
 Directly and indirectly an immense amount of secular business 
 
 ^ Dialo^us de Scaccario, Pref, 
 
CHAP. I.] Secularisation. 141 
 
 came into the hands of clerical functionaries; ecclesiastical 
 tribunals had control over all matters connected with wills 
 and marriages; and much administrative work, both fiscal, 
 judicial, and diplomatic, was carried on by ecclesiastical per- 
 sonages, who held high civil offices in the various states of 
 Europe. 
 
 This attempt to control the life of man in all its aspects is of 
 the very essence of the Christian religion. Homo sum, nihil 
 humani a me alienum puto, is the Divine Word to the world. 
 Still it is true that, those who have aimed at giving effect to this 
 principle have often discredited it by their failure to apply it. 
 The effort to control and direct all the various interests of 
 mankind may distract attention from the supreme end which 
 ought to be in view. The Benedictines had devoted them- 
 selves to the study of letters, that they might consecrate 
 learning, and to the pursuit of wealth that was devoted to 
 the service of God; nevertheless they had so far lost their 
 hold on the end and aim of the Rule under which they lived, 
 that there was need in the twelfth century for the founding 
 of the reformed orders at Cluny and Citeaux. In precisely 
 the same manner the absorption of ecclesiastical officials in 
 civil and political activity tended to distract them from the 
 duties of devotion, and laid them open to the charge that 
 their claim to spiritual authority and respect was a mere 
 pretext, which was used to cloak an absorbing interest in 
 worldly dignities and earthly gain. There was a consequent 
 reaction of-religious feeling, which carried many earnest men 
 into the opposite extreme and led them to disparage secular 
 life altogether. The rise of the mendicant orders was a 
 protest against a secularised hierarchy; in their devotion to 
 spiritual things and to acts of mercy, they deliberately re- 
 frained from secular duties, and alleged the example of our 
 Lord and the Twelve Apostles as an excuse for neglecting 
 the discipline of work, and living on the alms of th^ faithful. 
 Mediaeval thinkers rightly insisted on the supreme value of 
 
142 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 that which is spiritual; but they erred in giving it exclusive 
 .importance; indeed, the hard and fast line which they drew 
 is inadmissible. We cannot sever the merely secular from the 
 purely spiritual and contrast them one against the other ; the 
 problem which confronts the Christian man in all ages is that 
 of so using earthly things as to turn them to the highest uses. 
 He is bound to endeavour to bring the common affairs of 
 daily life into just subordination and to limit an absorbing 
 interest in them; but any attempt to ignore them altogether 
 as unworthy of attention must end in disaster. That which 
 is secular has a place in the divine order and will reassert 
 itself if neglected. Those who, as friars, were wholly true to 
 their vows of poverty and were personally most self-sacrificing 
 and devout, might yet be deeply concerned about the worldly 
 welfare of their community and vehement sticklers for its 
 privileges or wealth. Still, the view of Christian duty which they 
 asserted, in all its exaggeration and crudity, came to be widely 
 popular; in the time of the Emperor Lewis of Bavaria the 
 enthusiasm for the purely spiritual was dexterously used by 
 William of Occam as a weapon for attacking ecclesiastics for 
 their readiness to attend to worldly matters and to control or 
 exercise civil functions. 
 
 This teaching was formulated with such skill and acumen 
 that it was diffused and perpetuated in academic circles; 
 similar criticism on the existing gystem was uttered more 
 forcibly, in the fourteenth century, by those who regarded 
 the affairs of the times as plain men, exercising their common 
 sense. There was a sharp contrast between the recognised 
 duty of labour, — of accepting work as a personal discipline, — 
 and the lives of the friars who lived in idleness as beggars. 
 The management of the religious houses failed to show that 
 ecclesiastics were actuated by a sense of responsibility in ful- 
 filling the duty of administering their property carefully ; the 
 exactions of the monasteries from their serfs or from the 
 townsmen, who were their neighbours, gave continual cause for 
 
CHAP. I.] Secularisation. 143 
 
 complaint and were the excuse for occasional outbreaks. • A 
 more scandalous violation of another fundamental Christian 
 principle — that of fairness in monetary transactions — was 
 afforded by the practices of the papal merchants, whose sharp 
 dealings rivalled those of the detested Jew. When tried by the 
 standards, which the Church had introduced and disseminated, 
 the existing ecclesiastical system was emphatically condemned. 
 It must be noted, however, that this popular criticism was saner 
 and wiser than that of Occam and the friars; it did not discard 
 the old conceptions as mistaken, but, in the face of existing 
 abuses, it challenged the papal claim to unquestioning obe- 
 dience, as the unique authority in interpreting and enforcing 
 Christian duty. The old ideals have survived the disruption of 
 Christendom and are retained in Christian lands as setting the 
 standards by which right and wmng are judged ; there is still 
 the recognition of an Absolute Will as the ground of all 
 human authority and the guarantee against the encroachments 
 of arbitrary human will on personal liberty ; there is frequent 
 insistence on the responsibilities of the wealthy, and a general 
 admission that work is a duty to be done. All this remains 
 in the modern world, though the Latin Church is no longer 
 accepted as the sole illustration of every Christian virtue ; the 
 maxims of its jurisprudence have Ipeen set aside in many lands 
 as no longer applicable, and its methods of enforcing them 
 have lost much of their power. The mediaeval world, which 
 owed everything to the work of the Christian Church, had 
 gradually outgrown and ceased to rely on the forms through 
 which that guidance had been habitually given. 
 
 109. These opinions, so hostile to the existing order, 
 must have sooner or later had their effect in „^ „, , 
 
 ,.,.,..„,. The Black 
 
 undermmmg clerical authority in Christendom ; Death and 
 but their influence was greatly accelerated by the integration, 
 terrible pestilence which devastated Europe in The Renais- 
 the middle of the fourteenth century. The 
 Black Death, passing as it did from country to country and 
 
144 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 sweeping off about half of the population in land after land", 
 brought about many fundamental changes, both in urban and 
 rural districts. Some of these are matters of local and special 
 history, but one result was common to the whole of Western 
 Europe. The Church as an organised society suffered a 
 serious shock, which strained its most honoured institutions. 
 The great monasteries never recovered their position and in- 
 fluence as centres of cultivated and devout life"; the supply 
 of clergy for the parish churches became quite inadequate. 
 The scandals, which became more frequent and patent, were 
 subsequently dealt with in some lands by the Council of 
 Trent, while they were made the occasion for religious revo- 
 lution in other countries. The Church not only suffered from 
 an insufficient supply of men, but came to be more exposed 
 to another attack, after the Black Death. Since a large pro- 
 portion of the population had died, and the conditions of 
 life and labour had changed for the worse, the amount of 
 wealth devoted to religious objects appeared to be excessive 
 and to be quite disproportionate to the requirements of each 
 state. The jealousy of needy potentates was roused and their 
 avarice was quickened; they were eager to take advantage 
 of any chance that offered for diverting the grants that had 
 been made by pious benefactors. Much of the contemporary 
 testimony as to the corruption of the Church comes from 
 tainted sources and is untrustworthy, and it is a thankless 
 task to try to sift the evidence in detail; we can see that 
 apart altogether from any religious or moral causes which 
 contributed to the downfall of the ecclesiastical system, the 
 Latin Church must have lost its predominance, so soon as 
 society was able to dispense with the support it had formerly 
 afforded. The Truce of God had ceased to be a useful 
 guarantee for the opportunity of pursuing peaceful avocations, 
 since the royal authority was better able to enforce the law, 
 
 1 Cunningham, Growth of English Tfidustry and Commerce, I. 331. 
 ^ Gasquet, The Great Pestilence, pp. 205, 214. 
 
CHAP. I.] Secularisation. 14S 
 
 and to secure that the intermission of war and pillage should 
 not be exceptional and occasional, but general and permanent. 
 There were trained civilians who could administer the affairs of 
 the realm, so that rulers were able to dispense with the services 
 of the clergy in many capacities which ecclesiastics had at one 
 time filled to advantage. In earlier times the monks had 
 improved the art of agriculture, and aided in the development 
 of commerce; but in the fifteenth century the abbey estates 
 were no longer models of good management, and trade was 
 cared for by the merchant oligarchies of the towns. The Church 
 had ceased to be a leader in the arts of practical life, while 
 her inability to utilise privileges and possessions to the best 
 advantage under changed conditions, was fatal to her position 
 as the dominating influence over secular life in all its aspects. 
 
 The general disorganisation of European society and de- 
 creased respect for the spiritual head of Christendom reacted 
 on the finances of the Roman Court, and rendered it neces- 
 sary for the Popes to devise new methods for obtaining 
 revenue'. The temper of the times was such that a systematic 
 attempt to increase papal taxation would have been a dan- 
 gerous expedient in any case; but murmured criticism gave 
 place to active resentment as the full effects of the Renais- 
 sance" movement began to be felt. The conscious imitation 
 of ancient models at the court of Rome was a cause of 
 scandal ; and the scheme for the erection of a magnificent 
 ecclesiastical edifice which should be a centre for the world's 
 worship brought matters to a crisis ; an attempt was made to 
 
 ' GoUlob, All! der Camera, t88. 
 
 2 The Humanists were repelled by mediaeval ideals and did not a little 
 to undermine mediaeval institutions. They valued art and letters; and 
 regarded them as objects well worth living for on their own account. The 
 Humanists refused to look on life in this world as a mere discipline and 
 preparation for another sphere; and thus they contributed to the process 
 of secularisation, but they bad little direct influence on economic progress, 
 for they merely reverted to ancient ideals which were already discredited 
 by the logic of events. 
 
 C. W. C. U. 1-3 
 
146 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 meet the expense of the building of S. Peter's by the sale of 
 indulgences in Germany ; this roused the indignation of Luther, 
 whose protest served as a wedge, that was driven farther and 
 farther home, till Christendom was severed to pieces. 
 
 no. The malign effects of the Black Death and the 
 social disintegration it induced were more ob- 
 nin**s^*^'"' vious and long continued than might have been 
 Recon- the case if the ecclesiastical institutions had 
 
 Territorial retained "their pristine vigour; but they were no 
 
 Economic longer able to cope with the fresh difficulties 
 
 Policy. " "^ . . 
 
 that arose. From this time onwards some im- 
 portant matters which had hitherto been attended to as pious 
 duties were disregarded ; churchmen lacked either the will or 
 the power to bestir themselves ; and when men tried to remedy 
 this neglect in the sixteenth century, the work was taken up 
 by the civil and not by the ecclesiastical authorities. 
 
 Internal trade could only be carried on with difficulty in 
 countries where it had previously flourished, for all the facilities 
 for intercommunication had suffered severely. This had been 
 specially the case in France, where the devastation caused 
 by the Hundred Years' War had aggravated the mischief due 
 to mere neglect'. Even in England many of the bridges had 
 broken down', and there was no one with sufficient public 
 spirit to attend to them properly. 
 
 Throughout the Middle Ages it seems as if the repair of 
 roads was rather a piece of Christian philanthropy than any- 
 thing else. The rendering of assistance to travellers was a form 
 of active benevolence, and the story of the building of Barnstaple 
 bridge' shows how much this work was required for the public 
 safety. We find that such repairs were a frequent subject of 
 pious benefaction; the great ecclesiastics and monastic cor- 
 porations are said to have devoted a considerable amount of 
 
 ' Levasseur, op. cit. 421 — 9. 
 
 ^ Jusserand, English Wayfaring Life, 64. 
 
 ' Leland, Itinerar}' (T744), II. 75, f. 66. 
 
CHAP. I.J Secularisation. 147 
 
 wealth to this purpose' ; at all events as their vigour declined 
 they were less ready to take an active part in the matter. 
 The statute of 1555 a.d., which provides for the appointment of 
 road surveyors', embodies the modern view of the nature of the 
 obligation ; it was a public improvement to which great atten- 
 tion was given by Henry IV of France'. 
 
 There was also a process of secularisation in the arrange- 
 ments which were made for the relief of the indigent. The 
 distresses of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries appear to 
 have given new prominence to the question of pauperism, 
 and the need of making provision for the poor was very im- 
 perfectly met by the monasteries at that time. This may have 
 been partly due to the diminution of their wealth, and partly 
 to increased carelessness of the wants of the poor ; but it should 
 also be remembered that the mediaeval methods of charity were 
 thoroughly unsatisfactory. Doles of food, if occasional, can do 
 little towards aiding the poor effectively; if regularly perpetuated, 
 they tend to create an idle and pauperised class. Many ex- 
 periments were tried by the founding of hospitals and other 
 charitable institutions for the local maintenance of the poor; 
 in many towns efforts were made to promote discriminating 
 almsgiving and the organisation of charitable help ; and the 
 task came to be fulfilled as a matter of civic or municipal 
 expediency*. There was some doubt as to how far this way 
 of viewing it was in accord with the Christian maxims of 
 neighbourliness; and the point was discussed at some length 
 by the doctors of the Sorbonne^. They gave the sanction of 
 
 1 Thorold Rogers, Agriculture and Prices, I. 139. Jusserand, op. cit. 
 45. A. Law, English Tcnuns and Roads in xill Centttry in Economic 
 Review, VII. 300. 
 
 2 1 and 3 Philip and Mary, u. 8. 
 
 ' Fagniez, Veconomie sociale de la France sous Henri IV, 180. 
 * A. S. Green, English Town Life, i. 41, n. 2. E. Leonard, Poor 
 Relief, 7. 
 
 ' Ashley, Introduction to English EconoTnic History, I. ii. 348. 
 
148 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V, 
 
 their authority to methods of undertaking the duty' which 
 had httle in common with the traditional Christian practice 
 of indiscriminate almsgiving. 
 
 But distressful as the period of transition must necessarily 
 have been, it was an enormous boon that civil authority was 
 so far developed as to be able to take in hand the various 
 forms of social activity for which the ecclesiastical system was 
 no longer able to provide. There were in the fifteenth century 
 two distinct types of secular authority, the monarchies and 
 the cities; both were capable of organising departments of 
 governmental action which had hitherto been relegated to the 
 Church, and both were making their importance felt as growing 
 territorial powers. 
 
 The kings and the towns of Western Europe had some- 
 times found a common interest in opposing the great feuda- 
 tories and curbing their pretensions; in the fifteenth century 
 a fair measure of success had been attained, and the noble 
 families were relatively less independent of the kings and less 
 important than the wealthy centjiBS of trade. Feudal society 
 passed away throughout Western Europe ; but in some countries, 
 as in Italy and Flanders, the towns had become so strong that 
 they were able to maintain an economic and political indepen- 
 dence. In others, and especially in France and in England, 
 the authority of the sovereign was brought to bear effectively 
 on the whole territory and controlled the affairs of towns and 
 of mral districts alike. In this way it was possible in all the 
 regulation of industry and trade, to keep one supreme object in 
 view and to attempt to utilise all. resources so as to strengthen 
 the realm as a whole. This might necessitate the repression 
 of particularist aims and even the suppression of local privi- 
 leges, but it helped to bring out an underlying community of 
 interest among all the citizens, and to give solidarity to the 
 
 ' Oo the tentative experiments of Tudor times and the growth of the 
 English systems see £. M. Leouard, The Early History of English Poor 
 Relief, 31. 
 
CHAP. I.] Seatlarisation. 145 
 
 whole social system. When a wise economic policy was adoptea 
 for any nation there was abundant opportunity for the healthy 
 interaction of rural, urban and commercial life upon each other. 
 In Italy and Flanders, and to some extent in Germany, 
 many of the towns acquired additional territory ; and each was 
 inclined to organise a definite economic system whicii should 
 suit its own circumstances ; monarchic and civic policy have 
 this feature in common'. In fifteenth century municipal 
 regulation there is less exclusive attention to the prosperity of 
 the powerful merchants, and there are signs of a readiness to 
 take account of both landed and civic interests in the develop- 
 ment of territorial resources. There would be immense interest 
 in tracing the history of particular towns ; in seeing how 
 physical circumstances affected the beginnings of their trade ; 
 and in noticing the precise fashion in which the commerce of 
 any one reacted on its internal life, and favoured the local 
 development of special branches of industry. Few things 
 could be more instructive to the economist than to examine 
 the precise mercantile policy which was pursued by different 
 city-states in the Middle Ages", and to consider how far it 
 tended to their success or brought about their failure. But 
 it may be doubted if any one continental city directly con- 
 tributed by its experience to the formulating of the schemes for 
 national prosperity that were tentatively devised in the fourteenth 
 and fifteenth centuries and that were systematically pursued in 
 the sixteenth and seventeenth. The course of industrial progress 
 had been directed by the great cities of Italy and Germany; 
 but after the age of discovery it was forced into new channels, 
 and even those towns like Florence', which were most ready to 
 
 ■ Compare Schmoller, Mercantile System, on the whole subject. 
 
 " Naude, Die Getreidehandelspolitik der Europdischen Staaten, p. 17. 
 In Brandenburg and other parts of Germany the expansion of town regula- 
 tions to include considerable territories is specially noticeable. Schmoller, 
 op. cit. 33. 
 
 " For Florence see Pohlmann, Die Wirthschaflspolitik der florentiner 
 Renaissance, p. 140. 
 
150 Western Civilisation. [I300K V. 
 
 adapt their institutions, were being left on one side. Me- 
 diaeval civic life is of less interest in its bearing on ' the 
 future than in its relation to the past; in the story of the 
 great towns of the Middle Ages we may see how closely 
 history sometimes repeats itself; for many purposes, their 
 glory and their decay serve to illustrate the description that 
 has been already given of the city-states of ancient Greece; 
 and there was little in mediaeval town life that was a really 
 new contribution ^ to the economic progress of the world. The 
 rivalries of different cities and the ineffectiveness of experi- 
 ments in confederation were causes of weakness in Germany 
 and Italy as they had been in the Greek lands. In the fifteenth 
 century the two former countries were far ahead of the rest 
 of Western Europe industrially and commercially, and both 
 had declined relatively, and perhaps absolutely, at the opening 
 of the nineteenth. They had retained the old political form 
 of the city-state, and this was not well adapted to guide and 
 control new experiments in trade ; all their economic institu- 
 tions were devised with the object of giving each merchant a 
 fair share of the opportunities afforded by a well-known and 
 limited market, and not with the view of obtaining access to 
 new regions and ousting rivals by successful competition. 
 Industrial progress had been restricted to suit the traditional 
 policy of exclusive communities, and had not such free scope 
 as it enjoyed in territories where the course of development was 
 determined by the larger ambitions and the systematic policy 
 of kings and their advisers. As we look back we may see 
 that its ability to attain to national unity was the question of 
 
 1 Since history never repeats itself exactly, there is no law of uniformity 
 in history as there is in physical nature, and generalisations can never be 
 stated in a rigid form. Where there is a strong similarity, however, 
 between the institutions in two distinct periods or places, the comparison of 
 the minor differences throws much light on the special character of each. 
 
 ^ The high development of the gild system in mediaeval towns as 
 compared with those of ancient Greece in their best days, is an important 
 difference. 
 
CHAP. l.J Secularisation. 151 
 
 supreme importance in the fifteenth century', so far as the 
 immediate economic future of each country was concerned. 
 By a curious irony those very countries, where the most notice- 
 able mercantile success had been secured on the old lines 
 were least ready to adapt themselves to the new conditions; 
 and the very greatness and independence of the cities of 
 Germany and Italy were obstacles to further progress. 
 
 III. The welding of different areas of Christendom into 
 large countries, each of which was a single eco- _. „. , 
 nomic whole, was a consummation of the highest Nationalities- 
 importance ; it would be most interesting in this of Roman"*^^ 
 connection to try to trace out the various in- '^^'"■ 
 fiuences which led to the consolidation of peoples and the rise 
 of nationalities". Military necessities were often an important 
 factor. In some cases, as in Spain, the growth of national 
 unity seems to have been principally due to the pressure of 
 a common enemy; the conquest of Granada added to the 
 prestige of Ferdinand and Isabella, and strengthened the ties 
 by which Castile and Aragon were held together. The seven 
 provinces of Holland were forced into union under similar 
 pressure, and common dangers have sufficed to fuse the varied 
 population of Switzerland into a republican nation. In France 
 the Crown proved to be the centre round which the patriotic 
 sentiment, which resented the English domination, was able to 
 rally. But besides these conscious antagonisms there were 
 other factors which served to strengthen the monarchs who 
 were beginning to exercise a large measure of independent 
 power in their several territories and to mould the separate 
 
 ^ Ehrenberg, Hamburg utid England, pp. 12, 35. 
 
 * The insular position and physical conditions of England, and the 
 administrative ability of her kings, had enabled her to attain to national 
 unity at a very early time. Though her industry was far behind that of the 
 other countries of Europe in the fifteenth century, she had developed 
 national political institutions which enabled her to take full advantage of 
 the opportunities that eventually came within her reach. Cunningham and 
 MacArthur, Outlines of English Industrial History, -p. 23. 
 
152 Western Civilisatjon. [BOOK V. 
 
 portions of Christendom into well-administered polities. . No 
 constructive influence was more important than that which 
 was due to the revived study of Roman Law, for this helped to 
 determine the character of the new civil authority that was 
 absorbing those duties of government which ecclesiastical 
 institutions could no longer successfully discharge. Roman 
 jurisprudence was the characteristic product of the Roman 
 mind ; its influence on the economic life of the modern world 
 is the debt we owe to Rome herself, as distinguished from 
 other civilisations of the past. 
 
 The revival of the study of R.oman Law in the thirteenth 
 century had an extraordinary influence on the political and 
 consequently on the economic growth of modern Europe. 
 Civil law proved an important destructive agent, sb far as the 
 organisation of mediaeval Christendom was concerned, for its 
 introduction aided in the process of secularisation by calling 
 forth a class of civilians and temporal lawyers who could 
 supersede the canonists'. The canonists had practically ac- 
 knowledged the supremacy of the corpus juris civilis from 
 which so much of their doctrine was borrowed"; and justice 
 could be better administered in the civil than in the ecclesiasti- 
 cal courts in those cases in which there were competing claims 
 to jurisdiction. Throughout the greater part of Europe its 
 triumph over badly codified customs was complete ; and Civil 
 Law exercised an extraordinary influence in the moulding of 
 thoughts and habits during the period of transition when the 
 mediaeval was giving place to the modern. 
 
 The re-introduction of Civil Law not only cleared the 
 ground but distinctly told in favour of economic progress. The 
 Church had established respect for property in barbarous times, 
 and had thus laid the foundation on which all civilised society 
 
 ' The increase of the towns in wealth supplied social conditions in 
 which the pursuit of this study became possible and advantageous. 
 Savigny, Geschichte des rSmischeti Rechts im Mittelalter (1834), III. 84. 
 
 ^ Adams, Civilisation in Middle Ages, 36. 
 
CHAP. I.] Secularisation. 153 
 
 rests ; and the Roman Law with its distinctions facih"tated the 
 discussion and decision of titles to property, and provided the 
 means of defining and enforcing contracts. In some cases 
 where the principles of the two systems were in conflict, there 
 was a distinct advantage in the eventual triumph of the older 
 code; for its conceptions' were in accordance with the money 
 economy which was coming into vogue, and gave the means of 
 thinking clearly about the new problems which the introduction 
 of capitalism into industry and commerce was bringing to the 
 front. The Law Merchant of the Middle Ages had been 
 almost entirely derived from Roman sources ; and as the 
 sphere of ecclesiastical jurisdiction became more restricted, 
 the tone of commercial morality embodied in the Civil Code 
 came to be more generally adopted. Canon Law had con- 
 demned usury in a fashion that found little support in the 
 legislation of Justinian ; the influence of the Christian system 
 had doubtless been most beneficial during the transition from 
 natural to money economy', but the restrictions which ec- 
 clesiastical jurisprudence imposed on the conduct of business 
 between wealthy merchants appeared to have no real justifi- 
 cation, and a little ingenuity served to set them aside ^ The 
 ordinary conscience of the plain man was clear that the 
 lending of money at moderate interest was often fair and 
 convenient to all parties in the mercantile community, and 
 that only excessive gains were to be condemned as extor- 
 tionate. This was the attitude of the CivU Code upon the 
 subject, and the fact that merchants and financiers could 
 appeal to such an authority in defence of their conduct must 
 have done much to remove the ancient prejudice against 
 
 ' Lamprecht, Zum Verstdndniss der wirlhschaftlichen und socialen 
 Wandlungen in Deutschland vom 14. sum 16. yahrhundert, in Z.f. Social- 
 und Wirthschaftsgeschichte, I. 247. 
 
 * See below, p. 167. 
 
 ' Ashley on the Contractus Trinus, Introduction to Economic History, 
 I. ii. 440. 
 
154 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 traders as a class, and to enable them to maintain their status 
 and dignity as men who were engaged in an honourable calling. 
 
 Even more important with regard to subsequent progress 
 than these direct effects on economic life was the influence of 
 Roman Law on the growth of njonarchies. Stich a maxim as 
 Quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem tended to render the 
 rising civil powers the " centre and source of the whole insti- 
 tutional life of the state'," as the Emperor had been in 
 ancient Rome. It implied an absolutist ideal ; and the ad- 
 ministrators who were steeped in its influence, consciously or 
 unconsciously, brought their ideas to bear in curtaiUng old 
 privileges and in shaping new institutions. There is no 
 country in Western Europe where the legal system was un- 
 affected by the Civil Law; but its influence on the political 
 life of a nation is most clearly seen in France, where it 
 helped to build up a typical example of magnificent kingly 
 power and state. The effects of Roman jurisprudence may be 
 traced in the characteristic weakness as well as in the unique 
 greatness of the ancien regime. 
 
 112. When the Hundred Years' War had come to an 
 
 end, and France had rest for a time from the 
 Monarchy and troubles that distracted her, strong and wise 
 Bourgeois government was greatly needed for the sake of 
 
 restoring social order and encouraging the agri- 
 cultural, industrial and commercial activities which seemed to 
 be almost extinct. France was fortunate in coming under the 
 rule of kings who threw themselves energetically into the 
 task. Charles VII and Louis XI were able to bring back com- 
 parative prosperity to France as a whole. They called her 
 into being as a nation with an economic life directed and in- 
 spired by the monarch and his advisers; the congeries of 
 separate cities and provinces was, for many commercial pur- 
 poses, welded together into one country. On the other hand, 
 the success of these monarchs in creating material prosperity 
 ' Adams, Civilisation, 320. 
 
CHAP. I.] Secularisation. 155 
 
 anew, reacted on the position of the Crown ; the institution of 
 a permanent taille'' supplied a regular revenue which enabled 
 the kings to maintain a well-disciplined standing army and freed 
 France from frequent pillage by unpaid mercenaries. This 
 greatly augmented the royal power ; and it also brought home 
 to the kings the direct gain which accrued to them personally 
 from fostering the material prosperity of the trading classes 
 in the community and thus providing an ample fund from 
 which taxation could be drawn. 
 
 In reorganising finance Charles VII was fortunate to be 
 able to rely on the service of Jacques Coeur, a man who 
 had a remarkable genius for making the most of the oppor- 
 tunities that were left to his unhappy country. The district 
 round Bourges, of which he was a native, had suffered less 
 than the rest of France from the wars; and he was able to 
 give new life to its struggling woollen manufactures. At the 
 same time he succeeded in taking up the threads of the 
 old trading connections on the Mediterranean; Montpellier^ 
 became the principal centre of his operations, and attained 
 to great importance till it was superseded by Marseilles. 
 Jacques Coeur had visited the principal marts of the East; 
 he obtained papal permission to trade with Mohammedans, 
 and he was able to settle his factors in the towns of Syria 
 and Egypt^. His achievements were astonishing, even though 
 his success was short lived; as the concessions he enjoyed 
 were personal to himself the trade he had established seems 
 to have declined at his death. He forms, however, an in- 
 teresting link between the earliei' prosperity of Septimania and 
 the later commercial ambitions of the French monarchy. 
 
 When viewed, not as a trader but as a financier, Jacques 
 Coeur may be regarded as typical of a class of native mer- 
 chants who assisted European monarchs in fiscal organisation; 
 
 ' De Nervo, Les Finances franfaises, I. 93. 
 
 * Germain, Histoire du commerce de MoiitpelKer, II. is,, 
 
 ' rigeonneau, op. cit., i. p. 373. 
 
156 Western Civilisation. [book v. 
 
 the advances he made enabled Charles VII to recover Nor- 
 mandy', Gascony, and Guienne. The transition to money 
 economy in affairs of state had become complete; and the 
 merchants had silver in their chests with which they could 
 trade, but which they might be prevailed on to lend; they 
 were the men whose knowledge of business enabled them to 
 suggest expedients for raising money, to superintend the pro- 
 cess of collecting it, and to make temporary loans to their royal 
 masters. The practical alliance of the crowned heads of 
 Europe and their wealthy subjects was profitable to both ; the 
 kings were furnished with the resources they needed without 
 being forced to accumulate treasure and keep money lying 
 idle ; while the capitalists obtained trading privileges or mining 
 concessions. Jacques Coeur was the most eminent of the 
 merchant princes of his day ; the rapidity of his rise and the 
 extraordinary wealth which he accumulated seem to have 
 aroused the jealousy of less faithful servants of the Crown, 
 and he was treated with base ingratitude by his master*. 
 He was the most prominent figure in the finance of the 
 times ; and since his day the political power of the banking 
 interest, has been constantly felt. The city of Lyons seems 
 to have been for a time the principal scene of their ope- 
 rations' ; and the great capitalists of Augsburg and the Hanse 
 towns were able to exercise an important influence on the 
 political action of the princes from the fact that they could 
 come to the royal support at critical moments*. 
 
 The revival of French prosperity began in the time of 
 Charles VII, when a great deal was done to improve internal 
 
 ^ CMTaent, Jacques Coeur et Charles VII, 131. 
 
 2 It is interesting to compare and to contrast the career of the great 
 English merchant-prince of the century — William Canynges of Bristol. 
 Pryce, The Canynges Family. 
 
 ' Endemann, Studien in der Rotnanisch-Kanonistischen Wirthschafis- 
 und Rechtslehre, l. 158, and Ehrenberg, Das Zeitalter der Fugger, 11. 72. 
 
 * Compare the Fuggers and Charles V, Ehrenburg, op. cit. r. 142, 152. 
 The Hansards and Edward IV, R. Pauli in Haiisische Geschichtshldtter 
 (187s). 75fol. 
 
CHAP. I.] Secularisation. 157 
 
 communications; he freed the country from brigandage and 
 abolished the exorbitant tolls which had been exacted on the 
 rivers. The work thus begun was carried on by his son 
 Louis XI, who selected his counsellors largely from the com- 
 mercial classes, and incurred much unpopularity with the 
 noblesse by the attention which he gave to bourgeois interests '. 
 Not that he was altogether popular with those whom he be- 
 friended; local privileges —like those of the companies of 
 merchants of Paris and Rouen on the Seine — might have to 
 be set aside in the interest of the monarchy as a whole. In 
 the industrial corporations the king claimed the right of 
 nominating members on special conditions"; and thus these 
 bodies, which had assumed a new importance with the revival 
 of trade, were brought into direct subjection to royal authority. 
 The organisation of a customs' department was necessary as 
 a fiscal measure; but it caused considerable annoyance to 
 traders. In spite of these difficulties, Louis XI succeeded 
 in developing industrial activities and in consolidating the 
 realm, so that it enjoyed a rapid increase in material prosperity 
 during the peaceful days of Anne of France and Charles VIII. 
 Thus the foundations of the French monarchy — as a centralised 
 economic whole — were laid in the fifteenth century, though 
 there was to be bitter humiliation and disastrous internal 
 strife before Henry IV obtained the reins of power, and Sully 
 and Colbert were able to continue the systematic development 
 of the country. 
 
 113. The disruption of Christendom had proceeded some 
 way before the Reformation and the struggle 
 which Luther inaugurated by his defiance of ^^ t^g unU°of 
 the Pope. The practical proof of the breaking Economic 
 
 . , , , .... r Organisation. 
 
 up of the old system lies m the appearance of 
 
 new polities in its place. As early as the fourteenth and 
 
 ^ Pigeonneau, op. cit. I. 397. 
 
 ^ Levasseur, I. 438. On the corresponding movement for nationalising 
 the municipal gilds in England, compare Growth of Industry, I. 436. 
 
158 Westei'ii Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 fifteenth centuries we see traces of the rise of nationalities, and 
 this change is of unique importance ; we now find something that 
 is characteristic of the modern as distinguished from the ancient 
 world, something that is economically new. The social forms 
 of the household and the city have been found in all ages, 
 since the days of Greek colonisation. Though there had been 
 great states such as the military empires of Alexander and 
 Augustus these were merely held together by force of arms, 
 and the civilisation of these territories was concentrated in 
 the various cities which had been preserved within their limits 
 and survived their fall. The era of industrial prosperity 
 that opened with the Crusades still took the old forms, and 
 Christendom was planted with new and flourishing cities; 
 but modern times were to witness the relative decay of city 
 institutions. Material welfare was henceforward to be sought 
 for and organised with reference to wider territories, and 
 account was to be taken of the development of the resources 
 and the industry of each country as a whole ; we have come 
 upon a new unit of economic organisation. 
 
 A country has been defined for economic purposes as a 
 territory through which there is a free flow of labour and 
 capital; and this will at least serve to point the contrast be- 
 tween the city life of the Middle Ages, with its effort to 
 maintain the exclusive privileges of each locality, and the 
 broader life of modern times in which industry and commerce 
 are organised, not for the profit of a particular place, but 
 with a view to developing the resources of the whole country 
 and promoting national progress. The definition helps us to 
 note the material conditions which were necessary for carrying 
 out a national economic policy ; unless a considerable amount 
 of capital was available, it was impossible to develop the 
 industrial capabilities of large areas; and so long as natural 
 economy held good in rural districts there could not be a 
 free flow of labour. 
 
 The mediaeval and ancient worlds have been compared and 
 
Chap, i.] Secularisation. 159 
 
 contrasted above '; there were similar types of industrial and 
 commercial organisation in each, but there was a difference of 
 spirit and a difference of moral character between the two. 
 The contrast of the ancient or the mediaeval with the modern, 
 world is somewhat different, since the latter is characterised by 
 the prevalence of a new basis of economic regulation and as 
 a corisequence by a broader commercial policy directed to 
 national and not merely to civic purposes. The nation was 
 not, of course, an entirely new creation in the later Middle 
 Ages, but it was a most important variant of an old political 
 form ; the terms ' state ' and ' polity ' may be applied to cities 
 as well as to nations, but the requirements and opportunities of 
 the larger communities are very different, and the process of 
 taking over and applying to the wider areas the best that had 
 been developed in the experience of city life was no small 
 undertaking. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were a 
 period of increasing secular activity, and during this time old 
 institutions and administrative machinery were being utilised 
 for national objects. The nationalising of civic regulation is 
 the new economic departure of the fifteenth and sixteenth 
 centuries. 
 
 The Roman Empire had preserved for a time the great 
 municipalities as integral elements ; in its declining days they 
 were ruthlessly exploited in the interests of the imperial govern- 
 ment; the wealth of the richest citizens was the object of 
 deliberate attacks. Modern governments have not shown the 
 same jealousy of the well-to-do ; since rulers began to realise 
 that their own power could be increased through the wealth 
 of the people. The Crown was consciously dependent for 
 occasional supplies on the great merchants ; it was not un- 
 natural for princes to consult the opinion of financiers as to 
 national welfare, and to give effect to their views as to the best 
 economic policy for the country as a whole. Money was 
 essential for the glory of the monarch, and he gradually 
 ^ See nbove, p. 7. 
 
iCo Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 learned that he could not obtain it regularly and permanently 
 unless it flowed steadily into the coffers Of the people'. 
 Commerce thus came to be a recognised object, not only of 
 local but of national importance; and attention to public 
 resources was also nationalised. The food supply had been 
 a mere matter of civic'' and municipal interest in ancient 
 times, while in the modern world the development of agriculture 
 has been taken up in a broader spirit as a national interest. 
 The regulation of industry both in France and in England 
 underwent a similar revolution ; what had been special to 
 privileged towns and locally established in particular districts, 
 was organised as a general policy ; gild regulations became 
 embodied in Acts of Parliament which applied to all places 
 alike ; the resources and requirements of the whole realm were 
 carefully considered with the view of introducing new industries. 
 In the ancient world we have seen the planting of towns, and 
 subsequently the despoiling of towns in military a:nd imperial 
 interests; but the development of the modern world has not 
 been so much confined to urban communities on the one 
 hand, nor has it taken place at the expense of towns on the 
 other ; it has been guided by the larger conception of national 
 wealth. 
 
 In the succeeding chapters we shall be chiefly concerned 
 with the growth and working of national economic policy', 
 and national economic rivalries. This new economic type 
 came into being partly at least as a result of the religious and 
 political changes which brought about the disruption of Chris- 
 tendom and gave rise to national polities. As we look back 
 on the destruction of the old system and the consolidation of 
 modern realms, it is not easy to analyse all the elements that 
 have contributed to the new social form. Community of 
 race is usually the foundation of nationality, and the structure 
 
 1 Discourse of Commonweal, edited by E. Lamond, p. 35. 
 " The difficulty that was felt was that of catering for Athens or Rome, 
 there was no question of tlie food supply of Greece or Italy as a whole. 
 
CHAP. I.] Secularisation. l6i 
 
 may be compacted by the use of a common language, and 
 experience of a common history, though men of diverse blood 
 have been knit together by the influence of one government 
 enforcing the same fiscal system and administering one code 
 of laws. Another unifying element which was of primary 
 importance in the sixteenth century was that of similar religionj 
 the princes, as sovereigns, sought to enforce a uniformity of 
 religious belief and practice within the realms over which they 
 ruled. So far as the economic side of national life is con- 
 cerned, nothing has been so important as the existence of a 
 natural boundary to mark out a common country, with the 
 consequent interaction of the different material interests which 
 may cooperate so as to develop the resources and power of the 
 whole polity. Each of these separate factors had played its part 
 in the growth of national life and institutions; and at the 
 beginning of the sixteenth century the geographical discoveries 
 opened up vast fields for national rivalry and political ambition. 
 The rising nationalities were brought face to face as conscious 
 antagonists ; the East Indies and America disclosed to the 
 monarchs of Europe a vision of new worlds to conquer. The 
 social system of Christendom was falling to pieces, but European 
 civilisation was not decaying, it was only being transformed. 
 Fresh ideals were taking the place of old ones and were 
 proving attractive, at a time when there were new facilities and 
 opportunities for realising them ; the vigorous life which was 
 thus springing up was able to supersede merely local interests, 
 and gave rise to powerful and far-reaching commercial insti- 
 tutions. 
 
 C. w. c. II. I r 
 
l62 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE INTERVENTION OF CAPITAL. 
 
 114. The breaking up of a complex civilisation like that 
 of mediaeval Christendom and the transition 
 its necessary to the modern world involved so many and 
 Conditions. ^^^j^ great changes, that we can only appreciate 
 their character and importance when we look in turn at dif- 
 ferent aspects of this revolution. From the religious stand- 
 point, we have seen an increasing secularisation ; from the 
 political point of view, we have noted the beginnings of the 
 rise of nationalities ; and the economic factors which were at 
 work in connection with both of these movements have been 
 indicated. It is important, however, to look more closely at 
 the special economic feature of this period of transition, and 
 to note the gradual and increasing intervention of capital. In 
 dealing with the Christendom of earlier ages we have found 
 it unnecessary to take account of capital, for — as we under- 
 stand the term in modern times, — it hardly existed at all. In 
 the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries we may notice it emerging 
 from obscurity, and beginning to occupy one point of vantage 
 after another, until it came to be a great political power in 
 the State. It served too, as an instrument for facilitating the 
 development of commerce, of industry and of agriculture in 
 the territories of European nations, and also for effecting the 
 colonisation of the newly discovered lands. When we come 
 
CHAP. II.] The Intervention of Capital. 163 
 
 to trace the later developments of modern industry, we shall 
 see the enormous power which it has eventually secured. 
 
 We cannot attempt to give accurate dates or even assign 
 definite limits to such changes as the progress of seculari- 
 sation, and the rise of nationalities j it has only been possible 
 to explain in part why corresponding political movements 
 occurred at different time."- in different countries. It would 
 be still more hopeless to try to treat the intervention of 
 capital as an event which happened at a particular epoch, or 
 a stride which was taken within a given period. It is a 
 tendency which has been spreading with more or less rapidity 
 for centuiries, first in one trade and then in another, in pro- 
 gressive countries. We cannot date such a transformation even 
 in one land ; for though we find traces of capitalism so soon as 
 natural economy was ceasing to be dominant in any depart- 
 ment of English life', its influence in reorganising the staple 
 industry of this country was still being strenuously opposed 
 at the beginning of the present century". The revolution — 
 for this has been a real revolution — which came about so 
 gradually in our own island, has run a different course in 
 other lands ; there has been no regular series of steps in the 
 march of capitalistic progress. We may, however, hope to 
 get some clear ideas of the nature of the fundamental changes 
 which have been brought about by the intervention of capital, 
 if we are content to note some of the most striking mani- 
 festations of this force, as it affected national policy and aided 
 in the development of national economic life. 
 
 ' The collection of the revenue was being organised on a money basis 
 in the Norman and Angevin reigns, and there was scope for the operation 
 of capitalists in farming the revenue and lending money to those who were 
 not ready to meet the calls made upon them. 
 
 ' The agitation of the Yorkshire weavers against the abolition of 
 compulsory apprenticeship was due to conscious hostility to the capitalist 
 organisation of the weaving industry. Growth of English Industry, 11. 
 455- 
 
 II — 3 
 
164 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 We have already noticed the partial persistence of natural 
 economy in the later Middle Ages; with the era of the 
 Crusades, however, there was a rapid extension of money 
 economy, and therefore a general introduction of those" con- 
 ditions under which the formation of capital and the em- 
 ployment of credit became possible. Under natural economy 
 they cannot exist; there may, of course, be accumulations 
 of wealth, stores of many kinds and stock for carrying on 
 industry ; but capital, properly so-called, implies the existence 
 of a fund of money ^ which can be utilised in any direction 
 and transported with comparative ease from place to place. 
 In modern business parlance, 'capital' is regarded as es- 
 sentially fluid"; and but for the existence of money, wealth 
 could not have this character. Similarly, commercial credit 
 only comes into being when men have wealth that can be 
 readily realised in money, so that they can be trusted to have 
 the means of meeting their liabilities at a definite date', 
 'Capital' and 'credit' have their analogues under a natural 
 economy in stock in trade, and the reputation of being rich ; 
 but these terms are essentially, as we know them in modern 
 times, ' historical categories,' since they only become applicable 
 in so fat as money economy has asserted itself as the order 
 of the day. 
 
 So far as town life is concerned, we cannot go back to 
 any period when money economy was not dominant, and we 
 find signs of capitalism and its influence in the cities from very 
 early times. Merchants who carried on active trade appear 
 to have been provided with ready money for their transactions. 
 Though a great part of the industrial population coasisted of 
 independent workmen organised in craft gilds, the principal 
 companies ftf many towns in the fourteenth century were 
 
 ^ Modem Civilisation, 125. 
 
 " Capital may of course be ' sunk ' in land or ' fixed ' in other forms ;, 
 the statement in the text refers to its nature rather than its applications. 
 * Modem Civilisation, 44. 
 
CHAP. II.] The Intervention of Capital. 165 
 
 composed of capitalists ; both in Strassburg^ and in Florence' 
 the manufacture of cloth was organised on capitalist lines by 
 great captains of industry in the fourteenth century. Even in 
 the most advanced towns, however, there were considerable 
 hindrances which interfered with the free play of capitalist 
 enterprise ; each merchant was restricted to one special trade, 
 and was prevented from encroaching on the callings of his 
 fellow-townsmen; there was little opportunity for the trans- 
 ference of capital from one employment to another. Most of the 
 industrial arts, too, were organised with regard to the require- 
 ments of the city market by small independent masters, who 
 each hoped to get a fair share of existing trade rather than 
 to extend it; the regulations of their craft gilds were not 
 favourable to the formation or application of capital. Similar 
 obstacles existed in the rural districts, though they were 
 gradually breaking down on all sides, so that there were steadily 
 increasing opportunities for the investment of capital during 
 the fourteentb and fifteenth centuries. 
 
 115. Capital was not, of course, a wholly new thing, since 
 it had been familiar enough in the ancient 
 world ; but many of its applications were being cond^^^s for 
 introduced afresh into Christendom. The Medi- Minimising its 
 
 ' . . possible Evils. 
 
 terranean lands had undergone the transition 
 from natural- to money economy and had come under the 
 dominance of capital in ancient times. We have seen some- 
 thing of the oppression which was exercised by moneyed 
 men under the Roman Republic, and of the grievances to 
 
 ^ Sclimoller, Die Strassburger Tiicher u. WeberzUnfte, p. 500. 
 
 ^ The Arte di Calimala was engaged in importing and dressing and 
 dyeing foreign cloth — a business which obviously required capital. The 
 Arte delta Lana arose later ; its prosperity dates from the settlement of the 
 religious order — the Urailiati — who had acquired the art in Flanders and 
 prosecuted it with great success. In 1 338 there were 200 shops in 
 Florence, employing 30,000 workmen : so that this industry was apparently 
 also organised on capitalist lines. E. Dixon, Florentine Wool Trade in 
 Transactions of Royal Hist. Soc. Xli. l6g. 
 
i66 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 which they were subjected under the Empire. We should 
 never shut our eyes to the dangers which are inherent in 
 money economy and the capitalistic organisation of society; 
 but it is important to notice that at the time when this system 
 was beginning to reappear in Western Europe there were 
 tendencies at work which served to set limits to its influence 
 and to minimise the evils it involved. 
 
 Powerful as capital is, and great as are the advantages 
 which it has to offer, the conditions of life in the fourteenth 
 and fifteenth centuries were so unfavourable to it as to delay 
 its introduction and to check its operations. The whole 
 social system stood in its way; for the organisation of much 
 of the labour in the towns was so rigid as to admit of 
 little modification, while in the rural districts the survival 
 of villeinage presented still greater obstacles to the enterprise 
 of moneyed men. Astriction to one place is perfectly 
 congruent with natural economy ; the mediaeval landowner 
 was satisfied to employ, as best he could, the labour which 
 he found available, and was able to retain it under his 
 control. With the capitalist, the case is different ; he possesses 
 wealth which he can direct to any profitable undertaking that 
 opens up, and he has the means of compelling or attracting 
 labour to follow in the direction where his enterprise sees the 
 probability of reward. So long as slavery was in vogue, the 
 transference of labour could be effected in the most ruthless 
 fashion by the purchase and export of slaves; but this was 
 no longer possible at the epoch when capital began to take 
 part in the industrial development of mediaeval Europe ; slavery 
 had ceased to exist"; labour tended to follow capital because 
 it was attracted, not because it was forced. In the fourteenth 
 century the labourer had obtained such freedom that he was able 
 to bargain for higher wages, and to insist on obtaining them. 
 The craft gilds conferred a recognised status on skilled artisans'" 
 
 ' I'"or some exceptions see above, p. 136. 
 ' L.inipiecht, Deutsche Geschichte, IV. 189, 
 
CHAP. II.] The Intervention of Capital. 167 
 
 and defined a standard of comfort which helped to determine 
 the workman's demands; they also set an example for the 
 occasional or permanent organisations by which the labourers 
 of lower grades tried to give effect to their ideas\ That 
 capital, when unfettered, could be quite as oppressive as in 
 the old days, was shown by the reappearance of slave industry 
 in the New World, and at a later date by the degradation of 
 labour under the stress of the Industrial Revolution. But on 
 the whole it is true that the labourer had attained to such a 
 status in Christendom that the organisation of agriculture and 
 industry on a capitalistic basis could proceed on sound lines, 
 and did not prove unfavourable to the material and social well- 
 being of the working class. Capital has been a disintegrating 
 force and has broken down the astriction of the serf to the soil, 
 and the restriction of the artisan to the narrow limits imposed 
 by the gild, but its action was restrained until they were capable 
 of facing the new conditions. Capital has not crushed the 
 individual workman as a man, or forced him into the degraded 
 and helpless position of the labourer in the old world. 
 
 Whilst the organisation of labour both in town and country 
 limited the field for the application of capital to industry, 
 the current sentiment on usury laid down practical restrictions 
 which favoured the development of a healthy system of borrow- 
 ing. In all ages of the world's history, there has been a 
 temptation for the moneyed man to take advantage of the 
 occasional necessities of his poorer neighbours and to lend 
 money on exorbitant terms j in every period of transition from 
 natural to money economy there is especial danger that this 
 evil may arise, as it has commonly done^ in connection with 
 the collection of a money revenue. Christian sentiment had 
 set itself against the extortion of usurers, for this had been 
 
 ^ On journeymen's gilds on the Continent see Schanz, Zur Geschichte der 
 deutschen Geselkn- Verbdnde, 26 ; in England, Webb, Hislory of Trades 
 Uuionhtitf 1 — II. 
 
 " Vol. I. 47, 128, 187. 
 
i6S Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 one of the most blatant evils of the later Empire, but it 
 had recognised as legitimate two distinct methods — apart from 
 partnerships in commercial business' — in which capital might 
 be temporarily transferred to a borrower. No objection was 
 taken to the conduct of those who tried to buy a rent-charge, 
 and thus to secure an income in perpetuity by sinking money 
 in a definite estate. The return of the principal thus invested 
 could only be obtained by reselling the rent-charge ; the man 
 who entered into this agreement parted with his capital and 
 obtained the right to enjoy a regular income. It was also 
 regarded as permissible to lend capital for a definite time on 
 a pledge, such as the Crown jewels, or the anticipated receipts 
 from a tax; this secured the repayment of the principal at 
 the date assigned, but was only supposed to ensure the return 
 of the exact sum lent. Doubtless there was much evasion of 
 the prohibitions against usury in actual life, but the fact remains 
 that borrowing was chiefly done by wealthy bodies like towns, 
 or by princes, for public purposes, and not by the cultivators 
 of the soil. The peasantry continued to pay their quotas of 
 taxation in kind or in service ; while the princes had recourse 
 to moneyed men to advance current coin which should enable 
 them to anticipate or to realise their wealth. It was not the 
 poor taxpayers so much as the authority who levied the ta.K, 
 that had recourse to the money-lenders. The sale of rents or 
 pledging of property gave a town'' or a prince the temporary 
 command of a large sum of money ; and the system which 
 was developed for public convenience came, as capital grew 
 more abundant, to be gradually introduced into private affairs 
 as well. At all events the chief economic contrast between the 
 later Empire and the later Middle Ages may almost be 
 
 1 It was always permissible to enter into partnership in risks and 
 profits, but the opportunities of doing so were rare. Ashley, Introduction 
 to English Economic History and Theory, i. i. 155. 
 
 2 Sclionberg, Finanzverhallnisse iter Stadt Basel im xiv. und xv. Jahr- 
 huiidert, 90. 
 
CHAP. II.] The Intervention of Capital. 169 
 
 summed up in the fact, that the Byzantine statesmen devised 
 expedients for despoiling the wealthy, while modern potentates 
 were reduced to borrowing from them. 
 
 The fact that capitalistic intervention in finance took this 
 less oppressive form, was not only important so far as the 
 peasantry' were concerned, but it also had a most favourable 
 bearing on other monetary conditions. The gold paid by 
 the industrial and mercantile classes to the Roman emperors 
 was sunk in buildings or expended in wars on distant frontiers ; 
 it was usually withdrawn from circulation in the district where 
 it had been collected. On the other hand the money bor- 
 rowed by princes from mediaeval bankers had to be repaid; 
 it was not wholly sunk, and it was not merely dissipated; it 
 was returned after a time into circulation and might be used 
 as capital in industry or commerce. Hence the princely ex- 
 penditure of the later Middle Ages did not prove as exhausting 
 as that of the later Empire had been. In the fourth century 
 the State was the oppressor of the men of enterprise and re- 
 source; in the fourteenth it was becoming apparent that the 
 interests of the monarchy and the moneyed men were the 
 same in the long run ; government had on the whole to be 
 conducted on principles that had the approval of financiers, 
 and kings were learning that honesty in the repayment of 
 loans was the best policy. 
 
 Beneficial changes of many kinds resulted from this practical 
 alliance between the princes and the capitalists and from the 
 pressure which moneyed men could bring to bear on government. 
 Their influence was felt most advantageously in connection 
 with the circulating medium. The kings of Europe, like the 
 emperors of Rome, had yielded to the temptation to snatch 
 a temporary gain by debasing the coinage; and it was not 
 always possible to demonstrate the dishonesty and inexpe- 
 diency of the step in a convincing fashion. But the real 
 
 ' That the incidence of taxation in France was such as to burden the 
 peasantiy specially, is another matter. 
 
170 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 inconvenience became apparent when it was necessary to repay 
 large loans, especially if these loans had been negotiated by 
 foreign capitalists who had stipulated as to the coin they 
 would receive. The difficulty of contracting new loans, had 
 a similarly educative effect ; it convinced the monarchs of the 
 fifteenth century that it was wise to pay their debts and thus 
 to maintain their credit. 
 
 The evils of the transition were thus minimised, owing to the 
 restricted and gradual manner in which the power of capital, 
 with its influence on social organisation, was brought into 
 play; and it must be borne in mind that the introduction of 
 the new system under proper limitations was advantageous to 
 society and to individuals of every class. In Athens, the ex- 
 istence of money economy had rendered true political life 
 possible, by conferring on the individual, freedom in the 
 management of his time. In the modern world the preva- 
 lence of money and capital has encouraged and facilitated 
 freedom of movement from place to place ; it has thereby had 
 a disintegrating effect on many institutions, but it has tended 
 to promote a form of personal liberty which is highly prized in 
 the present day. The feudal system implied the existence 
 of local restrictions and responsibilities, and the feudal 
 armies were based on local obligations, till capitalists were 
 able to relieve the pressure of military obligations by pro- 
 viding better armies of soldiers habituated to constant fighting 
 and drawn from distant regions. Industry had been con- 
 trolled by local organisations, with exclusive privileges and 
 special powers of supervision; but at length capitalists were 
 able to introduce new methods and processes under more 
 effective supervision; and the localised gilds became an ana- 
 chronism. The thoroughgoing introduction of money economy 
 once again rendered personal freedom possible; and the 
 change in later mediaeval times was not confined to the 
 privileged citizens of great towns but also affected the peasantry 
 and inhabitants of rural districts. 
 
CHAP. II.] The Intervention of Capital. 171 
 
 116. The intervention of capital eventually brought about 
 an entire reconstruction of the social system of 
 
 . ^ The new 
 
 \Vestern Europe. The conditions under which finance in its 
 this occurred have been described in the pre- MilitafyTnd 
 ceding paragraphs and the character of the new Political 
 order has been indicated in general terms. It ""e^^'^a '°"- 
 is worth while, however, to consider some aspects of the 
 matter in greater detail, and to examine the new administrative 
 and financial machinery which these fresh activities shaped for 
 themselves as they gradually entered into political life. 
 
 The military system of the early Middle Ages was organ- 
 ised on the lines that have been already described' in con- 
 nection w^ith the Empire of Charles. Each political magnate 
 maintained his own troops, and was responsible for bringing 
 them into the field properly equipped and provisioned. The 
 commissariat was irregular or non-existent, and it ■ might be 
 hardly possible to retain an army in the field, or to continue 
 siege operations at the critical moment in a campaign. The 
 slightness of the political ties between the feudatories and the 
 Crown rendered it difficult to get soldiers together, and they 
 were likely to disband so soon as the specified time for which 
 they were bound to serve had elapsed. Military operations 
 carried on under such conditions were not only very ineffective 
 but also extraordinarily expensive. The withdrawal of the 
 industrial population and the yeomen from their work must 
 have been a serious interruption to the ordinary processes 
 of production, while the undisciplined hosts were only too 
 likely to provide for their necessities by plundering the 
 country in which they were quartered or through which they 
 passed I The intervention of capitalists, who provided the 
 means of hiring mercenary troops, and later of forming 
 disciplined armies, rendered a better military organisation 
 
 1 See above, p. 51. 
 
 " Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Cominerce, I. 455, n. 8; 
 Levasseur, Histoire des classes ouvriires, l. 421. 
 
172 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 possible and reduced the indirect evils caused by war so 
 as to make it far less costly. In so far as any king became 
 possessed of money, so that he could hire mercenary troops, 
 he had a more efficient fighting instrument at command, and 
 one on which he could rely so long as his money lasted. The 
 Flemish^ and later the Swiss mercenaries', were finer troops 
 than the feudal levies, for they were habituated to constant 
 fighting; not only were they better soldiers, but they were 
 also more completely under control, so that the strategy of 
 a campaign had a greater chance of being carried out as 
 planned. These were militaiy advantages, and the economic 
 benefits to a country were quite as great; the mercenaries could 
 be paid in money at a definite and known date ; the raising 
 of a feudal army had involved the disorganisation of ordinary 
 industrial life, and an indefinite charge on the resources of 
 the realm. 
 
 The benefits which accrued from the intervention of capital 
 were apparent, not only during the conduct of a campaign, but 
 in all the preparations that might be necessary for a war; 
 capitalists rendered the collection of revenue, in so far as 
 it was taken in money, more 'convenient' and less 'ex- 
 pensive^' The sale of offices, ecclesiastical and civil, is a 
 cumbrous mode of obtaining supplies ; the payment of the 
 large sums which were occasionally demanded as feudal aids 
 must have been very oppressive. The voting of parliamentary 
 supphes introduced comparative 'certainty ' into the system of 
 taxation, as it enabled the landowners and merchants to know 
 beforehand what they would have to pay. The action of the 
 
 ^ Cunningham, Alien Immigrants, 25; Oman, A History of the Art of 
 War [Middle Ages) {\ii)'S),y]t,. 
 
 * The French frequently relied on Swiss help, and Lyons was found a 
 convenient monetary centre for making the necessary payments to them. 
 Ehrenberg, Das Zeitalter der Fugger, II. 72. 
 
 * Compare Adam Smith's maxims of taxation, Wealth of Nations, v. 
 Chap. II. pt. 2. 
 
CHAP. II.] The Intervention of Capital. 173 
 
 great bankers rendered this practice convenient, not only to 
 the taxpayers, but to the Crown. Financiers were ready to 
 advance money on the security of supplies that were actually 
 voted, and thus to provide the Crown with the use of large 
 sums at short notice, and long before it would have been 
 possible to collect the money. 
 
 When the advantages of the new method of military 
 administration were once understood, no prince could afford to 
 disregard them; all monarchs were compelled to rely on 
 money as the sinews of war', and had frequent occasion to 
 borrow in order to meet the exigencies of a campaign. The 
 importance of a hoard of bullion had been recognised from 
 time immemorial^; and the possession of the royal treasure, at 
 any time of disputed succession, meant nine-tenths of the title 
 to the Crown'. These hoards, like other forms of wealth, 
 were subject to vicissitudes, however, and the accumulations 
 of years might be rapidly dissipated or lost ; the princes were* 
 compelled in such emergencies to turn to the Jews, Lombards, 
 or others who afforded the means of replenishing the royal 
 treasury at times when money was urgently needed. Great 
 monarchs had not been particularly Scrupulous in keeping 
 faith with these creditors*; but in the fifteenth century they 
 were forced to be more careful in regard to their engagements. 
 An inter-civic money-market had been developed. The great 
 city communities of the Middle Ages were frequent borrowers', 
 
 ' Macchiavelli argued on the other side, that war could be rendered 
 profitable, and should be pursued as the best means of obtaining treasure. 
 There have been many cases where it has been successfully conducted on 
 this principle; but it is none the less true that the accumulation of 
 treasure is a necessary preparation for successful war. Ehreriberg, 0^. cit. 
 I. 6— g. 
 
 2 The Goths and other Teutonic peoples accumulated large treasures, 
 but they seem to have employed it to gratify a taste for barbaric display, 
 rather than as the basis of military power. 
 
 ^ The case of Henry I of England furnishes an illustration. 
 
 * Peruzzi, Storia del Commercio e del Banchieri di Firenze, 46r. 
 
 * Ehrenberg, op. cit. I. 19. 
 
174 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 since they had need of money both for civic improvements, 
 such as the repair of their walls', and also for military opera- 
 tions. As the security they offered was excellent, the terms on 
 which they could obtain money were comparatively moderate^ 
 The monarchs of the day were forced to offer good security, 
 too'', in order to borrow at allj and they were compelled to 
 repay the loans, if they wished to maintain their credit and be 
 able to borrow again. The monarchies of Europe outstripped 
 the civic communities as political powers, but the civic com- 
 munities had forced the monarchs to accept mercantile methods 
 and standards in the management of their finance. 
 
 As the rulers of Europe ceased to be primarily dependent 
 on landed estates for their revenue, some interesting con- 
 stitutional changes followed. In Spain, the government 
 monopolies of commercial or mining rights tended to increase 
 the wealth of the Crown without enriching the subjects, and 
 afforded the firmest basis for an absolutism*. The establish- 
 ment of a permanent taille in France gave the Crown an in- 
 dependent income, and rendered absolutism possible in that 
 country as well. As the income of the Crown was derived 
 from the taxation of the agricultural and industrial classes, it 
 was essential that the people as well as the prince should be 
 prosperous i hence the tendency of the French monarchy to 
 the paternal regulation of industry with the view of rendering 
 the country rich. In England the Crown's necessities contijaued 
 to be the people's opportunities, and all attempts to exercise 
 rule in disregard of the popular will were destined to failure. 
 Not merely did the people as taxpayers succeed in enforcing 
 their demands but there is reason to believe that the in- 
 termediaries who negociated loans were also able to exercise 
 
 ' Lamprecht, Deutsche Geschichte, iv. 212. 
 
 " Towns occasionally made themselves jointly responsible with the 
 kings for royal debts. Ehrenberg, op. cit. i. 25. 
 
 * For this principle of state-craft compare Knies on Macchiavelli ah 
 volkswirthschaftlicher Schriftsteller in the Zeiischrift f. d. gesammte Stoats- 
 wissenschaft (1852), a^i. 
 
CHAP. II.] The Intervention of Capital. 175 
 
 considerable influence from time to time. The Fuggers, who 
 supplied resources to Charles V, were in general sympathy 
 with his aims ; they were forced by their own embarrassments 
 to refuse him further advances at a critical moment and to ruin 
 his hopes, but they seem to have made no attempt to control 
 his policy. In England, on the other hand, the great London 
 financiers and other royal creditors appear to have aimed at 
 directing the economic policy of the realm and to have been 
 fairly successful in forcing their views upon the Crown. Large 
 sums of money were -borrowed from towns in their corporate 
 capacity, and their representatives could make their wishes 
 known in Parliament j from the time of Richard II onwards 
 we can trace the existence in Parliament of a moneyed interest 
 which gradually increased in influence till it at last succeeded 
 in overbalancing the power of the landed gentry. 
 
 117. The financial magnates of the fifteenth and six- 
 teenth centuries carried on business in a double 
 capacity, as they not only engaged in lending markeu.""^^' 
 money to the Crown, but were merchants as 
 well. Their practice in this respect was of great importance, 
 for it rendered their money-lending legitimate from the stand- 
 point of the canonists. Christian moralists considered it fair 
 that any man should be reimbursed for actual sacrifices in- 
 curred in making a loan; to take so much as this in return 
 was not to extort money from another, but to guard oneself 
 against a definite loss. Men like Jacques Coeur or William 
 Canynges or the Fuggers and Welsers' would not let their 
 money lie idle ; and it was perfectly true that in lending it to 
 the king they were depriving themselves of the opportunity 
 of making commercial gain. It therefore came to be recog- 
 nised that a lender might legitimately charge for lucrum 
 
 1 These Augsburg capitalists speculated in all sorts of undertakings; 
 silver mining in the Tyrol, copper in Hungary, quicksilver in Spain, 
 colonisation in Venezuela, estate management in Spain, and commercial 
 ventures. Habler, Geschichte dei" Fuggerschen Handlungin Spanien. 
 
176 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 cessans or damnum emergens; and no serious effort could be 
 made to prevent such capitalists from entering on transactions 
 which were practically advancing money on interest. In older 
 days it had been possible for canon lawyers to distinguish 
 oppressive from fair bargains by the mere form of the contract, 
 and to limit the transference of capital, from one business to 
 another, to those cases where a temporary partnership was 
 formed, and risks and losses were shared alike. When it 
 came to be generally assumed that a man would usually get 
 some gain by investing his money, and was therefore entitled 
 to be compensated for merely refraining from using it himself, 
 the old prohibitions ceased to apply and the negociation of 
 loans came to be an everyday feature of commercial life. 
 
 In popular opinion, however, those merchants who devoted 
 themselves to foreign banking and financial business, as con- 
 trasted with the commercial export and import of goods, were 
 generally regarded as somewhat unscrupulous. It is difficult 
 to tell how far the common accusations were justified, either 
 in the case of the Italians, who were the foreign bankers of 
 the fourteenth century, or of the magnates of Antwerp and 
 Amsterdam in the sixteenth and seventeenth. Possibly these 
 capitalists were strong enough to manipulate the exchanges in 
 their own interests, but there was at any rate a semblance of 
 competition which seems inconsistent with the existence of 
 monopoly rates; even in the fourteenth century there were 
 occasional concourses of merchants when the rates for foreign 
 payments were settled by bargaining in a market. Organised 
 money-markets were held at the great fairs of Champagne \ 
 Geneva^, and Lyons'; and bills from many distant towns were 
 drawn for a definite date on bankers at these fairs. The coin 
 
 ' F. Bourquelot, &iudes sur les foires de Champagne in Memoires 
 prhentes h VAcadimie des Inscriptions, 2°" S^rie, V. (1865), Vol. 11. 
 p. 102. 
 
 * Borel, Les foires de Genive, p. 131 — 142. 
 
 ' Huvelin, Droit des AlarchSs et des Foires, p. 564. 
 
CHAP. II.] The Intervention of Capital, 177 
 
 of each country was rated in terms of a standard unit (scudi 
 de marche^), and money was bought or sold at this price. In 
 so far as this represented the difference in the fineness of the 
 coins respectively, the work of exchangers was of course 
 recognised as necessary and useful business, which had to be 
 attended to in the interests of the currency^. There must 
 have been times, however, when the rates were affected by the 
 supply and demand for bills on a particular country, and by 
 the purchasing power of money in that country. From the 
 standpoint of the mediaeval moralists there was much suspicion, 
 to put it no more strongly, attaching to all such transactions ; 
 they held that silver was silver, and that for anyone to get ad- 
 vantage by exchanging silver for silver must somehow be unfair. 
 Still these occasional money-markets existed ; and though much 
 unfair gain may have been made by unscrupulous men, the 
 gradual development of regular markets and constant com- 
 petition circumscribed the opportunities for exacting exorbitant 
 rates in performing a real service. As a result of these changes 
 in opinion, the most powerful restrictions which had checked 
 the fluidity of capital were broken down; in the fifteenth 
 century it had at last become possible to obtain the means of 
 developing any promising undertaking. 
 
 118. During the latter part of the fifteenth century many 
 favourable openings at home and abroad were The influence 
 beginning to offer themselves to enterprising of capital in 
 men ; the exclusive privileges of aliens had been mercia"! nl™ 
 curtailed, and the active trade of France and of industrial 
 
 -m 1 J 4 practice. 
 
 Holland ^ of Scandinavia and England , was 
 
 1 Endemann, op. cit. I. 214. 
 
 " Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, I. 362. 
 
 3 Van Bruyssell, Histoire du Commerce en Belgique, u. 63. 
 
 * The importance of the English moneyed men is seen in the number of 
 capitalist companies which were found towards the close of the fourteenth 
 century ; as well as in the assessments of merchants and the large loans 
 advanced by the towns. Cunningham, op. cit. I. 381. 
 
 C. VIT. C. II. i3 
 
178 Western Civilisation. [booK V. 
 
 attracting native energy. The profits on successful ventures 
 were large^ and every new prospect of profit constituted a 
 demand for capital. And the supply was forthcoming ; hitlier- 
 to prudent persons had been content to hoard their wealth"; so 
 soon as they were persuaded to invest it in economical under- 
 takings for the sake of gain, they were treating it as capital. 
 
 The best opportunities, of course, lay with those who had 
 the good fortune to live on any of the lines of the world's 
 trade. The Venetians enjoyed a supremacy in the Adriatic", 
 and a leading position in the trade with the East by the Red 
 Sea route ; the German merchants, who crossed the passes and 
 distributed the spices and otlier products of the East in the 
 land beyond the Alps, found the connection most advantageous. 
 The Genoese were able to carry on their trade with Con- 
 stantinople and the Black Sea with little interruption, and the 
 Florentines did a large business with the north coast of Africa. 
 But all this commerce was dwarfed by the ocean voyages 
 which became possible after the discovery of the Cape of 
 Good Hope and of America ; Lisbon superseded Venice, and 
 the Netherland merchants, who had found the fishing trade 
 a remunerative industry^ and a good apprenticeship for seamen, 
 took up the carrying trade between the Spanish Peninsula and 
 Antwerp. This city, as a northern depot for Eastern produce, 
 as well as the centre of a large trade in fish and in cereals, 
 entered on a career of extraordinary prosperity in the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 The rate of mercantile profit was doubtless very large, 
 but expenses were heavy too ; many of the fairs, where 
 traders of all nations had had unusual facilities for free in- 
 tercourse, had declined before the close of the fourteenth 
 
 ' The profits of Spanish merchants in the American trade are said to 
 have been 300 or 400 per cent. Beer, Geschkhie des Welthandels, II, 147. 
 ' E. Dudley, Tree of the Commomveal, 52. 
 " Lenel, Die EiUstehimg der Vorherrschaft Venedigs, p. 82. 
 * Van Briiysscll, II. uy. 
 
CHAP, li.] The Intervention of Capital. 179 
 
 century', and business was gravitating more and more to towns 
 which served as permanent, and not occasional, centres of 
 trade. But to trade regularly in any town it was necessary to 
 pay the requisite dues arid obtain a definite status ; the cost 
 of obtaining such a standing was only lightened in the case 
 of companies of merchants, like the merchants of the Hanse 
 League, who had establishments of their own in London'', 
 Bruges', Bergen*, Novgorod', Venice^, and elsewhere, and 
 who made rules which enabled them to share the advantages 
 and the expense of maintaining their factories. The discipline 
 was very strict, and their regulations were framed so as to 
 ensure that no one man should monopolise the commerce, or 
 encroach unduly on the trades of other people'^. 
 
 This system, depending, as it did, on the maintenance of 
 exclusive privileges, was inconsistent with that freedom for 
 enterprise in pushing trade which is the life of modern com- 
 merce. Antwerp proved attractive to capitalists, not only 
 because of its situation and connections, but because it per- 
 mitted almost as much liberty to the men of all nations as 
 they could have enjoyed in any fair. There were practically 
 no special concessions, and hence it was possible for any 
 merchant to trade there; but besides this, no objection 
 was made at Antwerp to the practice of dealing on com- 
 mission", The freemen and privileged merchants of any 
 
 ^ Cunningham, Alien Immigrants, 91. Huvelin, op. cit. 278. 
 
 " Lappenberg, Geschichte des Hanslschen Stahlhofes zu London, p. 6. 
 
 ^ Stein, Die Genossenschaft der deutschen Kaujleute zu Briigge, p. 14. 
 
 * Worms, La ligue hanseatique, 163. 
 
 ^ Daenell, Geschichte der deutschen Hanse, 45. 
 
 " Stieda, Hansisch- Venetianische Handelsbeziehungen im \tijah.rhiindert; 
 see also Simonsfeld, Der Fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venedig und die deutsch- 
 venetianischen Handelsbeziehungen, II. 69, 71. This establishment was 
 chiefly frequented by South German merchants. 
 
 ' An excellent illustration of the policy is given by the Stint of the 
 English Merchant Adventurers. Cunningham, Growth of English In- ' 
 dustry and Commerce, I. 416. 
 
 * Ehrenberg, op. cit. II. 6. . 
 
 12 — 3 
 
l8o Western Civilisation. [JiOOK V. 
 
 mediaeval city had been peculiarly careful to retain their 
 exclusive advantages, and to prevent any broker from acting 
 on behalf of an unfree trader; each merchant dealt personally 
 or through his own factors. But at Antwerp there was no 
 leason for maintaining such limitations, and forms of business 
 agency, which have become universal in the modern world, 
 were first introduced in the city on the Scheldt. The great 
 South German bankers fixed their principal establishments at 
 this centre ; they were attracted by the openings it offered 
 and they helped to promote its prosperity. Merchants en- 
 joyed far greater facilities for obtaining loans at low rates 
 of interest, and for any period that might be desired, in the 
 Antwerp money-market, than had been at all usual even in 
 the fairs of Champagne and Lyons. Bruges' with its long- 
 established reputation was unable to shake off the old com- 
 mercial traditions, and was rapidly superseded by Antwerp, 
 where business was conducted on the lines that were most 
 convenient to enterprising capitalists. 
 
 As commercial intercourse revived and increased during 
 the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, it tended more and 
 more to bring about a revolution in industrial life. .Groups of 
 small masters, each of whom was working on his own account 
 though they were associated together for mutual supervision, 
 were neither able nor willing to adapt themselves to new 
 condition^; ajid they were gradually superseded in the more 
 important callings by capitalists who employed large numbers 
 of journeymen. One craft after another was affected by the 
 opportunities which the expansion of trade afforded, and 
 artisans began, under the direction of merchants, to manufacture, 
 
 ' Van Bruyssell, li. 232. 
 
 ^ Holland appears to offer an interesting exception, as the small in- 
 dependent masters held their own in all the old industries during the 
 seventeenth century though newly-planted trades were organised on 
 capitalist lines. Pringsheini, Beitrdge zur wirthschajtlichen Entwirkdiing 
 der vereiniglen Nicdirlande, iu Sclimoller's Forschun^en, X. iii, p. 30. 
 
CHAP, ir.] The Intervention of Capital. i8i 
 
 not merely with reference to the requirements of their neigh- 
 bours and the demand in the city market, but with a view 
 to the possibilities of sale in distant places. There were 
 some trades — such as the silk trade in Italy in the fifteenth 
 century — which were forced to rely on commercial intercourse 
 for a supply of the materials they employed; but whenever, 
 and from whatever reason any industry was drawn into the 
 circle of distant trading interests, there was a tendency in. 
 favour of the introduction of capitalistic organisation. Capit- 
 alist merchfnts were required as intermediaries to purchase 
 materials or to sell goods, and they easily sUpped into the 
 position of capitalist employers who directed their workmen 
 and controlled the conditions and terms of labour. 
 
 The views of a capitalist employer of labour and those 
 of small independent masters would often differ as to 
 the rules which were beneficial in any trade. The capitalist 
 would wish to be free to employ as many journeymen as he 
 liked, with such division of labour as was convenient, while 
 the small masters would object to an establishment which was 
 so organised as to engross a great part of the trade. There 
 might also be differences about the training of apprentices 
 and the numbers in which they should be employed; the 
 capitalist policy diverged from tliat which was traditional in 
 the craft gilds. In sonie cases, where the difficulty arose, the 
 wealthy members appear to have been strong enough to take 
 the control of the gild affairs into their own hands, and to 
 modify the institution till it became an oligarchical association 
 of capitalist employers ; many of the corps de metiers in France 
 appear to have been thus transformed' ; and bodies which had 
 been originally associations of small masters came to be prac- 
 tically identical in character with such a capitalist company 
 
 ' H. Hauser, Ouvriers dn. temps passS, p. 119 fol. Com]Daie also for 
 Germany, Lamprecht, Deutsche GescliiclUe, v. 64. A similar change of 
 character can be traced in the tailors of Bristol. Fox, Merchant Tailors of 
 Jirislol, 32, 86. 
 
1 82 Wesfa^n Civilisation. [BOOK V 
 
 as the Arte di Calimala at Florence'. In other cases the 
 small masters were able to maintain the traditional policy, 
 and the capitalist employers preferred to migrate beyond the 
 range of gild authority. The restrictive regulations which the 
 crafts imposed on journeymen forced them to withdraw from 
 such old centres of trade as Worcester' and York to districts 
 where moneyed men were free to offer them better terms; 
 particular towns were impoverished but the national industries 
 were fully maintained, and capitalists and wage-earners alike 
 benefited by the changes. 
 
 In this way it appears that capital afforded facilities for 
 inducing labourers to migrate, and thus helped to transplant 
 the arts of life and to open up undeveloped regions. In the 
 earlier times labour had been practically restricted to one 
 city or to one estate, and there had been great difficulty 
 in transferring it to places where it could be more advantage- 
 ously employed. But capital solved this difficulty ; it gave 
 the means of introducing bodies of labourers and setting 
 them on work, so as to plant a new industry or to open up mines 
 and develop unused resources. Capital supplied the material 
 means of fostering the national wealth of any qountry, and of 
 thus giving effect to a progressive economic policy. 
 
 ' See above, p. 94. 
 
 ' Cunningliam, Growth of Industry, i. 512, 518. 
 
CAMB. UNIV. PRESij 
 
 The era of LATIN EXPANSION. 
 
 To face /. 1S3 
 
183 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 RIVAL COMMERCIAL EMPIRES. 
 
 The Portu- 
 guese secure a 
 footing in 
 the East. 
 
 119. The peoples of Western Europe at last secured 
 direct access to the East through the persistent 
 enterprise of the Portuguese; but this is only 
 a small part of the debt we owe them. Their 
 undaunted energy and heroic sacrifices over- 
 came extraordinary difficulties and rendered it possible fqr 
 European traders to establish a footing in the Indies, and to 
 open up regular commercial communications with lands that 
 had hitherto been inaccessible. 
 
 The object, of the Portuguese Crown in promoting the 
 voyages of discovery had been clear enough ; it was desirable 
 to obtain a share in the Eastern commerce which enriched the 
 Venetians through their trading allies, who monopolised the 
 Red Sea route and the Persian Giilf. The active commerce 
 of these seas was entirely in the hands of Arabs ; they had 
 settlements in many towns, and there was a considerable Mo- 
 hammedan population at some of the ports '. The Arab mer- 
 chants, whom Vasco de Gama and the other Portuguese captains 
 encountered in Indian waters, were not inclined to brook any 
 interference with their profitable monopoly. This mercantile 
 and seafaring race were little more than aliens on the coasts of 
 the Indian peninsula ; but as they were long-established aliens 
 they were able to rouse the Zamorin of Calicut into hostility 
 
 ' Rowlandson, Tohfut-til-MtiJahideen (Oriental Translation Fund), 70. 
 
184 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 towards the Frankish intruders. The Portuguese had not at- 
 tempted to found a factory there on their first visit (1498 A.D.), 
 and when the experiment was made on their second voyage 
 (1500 A.D.), it proved a disastrous failure; for their representa- 
 tive and his associates were murdered as soon as the ships 
 had left. This was an offence which the Portuguese could 
 not overlook, and it led to their first rupture with a native 
 prince. 
 
 They thus learned that it was impossible for them to share 
 in the trade of the Arabs, or to have factories side by side 
 with Mohammedan merchants in the same port; they could 
 also count on a cordial reception in places where they were 
 not thwarted by these commercial rivals. The Nestorian 
 Christians' were a considerable body, whose influence was 
 favourable to men of their own faith ; and the Hindu princes 
 were glad to find any power that could stay the progress of the 
 Mohammedan races, which were encroaching by conquest on 
 the north and carried on an exclusive commerce on the 
 south. Favoured by these circumstances, and by the divisions 
 in the Mohammedan world' which prevented any united at- 
 tack upon them till they were well established', the Portuguese 
 were able to found commercial factories at Cochin (1501 a.d.) 
 and Cannanore (1502 a.d.) on the Malabar coast. They 
 quickly attained such maritime superiority as to monopolise 
 the trade of these towns, and vessels which were not protected 
 by Portuguese permits* were destroyed. Portugal thus began 
 to enforce an effective sovereignty in the Indian Ocean. 
 
 In order, however, to control the spice trade with Europe, 
 and to transfer this business from the Arabs and Venetians 
 
 ' Beazely, Portuguese Colonial Empire in Royal Hist. Trans. (1894), 
 viiT. 115, 116. 
 
 ' H. Morse Stephens, Albuquerque, 77. 
 
 ' Suliman organised such an attack soon after his accession in 1520. 
 See Morse Stephens, of. fit. 177. 
 
 * Rowlandson, Tohfut-td-Mujahideen, 90. , 
 
CHAP. III.] Rival Commercial Empires. 185 
 
 into Portuguese hands, it was necessary to obtain the command 
 of the gates through which trade passed at Aden and the 
 Persian Gulf. This had been a favourite scheme with King 
 Emmanuel; and more than once the establishment and con- 
 solidation of the settlements , in the East were sacrificed to 
 fruitless efforts at closing the Red Sea route from Suez to the 
 East'. The Portuguese first established themselves on Socotra 
 (1507 A.D.), and eventually secured possession of Aden for a 
 time (1517 — 1538 A.D.); but Albuquerque, with all his genius, 
 had never been able to give full effect to his master's purpose. 
 Still he was so far successful in hampering the Arabs in their 
 Red Sea trade as to cause a serious diminution of the customs 
 which passed into the hands of the Sultan of Egypt. 
 
 The Portuguese were more fortunate in their attempts to 
 control the navigation of the Persian Gulf, through which access 
 could be obtained to the Euphrates valley and the caravan 
 routes to the Levant. They obtained permission to establish 
 a fortress at Ormuz and subsequently got possession of the 
 entire city ; they were in consequence able to claim a maritime 
 authority over the whole of the trade of that region ; coasting 
 voyages were the usual method of communication, except 
 during the Monsoon, and those who possessed this harbour 
 could command the route''. 
 
 The most simple, and at the same time the most efficacious 
 method of obtaining the desired monopoly was to exercise a 
 control over the spice trade at its source. All the commerce 
 of the Spice Islands, as well as of the Far East, was con- 
 centrated at Malacca ; and after establishing a factory at this 
 point the Portuguese soon found a pretext for taking possession 
 of the town. They were consequently able to regulate the 
 supply of pepper and nutmeg in their own interests ; while this 
 commercial dep6t gai^e them a basis from which they could 
 
 ' H. Morse Stephens, op. cit. 94. 
 
 2 Compare Vol. I. p. 6^ on the spheres of Greek and Phoenician 
 influence. 
 
1 86 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 push their trading connections in China (1517 a.d.) and Japan 
 (1542 A.D.)\ They thus laid the basis for the establishment 
 of direct and regular commercial intercourse between Europe 
 and the principal countries of Asia, and for nearly a century 
 they succeeded in retaining as their own a monopoly of the 
 trade they had wrested from the Arabs. 
 
 Almeida and many of the Portuguese would have been 
 content to aim at making their sovereignty of the sea effective 
 by maintaining a strong navy; they believed that this would 
 give adequate security to the commercial factories which were 
 planted at different points of the coast. But Albuquerque, the 
 greatest of the Portuguese governors, was convinced that this 
 policy was impracticable; he set himself to obtain so much 
 land as would enable him to maintain self-sufficing stations 
 which might serve as a basis for the operations of his ships. 
 Without adequate territory it seemed to him impossible to 
 keep up the efficiency of the fleet, so that it should be able 
 to protect the factories from attack by land, and to over- 
 power the naval expeditions that might be expected from 
 Egypt. With this object he forced the hands of the home 
 government, and established, not mere commercial factories, 
 but garrisoned fortresses; he also obtained such concessions 
 of tribute as might render the administration of the new 
 empire self-supporting. The final conquest of Goa, and the 
 organisation of a Portuguese Civil Service to take over the 
 government of the territory, were the fruits of Albuquerque's 
 unwearied efforts to develop the commercial empire of his 
 master on a basis that he believed to be really sound, and to 
 offer a prospect of permanence. 
 
 The Portuguese were engaged in a new undertaking ; ' but 
 the commercial intercourse which they established on the new 
 route, very closely resembled that of the Venetians and Arabs 
 whose profitable monopoly was now a thing of the past^ It 
 
 * Saalfeld, Geschichte des portug. Kolonialwesens, 104. 
 ' Heyd, op. cit. n. 517. 
 
CHAP. III.] Rival Commercial Empires. 1 87 
 
 was the practice of the Portuguese to send out a fleet to the 
 Indies once a year ; the management of the undertaking was 
 in the hands of officials, though the merchants who sailed in 
 the ships were independent traders. They had to pay customs 
 to the government, and certain articles were reserved as a 
 State monopoly'; though the organisation of the fleet had a 
 political and military character, the actual trading was a matter 
 of private enterprise'. In this we have a very close repro- 
 duction of the system that regulated the fleets of Venetian 
 galleys which traded in the Mediterranean'. It was also the 
 deliberate purpose of Albuquerque to substitute a Christian 
 for the Arab trading population which had carried on active 
 commerce in the Indian Ocean. He took their capital Goa, 
 and used the lands which had belonged to mosques for the 
 endowment of Christian Churches and monasteries ; and by 
 deliberately encouraging the marriage of Portuguese soldiers 
 with native women, and the growth of a Eurasian population, 
 he set himself,, like Alexander, to bring about the fusion of 
 the East and West. It was a bold line of policy, and one 
 which later rulers of India have scarcely dared to follow; it 
 certainly had its dangers; for the corruption of the adminis- 
 trative class, and weakening of the moral fibre of the 
 Portuguese is commonly associated witl;i their adoption of 
 
 ^ Iliibler, Geschichte der Fuggerschen Handlung in Spanien, 24. 
 
 ° The merchants who travelled by the fleet were not necessarily 
 Portuguese, and Germans were allowed to fit out ships for the voyage. 
 F. Kunstmann, Die Fahrt der ersten Deutschen nach dem porittgiesischeii 
 Indieii, p. 5. Many interesting details will also be found in the Tagebuch 
 des Lucas Rem, edited by Grcilf in the Sechsundzwanzigster Jahres-Bericht 
 des kistorischen Kreis- Vercins im Regierungsbezirke von Sclnaaben und 
 Neuburg (Augsburg, 18C1), and in J. P. Cassell, Primlegia und Hand- 
 lungsfreiheiten luelche die Konige von Portugal ehedem den di:utschsn 
 Kaiijleuten zu Lissabon ertheilet haben. 
 
 " On the organisation of the Venetian fleets see Lenel, op. cit. 68. On 
 the similar organisation of the Flanders galleys compare R. Brown, State 
 Papers, Venetian, I. pref. p. Ixii. For the Portuguese fleets see Saalfeld, 
 op. ci:. 138. 
 
1 88 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 Eastern habits. The attempts which were made by the In- 
 quisition to prevent the deterioration of Christian principle 
 by contact with heathen and Mohammedan peoples were 
 mischievous in other ways. The action of the Holy OfHce was 
 disastrous to the ancient Church of India, which was suspected 
 of heresy, while it was powerless to check the wrongs which 
 were wrought by greedy and irresponsible officials. 
 
 Even in the days of its greatest prosperity the commercial 
 empire of the Portuguese proved disappointing j it failed to 
 supply the streams of wealth which had been expected. The 
 reasons for this are obvious ; such efforts had to be exerted to 
 maintain the political conditions, under which this trade had 
 become possible, that the energies of Portugal were exhausted, 
 and the profits of commerce did not repay the outlay. It is 
 marvellous that a nation of 3,000,000, and an army of 40,000, 
 should have sufficed to obtain a supremacy over the whole of 
 the Indian Ocean, and to secure a footing in Africa and in 
 Brazil as well ; but when we read of the frightful loss of life in 
 each expedition, we cannot be surprised that the effective force 
 of the country was sapped in the course of such a gigantic 
 struggle. 
 
 It is to be noticed, too, that the enterprise of individual 
 citizens was diverted /rom fruitful industrial employments and 
 even from shipping; the Indian commerce, which centred at 
 Lisbon, did not react favourably on home industry or internal 
 trade, and the active work of distributing the Indian products 
 in Europe was done by alien merchants'. All those who 
 
 ' " Nowe lett us goe to the good simple Portingall who full hongerly 
 for spices almost sales yeerely in compasse about 3 quarters of the world, 
 and when they have brought their spices home are not the riche purses of 
 Antwerp, the subjects of King Phillip ready to ingrose it into their handes 
 and oftentimes give money for it aforehand." Epistle to the most noble 
 and illustrious Lordes Edzart and John, Earles of Estfrizland, Lordes of 
 Emden (1564), f. 7. Sloane MS. S18, British Museum. The Hollanders 
 and Zeelanders did most of the shipping, especially after the fall of 
 
CHAP. III.] Rival Commercial Empires. 189 
 
 wished to better their fortune sought for administrative posts, 
 and many of the ofifioials were tempted to try to advance their 
 personal interests more quickly by a resort, to unfair means. 
 Eventually the administration became exceedingly corrupt and 
 therefore very expensive; but even in its best days, the political 
 outlay which was necessary for developing the trade absorbed 
 all the profit to which the Portuguese rulers had so confidently 
 looked forward. 
 
 It is also true that the economic policy of the Portuguese 
 was not commercially sound; it depended to a large extent 
 on their power to oust the Arabs and to secure a monopoly ; 
 they had few products or manufactures to export in exchange 
 for Indian spices, and they were reluctant to send silver abroad. 
 They might have succeeded by means of military power in 
 extorting a tribute, but political changes at home upset their 
 whole commercial system. After 1580 a.d. the fortunes of 
 Portugal were linked to those of Spain, and the enemies of 
 Spain attacked the trading factories of the Portuguese ; these 
 had no means of effective resistance, since their commerce 
 had not been based on physical advantages but on political 
 superiority. When the Dutch were strong enough to defy the 
 united forces of the Iberian peninsula they were easily able 
 to direct the trade with the Indies into new channels, and thus 
 they entered into the enjoyment of the possessions which the 
 Portuguese had so hardly won. 
 
 Though the fruits of Portuguese enterprise were wrested 
 from them so soon, we cannot but give a tribute of admiration 
 to the men who had the heroism and enthusiasm to win their 
 way against such odds as Albuquerque faced. They were in 
 a way heirs of the old crusading spirit, at least on its commer- 
 cial side; they broke the Arab monopoly in the Indian Ocean 
 and rendered it possible for that great peninsula to be brought 
 into contact with Christendom. They were less successful 
 
 Antwerp; though Danzic and the Baltic Hanse towns were keen com- 
 petitors. Hiibler, op. cit., 174. 
 
igo Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 in Africa, and the Arab trader remains as one of the curses 
 of that benighted land ; but India and the Far East have been 
 rescued from his exclusive domination. Though the principal 
 motive was merely commercial, and as such one with which he 
 would have had but little enthusiasm, the hopes of Prince 
 Henry were at last accomplished; the flank of the advancing 
 Crescent was turned, and the Moslem power was threatened 
 at its very heart. Portugal was exhausted for the time* lay the 
 effort, but the world is a gainer in that she was ready to take 
 the lead. 
 
 120. There is a contrast in every particular between the 
 yj^^ history of the rise of the Spanish Colonial Empire 
 
 Spaniards and that of its neighbour in the Iberian 
 
 reasure. Peninsula. The Portuguese obtained access to 
 a highly civilised country, and sought to bring a profitable 
 trade under their own control ; the Spaniards secured a footing 
 among barbarian and half-civilised peoples, who had made but 
 little progress in the arts of life and had no organised trade. 
 The Spaniards encountered no opposition in attempting to 
 colonise southern and central America; they were perfectly 
 free to deal with the country they had conquered as they 
 pleased, and were able to give effect to their views as to the 
 wisest use to make of their power and the best methods for 
 utilising the resources of their new possessions. The decline 
 and fall of their influence in these countries has demonstrated 
 that the economic policy which the Spanish king and his 
 advisers pursued was completely mistaken. 
 
 The mineral wealth of the new world seemed to open up 
 
 ' The revival of the Portuguese power under the House of Braganza in 
 the seventeenth century was undertaken on other lines. The colonising of 
 Brazil had been deliberately neglected in the period of Portugal's grJ^atest 
 prosperity, and the efforts of the Marquis of Pombal to develop native 
 industry in the eighteenth century may be regarded as an imitation of 
 Henry IV and Colbert, or as an attempt to shake off the influence of 
 England by copying English methods. 
 
CHAP. III.] Rival Commercial Empires. 191 
 
 the prospect of accumulating such a vast treasure, that it 
 would enable the Spanish monarch to determine the destinies 
 of Europe. The realm which had been consolidated by the 
 marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella and the conquest of 
 Granada had ample resources of its own ; in some parts the 
 soil was admirably cultivated, while there were also large areas 
 devoted to pasturage, and the native wool supplied ample 
 materials for an extensive manufacture of cloth. The long 
 wa:rs against the Saracens seem, however, to have had dis- 
 astrous effects both on the country and on the population ; the 
 land had been rendered less fit for tillage', and the military 
 ardour of the people^ distracted them from the drudgery 
 and comparative indignity of agricultural or industrial pursuits. 
 The conquest of the new world with its mineral treasures 
 was congenial to the national temperament. It was a task 
 calling for military prowess; and the rapid success of the 
 Spaniards raised the expectation that they would be able to 
 accumulate such masses of treasure that they would be irre- 
 sistible. Severe prohibitions were enacted to prevent the ex- 
 port of gold or silver from Spain, in the hope that other 
 nations, which were possible political rivals, might be precluded 
 from having a share in the mineral wealth that was annually 
 imported to Seville. This was the staple port where the India 
 House was established and all the trade was concentrated': 
 the galleons were loaded at Seville in August and Septembei, 
 and then dropped down to Cadiz, where they waited for a 
 favourable wind ; one armada accompanied the fleet, and 
 another cruised the seas, as far as the Azores, on the look- 
 out for pirates. On the return voyage the fleets bringing the 
 silver plate from Mexico and Peru were combined at Havana, 
 
 ^ Naude, Die Getreidehandelspolitik der europiiischen Slaaten, 181. 
 
 » lb. 182. 
 
 ' J. de Veilia Linage, Spanish Rule of Trade, translated by Stevens, 
 p. S+. In later times goods intended for consuraplion in Spain might be 
 landed at any port where the vessel touched. 
 
192 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 and sailed together for Spain about the month of June'. 
 Masses of bullion were brought to Spain, especially in the 
 eleven years from 1545 a.d. onwards, during which the mines 
 of Potosi yielded annually, at the lowest computation, 2,215,000 
 pesos'. The government obtained a large revenue from customs, 
 and was at pains not only to protect the plate-fleet by sea, but 
 to prevent the export of the bullion that was safely landed at 
 Seville. But the policy thus pursued proved a disastrous failure : 
 the Crown never enjoyed a period of repose when saving was 
 possible ; the wars of Charles V were too costly to permit the 
 formation of a hoard; the India House was crippled by the 
 loss of the Armada, and Philip II died deeply in debt'. The 
 bpaniards had sacrificed everything else to the attempt to build 
 up political power by the mere accumulation of bullion ; their 
 want of success in the main object of their policy left them so 
 impoverished as to demonstrate that the means by which they 
 pursued it had been grossly mistaken. 
 
 Spanish colonial policy was at fault, as little attention was 
 given to the cultivation of the soil, or to the planting of any 
 industry. The colonists exported such natural products* as 
 could be obtained with little labour, and devoted all their 
 energies to mining operations ; the working of the mines was 
 not a government monopoly, but was carried on by private 
 enterprise. Large as were the total returns, it does not seem 
 to have been a profitable speculation in all cases*; and at 
 
 ' J. de Veitia linage, Spanish Rule of Trade, 193. 
 
 " Soetbeer, Edelnietall-Produktion (1879), fi. The opening of the 
 mines of Potosi ahnost synchronised with the discovery of improved 
 processes of reducing the ore with quicksilver. 
 
 '^ Beer, AUgemeine Geschichte des Welthandels, II. 147. Ehrenberg, op. 
 cit. II. 259. 
 
 * See the list in J. de Veitia Linage, op. cit. Preface. 
 
 ' The determination of the Fuggers in 1531 a.d. to drop their scheme 
 of colonising in S. America after they had succeeded in procuring all the 
 necessary concessions may be taken as indicating their view of the value of 
 colonial investments. Habler, Die Geschichte der Fuggerschen Handlung, 
 67. 
 
CHAP. III.] Rival Commercial Empires. 193 
 
 all events it diverted both capital and labour from attempts 
 to develop the other resources of the colonies. Mining on a 
 large scale was pursued in a manner that was detrimental to 
 the native population ', and rendered it necessary for the under- 
 takers to procure more stalwart labourers by arranging for the 
 importation of negroes. The regular business of supplying 4000 
 to 5000 negroes per annum was contracted for in turn by the 
 Portugue'se and the Genoese; the Spaniards, with all their 
 faults, had a rooted dislike to taking part personally in the 
 traffic'', and in the eighteenth century it came to be absorbed 
 by the English merchants, who outbid the French. There was 
 little labour available for other occupations than mining, and 
 as a consequence the colonists were dependent on the mother 
 country for supplies of all kinds, not merely for textiles and 
 manufactured articles, but for cereals as well'. They had of 
 course the means of purchasing these goods easily with the 
 silver of the mines, but the Spanish colonies would have been 
 far stronger if more vigorous attempts had been made to 
 develop their general resources. 
 
 The colonial market for Spanish foodstuffs was large, 
 and it might have afforded a great stimulus to tillage in the 
 Peninsula, where there were doubtless regions which were 
 able to respond to the increased demand'. But in many 
 parts of Spain natural economy still held good, while other 
 districts had not recovered from the devastation and depopu- 
 lation caused by the war. The colonial requirements were so 
 considerable that they caused a rapid rise of rates in the home 
 
 ^ Leroy Beaulieu contends that the oppression of the Indians in con- 
 nection with mining has been much exaggerated. De la Colonisation chez 
 lespeuples modernes, p. 14. 
 
 ^ J. de Veitia Linage, op. cit. 159. 
 
 " Martin Hume, Spain, 1479 — 1788, 84. 
 
 * Charles V made considerable improvements in Aragon which ren- 
 dered large tracts of territory available for tillage. Martin Hume, op. 
 cit. 85. 
 
 c. w. c. 11. 13 
 
194 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 markets; considerable purchases of growing crops' were made 
 by merchants who wished to export them, and the government 
 endeavoured by legislation to prevent the rise of prices. 
 Again and again the Cortes were compelled to raise the 
 maximum tariff of permissible rates", but these imperfectly 
 successful efforts to keep prices low rendered agriculture less 
 profitable. There were other difficulties to which tillage was 
 exposed ; the mesta, a great organisation of sheep farthers with 
 ancient privileges, not only objected to the increase of tillage 
 at the expense of pasture', but exercised their rights in the 
 driving of their flocks so as to injure the arable farms through 
 which they passed on their great migrations*. Altogether the 
 legislation of the Cortes was so unfavourable to agriculture 
 that the Spanish corn-growers derived little advantage from 
 the great colonial demand. 
 
 The depressed condition of tillage, arid the fact that 
 food continued to be scarce and dear, was one of the main 
 reasons for the failure of the Spaniards to reap the benefit of 
 the large colonial market for textiles and other manufactured 
 goods. For a time indeed there was a rapid expansion; 
 German capitalists settled in the country^, and manufacturing 
 was conducted on a considerable scale; Cuenza and Seville 
 were the centres of the cl6th trade, Valladolid of the silk 
 industry, Cordova of leather manufacture, and Toledo of the 
 production of arms". Foreign labour followed in the wake of 
 
 ' Bernays, Zur inneren Entwkkelung CasHliens in Quidde, Deutsche Z. 
 f. Ceschichtswissenschaft (iSSci), I. 404. 
 
 ^ Naud4 Getreidehandehpolilik, 184. 
 
 ' In 1552, Church and corporation lands which had been broken up for 
 tillage were thrown back into pasture. Martin Hume, op. cit. p. 85. 
 
 * Naud^, op. cit. 201. 
 
 ^ They hoped for liberal concessions from Charles V. Lamprecht, 
 Deutsche G^schichte, v. 479. 
 
 " Beer, II. 144. Habler, Die ■mirthschaftliche Bliite Spaniens. The 
 subject has given rise to much controversy, but it appears that there has 
 been a tendency to exaggerate the duration of the prosperity of Spain. 
 
CHAP. III.] Rival Commercial Empires. 195 
 
 foreign capital, but the new development of industry was not 
 heartily welcomed; the increased population it had attracted 
 seemed to be to blame for the scarcity and dearness of food ; 
 while the gilds of small masters were opposed to the capitalist 
 organisation of industry that had sprung up so rapidly'. The 
 traditional policy of the country was that of legislating on 
 behalf of consumers, and the newly-developed industries 
 had to contend with unfavourable conditions. The Spanish 
 markets were flooded with goods produced in countries where 
 the range of prices was lower ^; while a prohibition of 
 export', along with sumptuary laws^ seriously limited the 
 demand for native manufactures. There are indications that 
 the short-lived industrial prosperity of Spain was waning as 
 early as the time of Charles V. The Spanish policy of 
 maintaining privileges and favouring the consumer was as 
 disadvantageous to the capitalist manufacturers as it had been 
 to agriculture. The wealthy foreigners were blamed by the 
 hidalgos for all the difficulties that arose in connection with the 
 rise of prices ; native pride and prejudice formed an alliance 
 with native poverty ; the expulsion of the Moriscos was only 
 one instance of a continual attack upon alien elements", till 
 the disabilities to which they were exposed — either as capitalists 
 or labourers — forced them to withdraw. The Spaniards had 
 been unable, in spite of the stimulus of the colonial demand, 
 to develop great manufactures, and they would not allow the 
 Germans or Italians to do it in their stead. 
 
 In these circumstances there is little difficulty in ac- 
 counting for the complete failure of the bullionist policy of 
 Spain : even if the ruling dynasty had enjoyed a perpetual 
 peace, it would have been impossible under the existing 
 
 ' Martin Hume, op. cit. p. 84. 
 
 = lb. p. 87. 
 
 " Beer, op. cit. 11. 145. 
 
 * Martin Hume, Year after the Armada, p. 220. 
 
 ' Martin Hume, Spain, 1479 — 1788, p. 213. 
 
 13—2 
 
196 Western Civilisation. [BOOK v. 
 
 economic conditions to retain the silver in the Peninsula and 
 to prevent it from passing out in the course of commerce. 
 The prohibition of the export of bullion had never been abso- 
 lutely enforced, as some of the German and Italian capitalists 
 had enjoyed permits' which allowed a limited export; and the 
 balance of trade was so heavily against Spain, that the tempta- 
 tion to smuggle silver out of the country must have been great. 
 The mass of the treasure of the new world did not find its 
 way to the Spanish mint, but came into the hands of men 
 who desired to use it as capital, and who succeeded in trans- 
 ferring it to Antwerp, Genoa and other centres where they could 
 invest it at a profit. The Spaniards, by their harsh legislation 
 in the interest of consumers at home, interfered to prevent 
 the colonial demand from stimulating the development of agri- 
 cultural and industrial resources in the Peninsula. There were 
 ever-increasing difficulties about maintaining their shipping 
 and equipping their armies; as their commerce declined, it 
 became obvious that they had missed the opportunity of 
 attaining to great material prosperity. The bullionist policy 
 had proved impracticable, it entirely failed to buttress the 
 military power of Spain, and the colonial empire which Spain 
 had created became the prey of peoples with a keener com- 
 mercial spirit. 
 
 121. In the earlier part of the seventeenth century there 
 seemed to be every prospect that Holland would 
 andswp"prng. ^0°" attain an undisputed position as the predo- 
 minant power, not only in European waters, but 
 in the East and West Indies as well. She had great wealth ; her 
 ports formed the chief European emporium both for fish and 
 corn ; and the trade in these necessaries of life gave employ- 
 ment to an enormous mercantile marine, which far exceeded 
 the fleets of the Mediterranean cities in their most prosperous 
 days. The United Provinces had means at their disposal not 
 
 ^ Bonn, Spaniens Niedergang, 182. Ehrenberg, op. cit. w. 223. 
 
CHAP. III.] Rival Commercial Empires. 197 
 
 only to secure their own independence, but also to break the 
 power of Spain in the East Indies and in America. 
 
 The foundations of their commercial prosperity were deeply 
 laid, since the Netherlanders had been carefully endeavouring 
 for centuries to make the most of their resources and of 
 their opportunities for trade. From the earliest times of its 
 known history Flanders had been famed for its industry 
 and particularly its woollen manufacture, which centred 
 round Bruges and Ghent. In the fourteenth century the 
 towns of Brabant, especially Louvain, also excelled in this 
 art; and though Dordrecht and Amsterdam were chiefly 
 given to maritime employments and engaged in the import 
 of wool from England, they gradually took to manufacturing 
 and attained considerable success in the making of cloth. 
 It was in the fifteenth century, however, that the Netherlands 
 made most rapid progress; and owing to its varied maritime 
 and industrial advantages, this territory enjoyed under the Bur- 
 gundian family a period of extraordinary material prosperity. 
 Most of the wealth of the northern provinces was due to the 
 herring fishery. The art of curing fish had been much im- 
 proved at Biervliet' in the earlier half of the fifteenth century; 
 and the Dutch threw a great deal of energy into the prosecution 
 of the fishing trade, so that their fleets reaped the richest harvest 
 of the sea, not only near their own coasts, but off the shores 
 of England and Denmark and in the Baltic. Thus they 
 obtained a large supply of an article of common consumption 
 throughout Christendom, and were able to do a profitable 
 trade with Germany by the Rhine, and with France, Spain and 
 Portugal by sea. Though the greater part of their country 
 was little adapted for corn growing, it had admirable facilities 
 for pasture, and not only enabled them to provide wool, but 
 large quantities of dairy products for export. Their commerce 
 was thus firmly based on the excellence of their manufactures, 
 
 1 J. de Witt, Political Maxims 0/ Ihe Slate of Holland (I'm), p. ^^. 
 
198 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 and the abundance of the products of land and sea. The 
 men of Amsterdam were able to take advantage of the position 
 of their city to make it the centre of the maritime trade 
 between the Baltic lands and the rest of Europe. The Nether- 
 landers were forced to import corn from Prussia, Poland and 
 Russia for their own requirements, and they succeeded in 
 organising a great carrying trade for supplying the deficiencies 
 of countries on the Mediterranean. This transport of corn 
 between the districts which were then the granary of Europe 
 and the southern lands which raised other products, came to 
 be of far greater importance than all the rest of the Dutch 
 trade put together ; the Hollanders competed successfully with 
 the Hanse towns in the sixteenth century, and after the fall of 
 Antwerp they had only occasional cause to fear the interrup- 
 tion of this traffic". It continued throughout the seventeenth 
 and the greater part of the eighteenth century to be the back- 
 bone of the Dutch commercial system : so long as this trade 
 with neighbouring lands was left to them, they could afford to 
 regard the distant commerce of the world and the maintenance 
 of colonies and factories in America and the East Indies with 
 comparative indifference". 
 
 The Dutch monopoly of the Spice Islands, which moved 
 the jealousy of other nations in the seventeenth century, was 
 not the foundation of the prosperity of the United Provinces, 
 but was a mere excrescence, which was added incidentally and 
 
 ' Considerable alarm was felt in 161 1, when Christian IV of Denmark 
 increased the toll on vessels passing through the Sound. The Dutch trade 
 was also threatened in 1622, when the Spaniards endeavoured to revive 
 their connection with the Hanse towns on the Baltic; but the Dutch suffered 
 no lasting injury. The most serious difficulties were caused by Gustavus 
 Adolphus, when he established Swedish power on the Baltic in 1630, and 
 diverted the corn from Poland for the commissariat of his armies. Naud6, 
 op. cit. 348, 354, 360. 
 
 " It is interesting to compare Adam Smith's chapter on the different 
 employments of capital with the Dutch practice. WealtJi, of Nations, 
 II. v. 
 
CHAP. III.] Rival Commercial Empires. 195 
 
 under the pressure of their great struggle with Spain. The 
 severities of the Spanish rule in the sixteenth century and the 
 cruelties inflicted during the War of Independence had seriously 
 interfered with the commerce, and with much of the industry 
 of Flanders and Brabant. Refugees from these districts mi- 
 grated northwards, and Amsterdam gained immensely by the 
 fall of Antwerp. That city had been the chief emporium for 
 the distribution of the spices and other valuable products 
 which were imported into Spain and Portugal; and despite all 
 efforts to force this trade into other channels, it continued to 
 enrich the merchants of the United Provinces. They were 
 able to avail themselves of opportunities which the Spaniards 
 had failed to appreciate ; and the linen manufacture of Holland 
 received a considerable impetus from the market that was 
 opened up in the Spanish colonies. Just as Napoleon's armies 
 were supplied with English manufactures, so was Spain forced 
 to purchase goods from' the nation of traders' which she was 
 endeavouring to coerce. Still, this illicit trade though highly 
 profitable was extremely uncertain; and Philip, by seizing 
 fifty Dutch ships in Lisbon harbour", forced the merchants of 
 Amsterdam to adopt a bolder line, if they were not to lose 
 this branch of business altogether. They determined to at- 
 tempt to penetrate to the sources of the spice trade for them- 
 selves, and to organise expeditions to the- East, instead of 
 confining their energies to European trade. 
 
 For some little time they prosecuted the attempt to open 
 up an independent line of communication by the Arctic Seas^ 
 though the first voyage (1594 a.d) had showed that the diffi- 
 culties were very great; but in 1595 a.d. they adopted the 
 southern route and sent out a fleet by the Cape, so that they 
 
 ' Rogers, Holland, 162. 
 
 * Saalfeld, Geschichte des holldnd. Kolonialwezens, I. 10. 
 
 " Rogers, op. cit. 173. This had been already attempted by the English; 
 it gave access to the silk trade with Persia, but not directly to a spice 
 trade. 
 
56o Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 entered into direct competition in waters where the Portuguese 
 had established their supremacy. The four Dutch vessels 
 which formed their first East Indian fleet (1595 a.d.) sailed 
 by way of Madagascar to Java ; and though one ship had to 
 be abandoned and many lives were lost, the adventure was so 
 far successful that a larger fleet started in 1598 a.d.', and a 
 permanent factory was established at Bantam in 1602 a.d. 
 Several partnerships were formed and fleets were sent to the 
 East, with the result that the market for spices was glutted, and 
 some of these associations were ruined by the fall of prices"; 
 but in 1602 A.D. the various partnerships were united into 
 one company which was privileged to carry on the trade as a 
 monopoly. In the first half of the seventeenth century it had 
 a very large measure of success ; the factories which the 
 Portuguese had established were incapable of defending them- 
 selves against the Dutch ^ and the latter were able to put 
 serious hindrances in the way of the development of the East 
 Indian trade of England, which promised to become a formid- 
 able rival. The Dutch came to be heirs of the monopoly in 
 the Spice Islands, and of the .Portuguese trading connections 
 with China and Japan; while the linen manufacture of 
 Holland^ enabled her traders to export cargoes for which 
 there was a ready sale in the East'. 
 
 The Dutch were less willing than either the Portuguese 
 or English to assume the cares of an Eastern Empire; but 
 not even they were able to avoid it altogether. Political 
 responsibility had been forced on the Portuguese by the need 
 of a firm basis from which to resist the Arabs ; and though 
 
 ' Bonnassieux, Grandes Conipagnies de Commerce, 44. 
 
 " Beer, 11. 180. 
 
 " Amboyna fell in 1605. Saalfeld, op. cit. i. 38. 
 
 ■" Negapatam was the staple for this after 1606. Beer, II. 181. 
 
 ' Neither the Portuguese nor the English manufactured commodities 
 which commanded a good sale when offered in exchange for the goods 
 they procured from the Indies. 
 
CHAP. m.J Rival Commercial Empires. 201 
 
 the Dutch were content on the whole to avoid continental 
 possessions, and to try to secure commercial privileges by 
 treaty with native rulers, they were impelled to exercise a 
 strict territorial supervision over the, particular islands where 
 the spices were produced. They paid pensions of about 
 ;£'33oo' to native rulers to exterminate the clove and nutmeg 
 in other islands, and concentrated the cultivation in Amboyna, 
 where they were able to control it themselves. So far as their 
 East Indian trade was concerned, they were not eager to de- 
 velop it, but preferred to keep it within such limits that they 
 might secure a high rate of profit ^ 
 
 While we are inclined to blame this restrictive policy, we 
 ought not to shut our eyes to the fact that it proved, in 
 some ways at least, a wise one. Holland was never exhausted 
 as Portugal had been by the attractions of eastern traffic 
 and command. On the contrary, the great gains accruing 
 from this exclusive trade were capitalised and advantageously 
 employed other mercantile and industrial undertakings, both in 
 their own and in neighbouring lands. The Baltic trade in corn 
 and furs showed a steady improvement; the Hanse towns were 
 completely superseded, and the Dutch enjoyed a very large 
 share of the active commerce of Sweden and Russia. They also 
 entered the Mediterranean and took up much of the business 
 formerly done by Italians. The Venetian shipping continued to 
 decline, and the Dutch commenced to carry on a considerable 
 trade with Smyrna and the Levant. In all these directions 
 they out-distanced the English merchants, and, as it appeared, 
 chiefly because there was an abundance of money in Holland 
 which could always be obtained for new enterprises that offered 
 the prospect of a moderate return on the capital invested. 
 
 While her trading relations were thus extending on all 
 
 ^ Raynal, Voyages, i. iS6. > 
 
 ' Saalfeld, op. cit. I. 274. On the policy pursued in limiting llie 
 production of coffee, sugar, etc., see lb. I. 236. Also on the restrictive 
 policy at the Cape, Leroy Bcaulieu, Colonisation, 89. 
 
203 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 sides, the original sources of the wealth of Holland were not 
 neglected. Fishery was actively carried on, and attention was 
 given to sealing and whaling, which were pursued at first 
 with the aid of Biscayan harpooners'. The industries which 
 migrated from Flanders, from Germany, and later from France, 
 were prosecuted with success in Holland, where they were 
 organised on capitalised lines*, so that the country became 
 more noted for the excellence and variety of its manufactures. 
 Besides this, unremitting attention was given to farming ; root 
 crops and artificial grasses were introduced so as to afford 
 winter fodder, and though Dutch horticulture was in some 
 ways an extravagant hobby, it none the less gave a stimulus to 
 a remunerative business. The reaction of Dutch commerce 
 on the industry of Holland led to a remarkable development 
 of native resources of every kind. 
 
 There had been a strange fatality about the conduct of 
 Spanish affairs, especially in the way in which the action of the 
 government played into the hands of the provinces that were 
 defying them. The low import duties on goods entering Spain 
 had been highly advantageous to the Dutch; they had also 
 gained by the immigration of protestants expelled from Spanish 
 dominions ; and there was another way in which the policy of 
 Spain worked for the ultimate benefit of Holland. In No- 
 vember 1596 A.D.°, Philip repudiated his debts and resumed 
 possession of the lands which he had mortgaged; he thus 
 destroyed his own credit, while he also ruined the Italian and 
 German financiers from whom he had borrowed, and left 
 the Dutch without rivals in this lucrative business. The 
 monetary world of Florence had received a blow from which 
 
 ^ Beer, II. 203. 
 
 ^ Pringsheim, Beilrage zur wirtschaftlichen Etitwickelung der vereinig- 
 ten Niederlande im 17. unci 1%. Jahrhundert in Schmaller's Forschungen, 
 X. iii. (1890),. p. 33. Xhe old-established industries of Holland continued 
 to be carried on as domestic crafts, and the gild regulations were strictly 
 enforced. lb. 40. 
 
 " Rogers, op. cit. 187. 
 
CHAP. III.] Rival Commercial Empires. 203 
 
 it did not easily recover when Edward III and Robert of 
 Sicily failed to keep faith with the Peruzzi; and Philip's 
 bankruptcy destroyed the financial supremacy of the Fuggers 
 of Antwerp and Augsburg. Amsterdam became the new 
 monetary centre of Europe ; the business of foreign banking 
 was increasingly concentrated there. 
 
 This succession of great opportunities, which occurred 
 during the first half of the seventeenth century, enabled the 
 Dutch to attain the highest pitch of prosperity in every depart- 
 ment of economic life. They reached the zenith of their 
 prosperity about 1649 a.d. ; from that time onwards, though 
 the Baltic trade which was the main source of their wealth 
 continued to flourish, they began to lose the lead in the race ; 
 and rivals, who imitated their methods, became successful 
 competitors. The French under Colbert developed industries 
 of their own, so that a valuable neighbouring market was 
 closed to Dutch manufactures; the Scandinavians, like the 
 English, were jealous of the intrusion of Dutch fishermen in their 
 waters, and the practical monopoly of the Dutch was at length 
 completely broken down by the opening of the Sound. The 
 English Navigation Act of 1651 a.d. had been partly dictated 
 by political considerations and by a desire to sever the West 
 Indian colonies from intercourse with royalist sympathisers, 
 but it also struck a severe blow at the carrying trade of the 
 Dutch and weakened their hold upon North America. They 
 even failed -to maintain their interest in the Peninsula ; for in 
 the middle of the seventeenth century, when the Portuguese 
 power was revived under the house of Braganza (1640 a.d.), 
 considerable advantage accrued to England and but little to 
 Holland. The struggle of the Dutch West India Company 
 for the possession of Brazil' was useless so far as Holland 
 was concerned, while the alliance of Charles II with the royal 
 house of Portugal restored an ancient friendship and gave sub- 
 stantial advantages to the growing maritime power of England. 
 
 1 Boniiassieux, op. cit. 74. 
 
204 Western Civilisation, [BOOK V. 
 
 The revival of Portugal and of the Portuguese colonies was 
 profitable to English capitalists ', and was controlled to a cer- 
 tain extent in the interests of English industry ; the Methuen 
 treaty marked the success of English merchants in their con- 
 test with the Dutch for the carrying trade of Portugal and her 
 dependencies. 
 
 The inability of the^ Dutch to secure and to maintain a 
 predominant position and to exercise a world-wide influence, 
 was not due to any economic weakness, but rather to their 
 political temperament and character. The Dutch had not 
 attained to a true national life ; it is hardly an exaggeration 
 to say that "the Netherlander before 1795 a.d. recognised no 
 fatherland, but only a father-town"." The strength of their 
 civic as compared with their national patriotism prevented 
 them from making the most of their opportunities in the 
 seventeenth century; they did not fail from lack of means, 
 so much as from want of will ; they had no ambition to 
 develop a colonial empire. In no other country did the 
 strictly economic motives count for so much in the determi- 
 nation of policy. Even their struggle for independence had 
 been greatly influenced by a desire to escape the centralised 
 government and the taxation which the House of Austria had 
 imposed on their commerce". John de Wit, the leader of 
 the merchant princes, explicitly advocated " Peace at any 
 price V as the aim at which their diplomacy should be directed, 
 since any war was likely to injure their shipping' and its in- 
 terests. They had no positive ideal towards which their pursuit 
 of material wealth was subordinated ; with the Dutch, as with 
 
 ' Beer, 11. 119, 133. At the earthquake at Lisbon the loss of ca:pital 
 to English merchants is said to have been very large. Ibid. 121 note. 
 
 ^ J. Blok, Eene hoUandsche stad in de middeleeuwen. 1883. Preface. 
 
 ' Pringsheim, op. cit. p. i. On the struggle over the Congiegeld 
 which was revived by Charles V in 1540, to the serious disadvantage 
 of the corn trade, see Naud^, op. cit. 319. 
 
 * Naud6, op. cit. 436. 
 
CHAl'. 111. J Rival Commercial Empires. 205 
 
 the Phoenicians in the old world; commerce was not so much 
 a means to an end as an end in itself. 
 
 Had Holland been ambitious of retaining her position as 
 a world power she had ample resources at her command, and 
 she might have made an effective bid for the leadership among 
 the representatives of Western Civilisation. But she did not 
 rise to the responsibility; while other nations advanced and 
 expanded, she concentrated her energies more and more on 
 the trade that lay easily within her reach. The wealth and 
 prosperity of Holland continued till the latter half of the 
 eighteenth century, when improvements in the cultivation of 
 England', together with the opening up of Odessa'' as a new 
 port and of fresh sources of supply in America, revolutionised 
 the corn trade. But long before statistics showed any signs 
 of the decline of her wealth or her maritime importance, she 
 had lost all pretensions to rule the destinies of any large area 
 of territory. Indeed her system of government rendered it 
 impossible for her to undertake such a task with success; 
 the seven United Provinces had been drawn together by the 
 requirements of common defence, but they did not succeed 
 in organising a workable administrative system. Though the 
 Dutch were willing to make vast sacrifices at some moment of 
 dife necessity, they were unable to make steady and regular 
 preparation for possible exigencies', and had not the means of 
 repairing their losses and retrieving their disasters. The par- 
 ticularist interest of different towns and districts was strong 
 enough to paralyse the action of the Admiralty and to render the 
 central government inefficient and corrupt*; and the cumbrous 
 
 1 Naude, 0^. cit. 379. 
 
 a lb. 440. 
 
 ' A. T. Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 68. 
 
 * Pringsheim, op. cit. 2, 3. An enquiry in 1685 proved that the officials 
 of the Admiralty allowed whole cargoes to be smuggled without interfering, 
 as they dared not offend the various town authorities who were interested 
 in these ventures. The most important posts were sold for money to inca- 
 pable people; in times of crisis the officials were often not to be found, 
 
2o6 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 system of management which was adopted for the East 
 Indian and other companies ' was incompatible with the main- 
 tenance of an effective rule over distant dependencies. The 
 Portuguese continued to retain something of the missionary 
 aspirations of the Crusaders in the organisation of their colonial 
 empire, and the Spaniards had an insatiable desire for power ; 
 the Dutch deliberately confined their energies within a very 
 restricted sphere ; and because they would not progress, they 
 were unable to retain what they possessed. It is impossible 
 to win a victory over energetic rivals by always remaining on 
 the defensive, and the Dutch were forced to relinquish piece- 
 meal the advantages they had once secured ^ 
 
 122. The politicians in the latter part of the seventeenth 
 
 The French century, who indulged in forecasts of the future 
 and Internal of the civiliscd world. Were very apprehensive 
 
 eve opment. ^j- ^.j^^ dangers to which other nations were ex- 
 posed from the growth of France. The military resources of 
 Louis XIV inspired his contemporaries with awe, and the 
 palace which he erected at Versailles impresses succeeding 
 generations with some idea of his magnificence. Powerful at 
 home, the French monarchy seemed able to establish its 
 
 the book-keeping was careless and the accounts were in disorder. There 
 was no question of anything like a unified customs regulation. The central 
 government had as a mle no officials of its own to carry out its decrees, 
 the execution of which was left to the provincial or town officials, who 
 thought it their duty to put the interest of their province or town before 
 that of the general interest of the country. On the management of the 
 companies' affairs abroad compare Stavorinus, Visages to the East Indies, i. 
 278, also in. 475. 
 
 ^ Wilcocke's notes to his Translation of Stavorinus, op, cit. I. 89. Leroy 
 Beaulieu, De la Colonisation chez les peuples modemes, jg. 
 
 " The parallel between England and Holland is of much interest, espe- 
 cially in connection with the history of experiments in Free Trade. It is 
 to be noted, however, that the English imperial sentiment and eagerness to 
 expand are wanting among the Dutch. Further, English trade is not based 
 on advantages secured by treaty, and has not the exclusive character which 
 made that of the Dutch an object of jealousy. 
 
CHAP. III.] Rival Commercial Empires. 207 
 
 influence at any moment in the most distant parts of the globe ; 
 for it had secured a footing in India and had commenced to 
 found a series of settlements in the Antilles and along the great 
 rivers of North America — the Mississippi and St Lawrence. 
 Till the middle of the eighteenth century it appeared likely 
 that France would ultimately inherit the territories .which had 
 been opened up to Europeans in the age of discovery. But 
 these expectations were mistaken ; France has never obtained a 
 great colonial empire, and as we look back we may be able to 
 see some of the reasons why, with all her great resources 
 and eager national ambition, she failed to make the most of 
 her opportunities in the seventeenth century. 
 
 It is easy, but somewhat unmeaning, to say that the 
 French have no genius for colonisation; as we review the 
 work of such pioneers as Cartier or Champlain, or read of 
 the enterprise of Breton fishermen and Normandy merchants', 
 we feel that there were abundant elements for founding and 
 maintaining vigorous settlements in distant lands. The re- 
 ligious orders in the West, and military leaders like Dupleix in 
 the East, showed a capacity for dealing with native populations 
 such as few Englishmen have ever displayed j and the pros- 
 perity of the French colonies in the Tropics— in the Antilles 
 and at Mauritius — proves that there was no inherent incapacity 
 on the part of the nation for carrying out such undertakings 
 with success. 
 
 The defect did not lie in the genius of the people, so 
 much as in the habits of political and economic life that had 
 been formed in the course of many years. The revival of 
 French industry and commerce under Charles VII and 
 Louis XI had been brought about by royal and governmental 
 action ; under these monarchs the French learned to rely on 
 kingly direction and encouragement instead of personal effort ; 
 and Francis I seems to have been responsible in no small 
 degree for giving a mistaken turn to the national ambition. 
 
 ' Gaffarel, Les Colonics fran^aises, p. 80. 
 
2o8 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 His eyes were fixed on Italy ; he was eager to obtain Italian 
 possessions, and his ideas were all coloured by reminiscences 
 of Italian glories. The new world was being opened up; 
 the sailors of Rouen and Dieppe' were competing with the 
 Portuguese on the African coast and wAh. the Spaniards in 
 America; 'but Francis I would have none of it. He stimu- 
 lated and revivified the moribund Levantine commerce of the 
 southern ports', and during his reign the town of Lyons 
 became the centre of an enormous trade in articles of luxury'. 
 Immense palaces, surpassing those of Florence and Venice, 
 were built in Paris and throughout the country, both by the 
 king and by "the nobles who imitated him ; France began 
 to take the lead, which she has never lost, in matters of 
 fashion and taste. Though the interests of the importers and 
 those of the native artisan were somewhat in conflict, there was 
 a frequent effort from the time of Francis I onwards to plant 
 the manufactures of cloth-of-gold, glass, silk, and tapestry, so 
 that the king and court might be supplied by home producers, 
 and not by importation from abroad. France was by nature 
 self-sufficing and independent of foreign countries for the ne- 
 cessaries of life; it was the policy of the king to make her 
 independent with regard to artistic productions also*; and on 
 the whole, subsequent rulers have continued to encourage those 
 branches of industiy which were first developed under the 
 impulse they received from Francis I. 
 
 In the sanguinary struggle of the wars of the League, France 
 was once more devastated as she had been in the Hundred 
 Years' War; and the statesmen of the time were therefore 
 compelled to concentrate all their energies on repairing the 
 ravages of that sanguinary struggle; they could not attempt 
 to take up the work of colonisation seriously or to compete 
 for a commercial empire while there was such terrible social 
 disintegration at home. Henry IV was a king who threw 
 
 ' Pigeonneau, ii. 45. ^ lb. 11. 126. 
 
 « Jb- II. 28. * U. u. 58. 
 
CHAP. III.] Rival Commercial Empires. 209 
 
 himself heartily into the task of reviving internal prosperity, 
 and once again the economic life of France was restored by 
 royal initiative. In Sully the Crown had a financial adviser 
 of conspicuous ability, who introduced reforms into the fiscal 
 system of the country and greatly reduced the burden to the 
 taxpayers ; at the same time he provided such a revenue that 
 Henry could introduce some new industrial experiments, and 
 undertake important public works. In all these matters the 
 Crown could rely on the assistance of Olivier de Serres and 
 Laffemas, who were authorities in regard to scientific agricul- 
 ture and commercial and industrial development respectively. 
 Henry IV, during the few years when he was undisputed 
 master, did not give complete adherence to the views of 
 either of the competing doctrinaires, but he laid down the 
 lines of that systematic development of internal resources 
 by which the French monarchy was to attain to its greatest 
 glory. 
 
 His most important work was that of developing internal 
 commerce' by improving the rivers and constructing canals; 
 he spent immense sums on the repair of roads and the building 
 of bridges so as to facilitate the transport of grain; he also 
 did much to reduce the provincial restrictions which had 
 hitherto fettered the trade in corn. This in itself gave a 
 decided impulse to agriculture; every effort was made to 
 encourage the nobility to settle as residents on their estates, 
 and the Thecttre d' Agriculture of Olivier de Serres gave them 
 the fullest instruction as to the best methods to pursue in the 
 management of their land. There were, however, many obstacles 
 in the way of change for the better ; it was hopeless to expect 
 that the peasantry would adopt improved methods of their own 
 accord; and hence it seemed wise to maintain a certain 
 amount of natural economy — in the metayer system' — so that 
 the influence of the proprietor as an interested partner might 
 
 ^ Fagniez, Viconomie sociale de la France sous Henri IV, i8a. 
 ' J. S. Mill, Political Economy, bk. II. c. viii. 
 
 C. W. C. II. 14 
 
210 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 be directly brought to bear on the mode of cultivation". The 
 homestead system, which has proved a practical barrier to 
 capitalist farming, was retained in France; but the seignorial 
 powers failed to exercise an educative influence on the peasants 
 or to set an example by introducing new methods of cultivation 
 and other agricultural improvements. 
 
 The conditions of industrial life in the sixteenth century 
 gave rise to a great deal of complaint, and powerful forces 
 were at work which demanded the regulation of the crafts 
 in Lyons' and other towns on the model of the corps de metiers 
 at Paris. Henry IV, in accordance with the principles of 
 Laffemas, organised the industrial system of the whole country 
 on very definite lines. The exceptions which were allowed 
 were due to the direct exercise of royal authority and the 
 creation in the various crafts of masters who had not served 
 an apprenticeship; the Crown also exerted its powers by 
 granting special patents for inventors, by the appointment 
 of artisans to the Court, and by the establishment of large 
 numbers of workmen in the Louvre where they were free 
 from interference by the corps de mHiers". These inter- 
 ferences with the rigidity of the system were unpopular and 
 were of doubtful advantage ; but the general tendency was to 
 strengthen the hands of the wealthy oligarchies in each trade*, 
 and thus, while mediaeval forms were preserved, to facilitate the 
 introduction of capitalistic organisation in industry. However 
 unsatisfactory the system may seem in the retrospect, it proved, 
 with the assistance of protective laws, to be the means of greatly 
 
 ^ The alternative would have been to allov/ the peasantry to rent land 
 for money, but the introduction of this system would have tended to 
 widen the severance between the two classes who were concerned with the 
 land, and the numbers both of non-resident proprietors and of unen- 
 lightened cultivators would have been increased. 
 
 '■* Hauser, OuvHers du temps passi, 139. 
 
 ' Hauser, ep. cit. 135 — 140. 
 
 ♦ The wealthy oligarchies had been chiefly instrumental in securing in- 
 creased regulation. Hauser, op. cit. 127. 
 
CHAP. III.] Rival Commercial Empires. 1 1 1 
 
 developing the native trades; while considerable pains were 
 also taken by Henry IV to plant the silk manufacture' in 
 new regions and to introduce a fustian manufacture as well". 
 
 The extent to which the material prosperity of France was 
 actually dependent on royal authority became apparent when 
 Henry IV was removed by the dagger of Ravaillac. Under 
 the government of Marie de Medicis much of the old disorder 
 returned ; but when Richelieu assumed the reins of power he 
 reinforced with fresh vigour the industrial policy of Henry IV.° 
 He also had such faith in the resources of the country that 
 he consciously aimed at developing a naval and mercantile 
 marine*, so that France might hope to compete with Holland 
 and England for commercial supremacy and colonial empire. 
 In neither case did he obtain the success he anticipated ; great 
 commercial companies were organised, in imitation of those of 
 Holland'; but the financiers who subscribed the capital could 
 not furnish the practical business ability" which was necessary 
 to render these undertakings a commercial success in the 
 Baltic or other fields where Dutch traders were already estab- 
 lished'; the French Crown conferred privileges and powers, but 
 the fostering care which had regulated actual industry could 
 not call a non-existent commerce into being". The compara- 
 tive failure of French efforts at colonisation was partly owing 
 to maladministration and partly to other causes. The pioneers 
 
 ^ Fagniez, op. cil. 105 fol. ' lb. 142. 
 
 ' Levasseur, oJ>. cil. II. 151. 
 
 * D'Avenel, Richelieu el la Moiiarchie absolue, III. 167. 
 
 5 Bonnassieiix, Les grandes coinJ>agnies de commerce, 166. 
 
 ^ The practical merchants were too deeply attached to the trade of par- 
 ticular cities, Rouen, St Male or Rochelle, to throw their energies into 
 schemes that concerned the nation as a whole. Pigeonneau, 11. 34.6. 
 
 ' Sargent, The Economic Policy of Colbert, 82. 
 
 8 "Un gouvernement pent utiliser et diriger un courant national; il ue 
 peut ni le creer, ni I'arrcter." D'Avenel, op. cit. III. iiy. Compare also 
 p. Masson, Uisioire du comiiicne fran^ais dans le Levant au xvii'"' slide, 
 
2i2 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 had, unlike the Dutch, a very keen sense of a national mission 
 and destiny, they had ample privileges granted them by the 
 Crown, and the men of Normandy^ were enterprising sailors, 
 but the people generally hung back from the effort to trans- 
 plant French civilisation into distant lands. Much of the 
 success of the English colonies was due to those who were, 
 from one cause or another, dissatisfied with the conditions of 
 life at home. Puritans and Roman Catholics and Quakers 
 were alike concerned in the founding of settlements which 
 proved to be places of refuge for Englishmen to whom their 
 native land was uncongenial. But the Frenchman, who was 
 dissatisfied with the social system at home, would have found 
 no place for him in New France^; and others, who would have 
 been welcomed there,' saw little to attract them to emigrate. 
 Pioneers had begun to establish themselves at Montreal before 
 Richelieu came into power ; but though he took up the matter 
 in earnest and entered into one scheme after another, he 
 failed to attract a regular stream of emigrants. The companies 
 of New France' and of the Antilles* were called into exist- 
 ence, and thus late in the day the first serious efforts were 
 made to found a French colonial empire; when the attempt 
 was once begun it was carried out on an extensive scale, 
 for encouragement was given to the trading intercourse 
 which the Norman sailors had established with Senegal ^ and 
 possession was formally taken of Madagascar^ Some of these 
 schemes were hampered for want of capital, and others suffered 
 from the insufficiency of the French marine and the inade- 
 quate communication between the colonies and the mother 
 
 ' Pigeonneau, op. cit. II. 44'2. 
 
 2 Coligny attempted to found Huguenot colonies both in Brazil and 
 I'lorida, but neither attempt attained much success. Pigeonneau, op. cit, 
 
 II- 329- 
 
 ? Bonnassieux, op, cit. 350. 
 * Gaffarel, Les Colonies frati^aises, 206. 
 ° lb. 10. Bonnassieux, op. cit. 223. 
 " Gaffarel, op. cit. 14a. 
 
CHAP, iii.j Rival Commercial Empires. 213 
 
 country". The establishment charges were also very heavy, 
 and the Court favourites" who were willing to expatriate them- 
 selves for a time, were not always the men who were fitted to 
 preside over the destinies of a struggling colony. 
 
 -Richelieu, with his unbounded belief in the resources of 
 France'', had given his approval to ambitious schemes which 
 he had no sufficient means of carrying into effect. Fortunately 
 for his country he was succeeded by a man of more restricted 
 ambitions who was a great master of detail. When Colbert 
 was entrusted with the charge of the finances of the realm 
 he proved to be an admirable administrator ; and his reforms 
 in the levying of taxation were most successful. But he had 
 an undue belief in the power of administrative machinery 
 to exercise a beneficial effect on industry and commerce ; 
 in some cases there was an absurd waste from his efforts 
 to introduce model manufactures; in others there was much 
 disturbance from his drastic attempts to improve those that 
 already existed. Over-regulation and over-organisation affected 
 every branch of industrial life*, and seriously hampered the 
 development of commercial enterprise; while his measures 
 for agriculture gave it no chance to revive' after the disad-' 
 
 ' D'Avenel, op. cit. ill. 225. 
 
 ^ Seances et travaiix de VAcad. des Sciences Morales, CXXII. (1884), 
 p. 482. ' Pigeonneau, op. cit. II. 379. 
 
 * " Unfortunately for the progress of industry in France, state aid and 
 patronage, especially under despotic rule, inevitably implies state inter- 
 ference. Judging from the character of Colbert, we should expect such, 
 interference to be pushed to its furthest limit under his regime; that such 
 was the case his letters amply prove. Here is his view on the subject: 
 ' On this matter I would have you know that the only means of rendering 
 our manufactures perfect and of establishing a good system in our 
 commerce is to render them all uniform. The way to accomplish this is to- 
 insist on the practical execution of the general regulations of 1669; the 
 more so that obedience is easy, and that in the end the workmen will find 
 in it their real profit.' " Sargent, Economic Policy of Colbert, 50. 
 
 ° The general policy of Colbert involved the subordination of agricul- 
 tural to industrial interests, since he aimed at procuring a large supply of 
 
2r4 ]V(stcrn Civilisation. [noOK V. 
 
 vantages to which it had been exposed from the fiscal burdens 
 imposed by Richelieu. Colbert's efforts to foster industry in 
 the way it should go proved a failure; an economic despot 
 had need to be omniscient, and Colbert was not wise enough 
 to play the part of Providence with success. 
 
 Hardly any economic system would have had a fair trial 
 in the circumstances of the day; political ambition left no 
 scope for steady and systematic attention to economic develop- 
 ment. The policy of Louis XIV would have drained the mag- 
 nificent resources of France at any time; to the artificial 
 scheme which Colbert had built up it was positively ruinous. 
 The strain of foreign war was exhausting on one side; while 
 the internal policy that was pursued in regard to the Huguenots 
 struck a serious blow at some of the principal seats of French 
 manufactures, and destroyed the industries to which so much 
 attention had been given. Europe continued to tremble before 
 the projects of Louis XIV ; but the break-down of Colbert's 
 system had left the great monarch powerless to carry them 
 into effect. In every aspect the governmental initiative and 
 administrative organisation proved baleful for France; with 
 a fixed ambition to rule the destinies of Europe, her monarchs 
 neglected the opportunity of securing a firm footing in the 
 New World, and gave but little support to the enterprising 
 men who were cherishing wider ideals for their native land. 
 Her very wealth tempted her statesmen to be content with 
 a self-centred economic policy; by protectionist measures 
 against outsiders they sought to encourage a large home supply 
 of manufactures of every sort ; but they saw no occasion to 
 attend to the permanent well-being of the agriculturists, though 
 this was essential for the maintenance of a food supply, and 
 also for nurturing a population adapted for colonisation. 
 
 food at low rates for the manufacturing population. There was a constant 
 change of regulations in regard to the corn trade, according to the varying 
 circumstances of different provinces in different seasons. Naude, Cetreide- 
 handehpolitik, 39 — jS. 
 
CHAP. III.] Rival Commercial Empires, 2\% 
 
 Colbert's system hardly had a fair chance, but its utter collapse 
 is none the less a renewed demonstration of the economic 
 difficulties which attend even the far-seeing absolute ruler. 
 
 123. Two hundred years after the establishment of direct 
 communications with the East Indies and the _^ „ ,. u 
 
 / The English 
 
 discovery of the New World, there was still much Mercantile 
 uncertainty as to the precise form in which ^y^*^™- 
 Western Civilisation would be brought to bear upon them. 
 During the eighteenth century this question was settled for 
 our age at any rate ; England ousted France from her strong 
 position both in the East and in the West, and came to be the 
 principal heir of competitors who had each shown in turn their 
 inability to retain their hold over these distant lands. In the 
 East the Portuguese had succumbed to the Dutch ; the Dutch 
 had proved incapable of rising to the situation ; and the French 
 missed the opportunity of supplanting them. It was the good 
 fortune of England that she was able to take advantage of 
 the openings that were oflfered her as they occurred, but it is 
 not easy to detect the precise reasons of her success. There 
 were, however, two features which distinguished England from 
 her rivals in the earlier part of the seventeenth century ; while 
 there was considerable scope for personal energy, there was also 
 a solidarity of sentiment throughout the English nation, and 
 popular enthusiasm demanded the building up of maritime 
 power ; " her subjects were occupied during the greater portion 
 of Elizabeth's reign in teaching their queen the use of a 
 navy' "; and the maladministration of this service under James I 
 and Charles I, despite their real interest in it, not only involved 
 the Stuarts in difficulties with their parliaments, but was 
 indirectly decisive as to the issue of the Civil War^ The 
 Commonwealth, by its larger and judicious expenditure" on the 
 navy, was really giving effect to a widespread popular ambition, 
 
 ' Oppenheim, A History of the Administration of the Royal Navy 
 1509— 1660, p. 115. 
 
 2 Jb. 240—243. ' Jb. 303. 
 
2i6 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 to which there was nothing that corresponded either in Holland 
 or France. And just as it may be said that the Crown and the 
 Commonwealth rather followed than directed the national bent 
 in this political ambition, so does it appear that there was no 
 need for authority to attempt to call forth commercial or 
 colonial enterprise among Englishmen. Trading interest and 
 the love of personal adventure were widely prevalent in Eng- 
 land ; the^ Government was required at times to control and to 
 protect, but not to initiate new undertakings. This vigorous 
 spirit was hampered by the lack of material means to carry out 
 its projects ; England in the seventeenth century had neither 
 such a large mercantile marine', nor such abundance of capital 
 as Holland. But even as regards pecuniary resources, English 
 subjects were better provided than the English Crown. The 
 great engineering works in France had been started at the 
 royal expense ; but such public works as the draining of the 
 Cambridgeshire Fens or of Hatfield Chase were committed in 
 England to local magnates and private adventurers". The 
 secret of her ultimate success seems to have lain in the vigor- 
 ous enterprise of individual Englishmen and the strength of 
 patriotic feeling. 
 
 At all events, it is clear that England did not suffer from 
 
 ^ Oppenheim, op. cit, 307. 
 
 ^ There had been, through the later Middle Ages, considerable scope 
 for individual enterprise as the craft gilds, which would have been opposed 
 to it, were carefully kept in hand. The town authorities had been jealous in 
 restraining the powers of these gilds, and Parliament in the fifteenth century 
 pursued a similar course. In the time of Elizabeth they practically dis- 
 appeared, as industrial legislation had been nationalised ; and unnecessarily 
 rigid as the new system seems to us, it was yet comparatively flexible. The 
 Commons were inclined to resent any attempt on the part of the Stuart 
 kings to exercise an effective control over particular branches of industry by 
 the appointment of patentees. Freedom for individual enterprise, both 
 personal and associated, was consonant with the habits and institutions of 
 the people; they would not be coerced into adopting one particular model, 
 and there was, under the circumstances, little encouragement to attempt 
 the introduction of cumbrous administration into the English colonies. 
 
CHAP. III.] Rival Commercial Empires. 217 
 
 the special political weakness which affected the Dutch; the 
 particularism of the various cities and provinces rendered 
 effective administration impossible', and prevented the growth 
 of such patriotic sentiments as actuated all classes of English- 
 men. The first settlers in Virginia were eager to extend the range 
 of English influence and to Anglicise a portion of the New 
 World^, and English seamen were proud to try to hold their 
 own against hereditary enemies like the Spaniards and the 
 French. Dutch enterprise was purely commercial in its incep- 
 tion ; the merchants of Holland had no ambition to rule other 
 lands, they were merely concerned with their business in- 
 terests. But though commercial gain was a main motive in 
 English colonial activity, it was not kept in view so exclusively 
 as to limit the hopes and ideals of the leaders in the movement. 
 There was also a great difference between the manner of 
 determining on the economic policy of the country in France 
 and in England respectively. The highly centralised system 
 of regulation which prevailed in France enabled the kings and 
 their advisers to exercise an extraordinary influence ; and the 
 tastes and ambitions of the French monarchs gave a special 
 and not very fortunate direction to industrial development,, 
 but the English Government was much more ready to follow 
 the guidance and advice of English merchants. The require- 
 ments of the Court diverted French energies into the manu- 
 facture of costly luxuries; though the English Court might 
 admire French taste and indulge in French goods during the 
 Restoration period, it did little to direct industrial energy into, 
 these channels in preference to other trades. In England the 
 national ambition, which one monarch after another adopted, 
 as his own, coincided with the interests of the mercantile' 
 
 1 English naval administration was often corrupt, but the Dutch 
 system was so complicated that it was necessarily inefficient. Oppenheim, 
 op. cit. I. 305. 
 
 ^ John Smith, Adverlisements, c. 14, in Works, p. 957. Hakluyt's 
 Voyages, in. 303. 
 
2i8 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V, 
 
 community, while the kings became more reluctant to offend 
 the moneyed men to whom they were forced to look for oc- 
 casional supplies ; thus a close alliance between the monarchy 
 and the traders was gradually compacted. Under these 
 circumstances a scheme of economic policy was devised, which 
 in its main outlines dominated English legislation and ad- 
 ministration for more than two centuries. It was clear 
 that alike for purposes of defence and offence the success 
 of England in rivalry with other nations must be achieved 
 with the help of naval skill; while the available revenue 
 of the Crown was largely dependent on taxation, and the 
 Government was compelled for its own sake to attend not 
 only to the development of shipping, but to the improvement 
 of agriculture as well. The policy, which had been thought 
 out for England, was applied on a larger scale as new areas 
 were added to her dominion and could be dealt with as 
 part of her territory. 
 
 The lines of this economic policy, which was maintained 
 through the seventeenth century and most of the eighteenth, 
 are clearly discernible in the Elizabethan period, before England 
 had any pretensions to be a colonial power at all. Every 
 effort was made by Burleigh to develop the maritime power of 
 England; the seafaring population and the subsidiary industries 
 which are necessary for the provision of naval stores had his 
 constant thought. A stringent navigation policy might have 
 created a fleet for a time, but his object was to increase the 
 resources from which maritime equipment might be steadily 
 drawn in the future. Among all the governmental changes 
 from the Tudors to the Hanoverians, there was no period when 
 the necessity of maintaining the maritime efificiency of the 
 country was left out of sight, but the exigencies of the revenue 
 system prevented any sacrifice of agricultural to commercial 
 interests. After the time of Henry VHI the Crown was very 
 dependent on parliamentary grants for the ordinary expenses 
 of government, and the taxation was chiefly levied upon the 
 
CHAP. III.] Rival Commercial Empires. 219 
 
 landed proprietors ; it was a matter of immediate interest to 
 the administration that the country gentlemen should be in 
 receipt of large rents from which taxation might be paid ; and 
 this could only be satisfactorily attained^ if agriculture was 
 profitable. Fiscal considerations gave greater cogency to the 
 arguments of those who were alarmed at any movement which 
 was prejudicial to the rural population. Efforts were made 
 to give encouragement to arable farming and to compel the 
 gentry to settle on their own estates, and schemes were ap- 
 proved for banking out the sea and the rivers which flooded 
 low-lying land, so as to increase the food-producing area of 
 the country. 
 
 The English colonies in North America were habitually 
 spoken of as 'plantations,' and this word seems to carry the 
 implication that they were regarded as extensions of England"; 
 they were not to be treated as separate entities but as parts 
 of one whole, to which the familiar principles of economic 
 policy should be made to apply. The territory which Cabot 
 discovered and the stretch of coast which was claimed by 
 England did not offer attractive facilities either for commercial 
 stations or for mining ; but the land afforded admirable oppor- 
 tunities for farming, and the seas for fishing ; so that the 
 design of developing rural and maritime wealth could be 
 carried on in this new field. The actual progress made under 
 Elizabeth and James was exceedingly slow, and the several 
 settlements that were established in the seventeenth century 
 differed in their legal and political character. But economically 
 they were founded on very similar principles. They were 
 
 ' In the Elizabethan statute of apprentices the interests of agriculture 
 and of employments subsidiary to agriculture had a distinct preference as 
 compared with the industry of the towns. This distinguishes English policy 
 very clearly from that of Colbert. The development of sheep-farming 
 at the expense of tillage was always regarded as a political danger, 
 and favour was shown to the interest of tillage by the Corn Bounties Act of 
 1689. Naude, op. cil. iii, 121. 
 
 * Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, 11. 144. 
 
220 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 emphatically a new England, which was to be treated in such 
 a fashion that the total maritime and territorial resources of 
 the realm might be increased and that the Anglo-Saxon race 
 might hold its own in the struggle with other world powers. 
 
 The disabilities to which the colonists were exposed in 
 the eighteenth century were very real grievances, and many 
 people find it difficult to appreciate the true character of the 
 underlying principles on which the growing empire was regu- 
 lated in the seventeenth century. The English colonies were 
 not exploited in the interests of the mother country; they 
 were territories to which Englishmen came in order to 
 establish their homes and to make the most of the region 
 where they settled. The restrictions imposed on them were 
 connected with one fundamental maxim, which is hardly 
 on the face of it unreasonable, and the colonies were 
 prevented from engaging in hostile competition with the 
 mother country'. So long as they paid little or nothing 
 to the expense of defending the realm of which they formed 
 a part it seemed reasonable that they should be precluded 
 from developing on lines which tended to diminish the 
 resources of the mother country. Subject to this principle 
 of restriction, their progress was encouraged, and it was felt 
 that their prosperity was an added strength to the realm ^ The 
 effort to form a plantation was arduous ; and more than one 
 expedition suffered severely before the preliminary difficulties 
 were overcome, and the settlers became independent of im- 
 ported supplies of food. But the motive of English coloni- 
 sation was not that of conquering a territory and obtaining 
 access to its mineral wealth, as the Spaniards had done, but 
 of expanding the area which was peopled by Englishmen. 
 
 ' See opinions quoted by G. L. Beer, The Comniercial Policy of Eng- 
 land towards the American Colonies in Columbia College Studies, III. 366, 
 also Cunningham, op. cit. II. 153. 
 
 ' E. Lord, Industrial Experiments in Colonial America in John Hop- 
 kins University Studies (1898), p. 86. 
 
CHAP. III.] Rival Commercial Empires. 221 
 
 Like other European nations in the East Indies, the 
 English aimed at commerce rather than at colonisation ; there 
 are, however, striking contrasts between the policy they pursued 
 and that of their predecessors. The English East India 
 Company was in a way a monopoly ; it had special territorial 
 and judicial privileges, and it showed itself jealous of the 
 interference of interlopers, but it did not pursue the Dutch 
 policy and deliberately limit the trade. The directors in 
 London were persistent in their efforts to induce their agents 
 abroad to make a large investment in Indian commodities 
 for sale in Europe, and many of their servants were keenly 
 interested in promoting internal trade in India'. The Dutch 
 hoped to gain by artificial restrictions, while the English 
 Company on the contrary conceived that the best way to 
 make a profit lay in the direction of an expanding rather 
 than of a limited trade. In course of time, too, the English 
 merchants departed farther from the Dutch system, since they 
 were led to adopt the policy which Albuquerque had sketched 
 for his compatriots. They gradually and hesitatingly accepted 
 a larger and larger measure of territorial power as the best 
 means of securing their commercial footing without extravagant 
 expenditure in the defence of their trade'. 
 
 It has been pointed out in a preceding paragraph that 
 the extended commerce of the Dutch reacted favourably on 
 the industries of the United Provinces ; and considerable pains 
 were taken by the English to reap similar advantages : the 
 traditional scheme for promoting the welfare of the country 
 was carried out under a fresh stimulus and with increasing 
 success. The necessity of keeping up maritime communi- 
 cations with distant lands gave remunerative employment for 
 English shipping, and the plantations afforded a new market 
 
 ' Cunningham, op. cit. II. 274. 
 
 " In early times the English appear to have been even more careful than 
 their predecessors to preserve peace. Penny, Fort S. George, Madras, 
 P- 34- 
 
222 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 for English manufactures. There were symptoms, too, of a 
 tendency to study the methods of Colbert and to imitate the 
 policy he pursued; the efforts in which Parliament engaged 
 to protect and to promote native industry and to introduce 
 new employments, which might enable us to supply our own 
 requirements instead of purchasing goods from abroad, do not 
 differ in principle from the schemes which were adopted in 
 France, though they often took a distinct form. The great 
 industrial gain to England at the close of the seventeenth 
 century came about by the action of and at the expense of 
 France. The. expulsion of the Huguenots drove to our shores 
 some of the workmen whom Colbert would gladly have 
 retained ; and the arts which they practised were transferred 
 with them from French to English soil. In setting aside 
 local jealousies and welcoming these alien refugees. English- 
 men showed that they were willing to copy the policy by which 
 Holland had been so much enriched. 
 
 The commercial scheme which England had adopted, so far 
 as the East India Company was concerned, would hardly have 
 been carried out persistently if Englishmen had not deliberately 
 discarded the bullionist system which Spain pursued'; they 
 adopted instead a new view as to the means by which a mass 
 of the precious metals — the sinews of war — might be best 
 obtained. England did not contain mines of gold or silver 
 and her colonies had no precious metals; hence it was only 
 by traffic that she could procure treasure, and her wool trade 
 had enabled her to obtain an ample supply of silver in the 
 early Middle Ages. Statesmen began to realise that commerce 
 might be so regulated as to induce a constant influx of silver ; 
 they endeavoured to promote the export of English commodities 
 to countries that had few goods to offer in return, in the 
 confident expectation that a payment for these exports would 
 be made in bullion; the mercantilists agreed that when the 
 " balance of trade " was favourable, treasure must flow into 
 ' Cumiiu^haiu, op, cii, 11> 211. 
 
CHAP. III.] Rival Commercial Empires. 223 
 
 the country. A hearty reliance on this principle enabled 
 Englishmen to lay aside the policy of rigidly restricting the 
 export of the precious metals which had wrought so much 
 mischief in Spain; they were not bullionist but mercantilist. 
 We have to some extent outlived the aim they set before them, 
 and no longer attach the importance they did to the possession 
 of treasure ; but it is important to notice that the means they 
 adopted for pursuing this object were perfectly compatible with 
 the constant expansion of commerce, and that they were won- 
 derfully successful in attaining what they had in view. 
 
 Working steadily and slowly for the development of maritime 
 resources and natural advantages and appropriate industry, 
 England reached a high degree of material prosperity, and 
 obtained the sinews of naval and military power The posses- 
 sion of great wealth of many kinds enabled her to attract 
 considerable quantities of treasure in the course of trade. 
 In the seventeenth century England was a profitable field 
 for the investment of foreign capital ; but with the increase 
 of her trade the formation of capital went on more and 
 more rapidly ; the moneyed men began to overbalance the 
 landed interest, and England abounded not only in wealth 
 but in treasure. The foundation of the Bank of England ^ase, 
 a great impulse to the growth of a healthy credit system', 
 so that, when the financial importance of Amsterdam began 
 to decline, London was ready to take its place as the monetary 
 centre of the world. At the time when England secured a 
 great opportunity of guiding the destinies of India and America, 
 
 ' This proved one of the greatest of the advantages which England had 
 in the struggle with France. The system of Law appears to have involved 
 a confusion between currency and capital (Levasseur, SysQme de Law, 
 p. 26); but the multiplication and forced circulation of paper money 
 altogether failed to realise his expectations and reinvigorate the economic 
 life of France. The relations of Law's bank with the French Government 
 were much closer than those which subsisted between the Bank and the 
 Government in Enijland; the failure of his system directly increased the 
 embarrassment of the French Crown. 
 
224 Western Civilisation. [BOOK V. 
 
 she also had command of the material means of bringing her 
 influence to bear. 
 
 The success of England becomes less astonishing when we 
 see how closely it was connected with the political conditions 
 and economic system which had determined the aims of the 
 Government and the habits of the people. The English over- 
 took and surpassed their competitors, not because they had 
 any special genius for the work, still less because they were the 
 mere favourites of fortune, but because they were true to 
 themselves, and eager to learn from their neighbours. They 
 were ready to be guided by the experience of others; to 
 imitate their successes and to profit by the lessons of their 
 failure. England secured an empire in the East, such as 
 Albuquerque had desired for Portugal; while her commerce 
 abroad reacted on her internal development so as to en- 
 courage the pursuit of agriculture as a profitable calling 
 by resident gentry and to promote the manufacture of the 
 products of the realm. This practical wisdom, combined with 
 the soundness of the economic policy which was adopted, 
 conspired to place this country in the front rank of European 
 nations. The French had been the representative of Medi- 
 aeval Christendom in its struggle with Mohammedanism in 
 the East; but in the eighteenth century England took the 
 lead among the rising nationalities, and it is by means of the 
 influence of English-speaking people that Western Civilisation 
 has spread throughout the world in modern times. 
 
BOOK VI. 
 
 THE EXPANSION OF WESTERN 
 CIVILISATION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 I. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. 
 
 124. In the latter part of the eighteenth century there 
 was a burst of inventive genius in Great 
 Britain. Many improvements were rapidly intro- invention, and 
 duced, and the useful arts, as practised from '*^ effects- 
 time immemorial, were revolutionised in a few years. This 
 was no mere accident, but was at least partly due to the 
 fact that the conditions of economic life had become more 
 favourable to such change than they had ever been before. 
 The age of geographical discovery had paved the way for 
 the age of invention; England had succeeded in surpassing 
 each of the rivals who during a century and a half had 
 striven with her for the commercial supremacy of the world ; 
 her predominance afforded the English inventors of the 
 eighteenth century unexampled opportunities for turning their 
 talents to account. 
 
 Holland, which had been the leading economic power of 
 the seventeenth century, was no longer the carrier of the world, 
 
 c. w. c. II. 15 
 
226 Western Civilisation. [BOOK VI, 
 
 and during the first half of the eighteenth century her manu- 
 factures had declined in importance. The over-centralisa- 
 tion of authority in France had reacted injuriously on all 
 branches of industry and agriculture in that country; it had 
 destroyed the initiative of the people and brought about 
 the decadence of the realm. English shipping had increased 
 as the Dutch declined and had opened up distant markets for 
 the national manufactures, especially for hardware and for 
 textiles. The East Indies were willing to accept unlimited 
 supplies of cotton cloth ; and the continent of Europe and the 
 colonies of America were largely dependent on Great Britain 
 for woollen goods ; manufacturing could be conducted on a 
 larger and larger scale without immediate risk of glutting 
 the widespread demand by overproduction. So long as com- 
 merce had been organised as an intercivic affair, or on the 
 old regulated lines of exclusive privileges in limited markets^ 
 there could not have been any such stimulus to the invention 
 and introduction of machinery as the world-wide markets 
 naturally afforded. 
 
 But more than this : the mines of the New World and the 
 successful commerce with the East had given England the ma- 
 terial means for the formation of large amounts of capital, which 
 were now available for employment. There had been much 
 admirable ingenuity among seventeenth century engineers and 
 mechanics, but they were hampered by want of capital ; their 
 projects could not be carried out". In the eighteenth century 
 London had become the monetary centre of the world, and 
 it was no longer impossible to venture on the long and 
 
 ' After the Revolution of 1688 the English trading companies found 
 it much harder to maintain their restrictive rights. Cunningham, Grmoth 
 0f Industry, II. 282. 
 
 " Compare the projects for improving the internal communication of 
 England by water. Even in the latter part of the eighteenth century the 
 Duke of Bridgewater had the greatest difficulty in procuring the necessary 
 funds for his first undertaking. Smiles's Lives of Engineers, I. 222. 
 
CHAP. I.] The Industrial Revolution. 227 
 
 costly experiments that were often needed to render some 
 mechanical improvement a financial success. We are not 
 detracting from the genius' of Watt or Arkwright if we say 
 that they seized and made the most of opportunities, such as 
 no other men had ever had before. Had they lived under the 
 conditioas which were in vogue in preceding centuries, both as 
 to demand for goods and the supply of capital, these great 
 inventors could only have enjoyed the meagre distinction 
 which future generations accord to men who were in advance 
 of their times. 
 
 It has been pointed out above, that the great geographical 
 discoveries of the fifteenth century were the result of long-con- 
 tinued and conscious effort, directed to a clearly understood 
 aim ; great expeditions had to be organised to sail on unknown 
 seas and establish friendly relations with distant potentates. 
 Explorers were forced to wait on courtly patronage and royal 
 initiative ; but mechanical invention has run a different course. 
 The coincidence of the two phenomena, a world-wide demand 
 and a large supply Of capital, enabled humble and unknown 
 men to push on step by step ; political prestige and elaborate 
 organisation were not so essential as in schemes for colonisation; 
 mechanical skill and personal ingenuity had at last obtained 
 their chance. The new industrial era, which the age of 
 invention brought in its train, has offered a free field and 
 given the greatest rewards to individual enterprise. It is 
 commonly said, that the physical advantage of England in 
 the possession of enormous supplies of coal and iron side by 
 side^ have enabled her to out-distance her rivals, not only in 
 
 ' See below, Appendix, p. 276. 
 
 ' The advantage England derived from this source of wealth, in her 
 struggle with France, was very great. 
 
 Coal had been worked in Roman times, and there was a considerable 
 coal trade with London and with foreign countries in the seventeenth 
 century. But the cost of carriage rendered it impossible to work the 
 Lancashire, Yorkshire, or Derbyshire coal-fields to any considerable extent 
 till canals were introduced. When the difficulty of smelting iron with 
 
 15— J 
 
228 Western Civilisation. [BOOK VI. 
 
 commerce but in industry ; still, the proximity and quantity of 
 coal and iron do not in themselves account for her success com- 
 pletely ; in the case of such inventions as Arkwright's they do 
 not account for it at all. The favourable conditions which 
 English manufacturers enjoyed, in the eighteenth century, and 
 the reliance on individual enterprise which had been traditional 
 in Great Britain, were not unimportant factors in rendering 
 this island the workshop of the world. 
 
 The Industrial Revolution has nowhere exerted its full 
 influence as yet ; we cannot regard it as an era that is in any 
 sense closed even in any one country, while there are many 
 lands that are only beginning to feel its effects. There can be 
 little doubt, however, that the industrial methods which it intro- 
 duces will sooner or later be adopted wi?h more or less 
 completeness in every part of the globe. In no territory can 
 the rulers afford to hold aloof from the march of material 
 progress ; they might do so in times of peace, but they cannot 
 in case of war ; the mechanical appliances of modern warfare — 
 including the railway as a means of massing troops,— are 
 indispensable to those who desire to preserve political inde- 
 pendence successfully; and the only hope of effectively 
 handling the weapons of war lies in developing native skill. 
 It is impossible even to depend entirely on the supplies of the 
 
 coal was solved as a practical thing, so that coal smelting could be a 
 commercial success, there was a great increase in the demand for the fuel, 
 and new fields could be profitably worlced. But it was the invention of 
 the steam-engine by Watt that enabled England to take full advantage of 
 her mineral wealth, as she had never previously done. The coal and iron 
 trades developed in combination and with enormous rapidity ; both were 
 requisite for. the construction of machinery, and coal was needed for 
 providing the power by which it could be continuously worked. It thus 
 came about that the commercial supremacy to which England attained 
 in 1760 reacted on her manufactures and gave a new importance to her 
 mineral wealth. The age of invention and the introduction of steam-power 
 combined to give her not only a commercial, but an industrial supremacy 
 as well. 
 
CHAP. I.] The Industrial Revolution. 229 
 
 munitions of war that may be procurable from foreign nations. 
 Modern mechanical skill and modern methods of organising 
 industry are forcing themselves on all the peoples of the world ; 
 and this imitation under compulsion is not likely to be checked 
 within any period we can forecast. 
 
 The age of invention is having a very deep influence on the 
 thickly populated countries which were brought into contact 
 with Western Civilisation at the epoch of the great discoveries ; 
 Asia and Africa had been but little affected by intercourse with 
 Europe till this new movement began. It would have been 
 possible to carry on commerce between England and India for 
 centuries, without bringing any novelty into the social life of 
 the 'changeless East.' But the introduction of modern industrial 
 appliances and organisation is a different matter ; the building 
 of railways and the erection and working of other machinery 
 has come about through the intervention of capitalist direction 
 and control ; and modern methods of business administration 
 tend to modify the habits of daily life- and work of Eastern 
 peoples. No attempt can be made as yet to summarise the 
 precise nature of the changes which have taken place in every 
 part of the world as the result of the age of invention ; it must 
 suffice to indicate the general trend of these new economic 
 forces, so far as we can gauge it. To do this intelligently it 
 will be necessary to concentrate attention on the recent history 
 of England, as that is the country where the changes originally 
 began, and where there has been most opportunity for the 
 reaction of the Industrial Revolution on various sides of social 
 and political life. We may thus detect the prominent tendencies 
 that may be looked for in other parts of the globe, though they 
 will of course be greatly modified according to the special 
 circumstances of each country. By examining the results of 
 the age of invention as we may see them in England itself, and 
 as we may trace them in English policy, we can form some 
 idea of the lines on which the slower movements in other lands 
 are likely to proceed. 
 
230 Western Civilisation. [book VI. 
 
 125. The true character of the Industrial Revolution 
 The loss of ™^y ^^ most easily seen if we contrast the 
 industrial sta- conditions of English industry in the middle of 
 ' ' ^' the eighteenth century with those that were 
 
 current in the staple trades of the country about seventy years 
 later'- At the earlier date there was an extraordinary stability 
 in the economic life of England ; manufacture was on a very 
 small scale as compared with the giant production of a later 
 date ; but it had a firm footing, and there was little danger of 
 violent fluctuations or of serious competition. By far the 
 most important industry was the weaving of cloth, both woollen 
 and worsted ; closely connected with this, were the preparatory 
 processes of carding or combing and spinning, as well as the 
 separate callings of shearmen, cloth-workers, and dyers. This 
 great industry catered for foreign markets, and there were, of 
 course, occasional periods of depression, owing to interruptions 
 of exportation ; but on the whole the steadiness of the trade 
 was remarkable, and was due to the fact that England produced 
 her own raw materials, chiefly if not exclusively, and that the 
 reputation of English manufacture stood so high that the goods 
 could almost always be sold at remunerative prices. On the 
 one hand, there was not much risk of a wool famine ; and on 
 the other, the demand for so excellent an article was not 
 likely to fall off. Those who were employed in the trade 
 could usually count on doing a regular and steady business ; 
 the man who started as a clothier or merchant", might have 
 little prospect of making a fortune rapidly, but it was most 
 improbable that he would fail altogether. 
 
 In the early part of the present century, the cotton trade 
 had grown from relative insignificance to great importance and 
 had out-distanced the woollen trade. Drapery was no longer 
 
 1 The period between the triumph of the English arms at Plassey and 
 Quebec, and at Waterloo, may be talcen as giving the limits. . 1759—1815. 
 
 * The term clothier is ambiguous ; it applies to cloth merchants in the 
 West of England, and to weavers in Yorkshire. 
 
GHAP. I.] The Industrial Revolution. 231 
 
 the principal article of English export. There was a large market 
 for cotton yarn in Germany, and for cotton cloth in the East ; 
 the raw materials in this industry, however, were not of home 
 production. English workers were dependent for a supply on 
 Eg)?pt and later on the Southern States, and the frequent 
 interruptions, to which the trade was liable, rendered cotton- 
 spinning highly speculative. There were sudden changes in 
 the conditions of business ; and while many men made large 
 fortunes, there were numerous capitalists who had great diffi- 
 culty in maintaining their commercial existence. The instability 
 of the cotton manufacture was brought into clear light during 
 the war with the United States in 1812', and became still 
 more obvious half a century later, during the cotton famine con- 
 sequent on the Civil War between the North and the South. 
 The progress of mechanical invention, and the success of 
 English producers in catering for distant markets, have involved 
 this serious drawback, — that there is far more instability in 
 industry than there used to be in the pre-revolutionary era. 
 The fluctuations are more violent, and there is also much 
 greater probability that some foreign compej^tor may be success- 
 ful in ousting the English producer from markets which he has 
 hitherto supplied. 
 
 The commercial supremacy of Great Britain in the eighteenth 
 century led to rapid industrial growth; and by that develop- 
 ment her textile and hardware trades have become her chief 
 resources ; they now constitute the basis of much of her com- 
 merce and the means of purchasing supplies of food. The rela- 
 tive instability of her industry, now that manufactures form such 
 a vital factor in her national economic life, is a serious danger 
 to the continuance of the material prosperity of Great Britain 
 as a political power ; and the uncertainty attaching to modern 
 industry also has a very detrimental effect on the condition and 
 
 ' The difficulty of procuring raw materials by importation had been 
 one of the causes for the industrial decline of Holland. Pringsheim, op. 
 cit. 38. 
 
23^ Western CiviUsatioit. [Book VI, 
 
 comfort of thousands of workmen personally. Fluctuations in 
 trade must mean inconstancy of employment and such variations 
 in the rates of wages that it is almost impossible for the workman 
 to maintain his ordinary standard of comfort. The industrial 
 changes which have been forced on by the age of invention 
 have deprived the working classes of the means of warding off 
 the mischief which this element of irregularity entails. In the 
 pre-revolutionary days, there was a very close interconnection 
 between industrial and rural employments. This was especially 
 true of the staple trade of the country — the manufacture of 
 cloth. Many of the weavers were small farmers with a little 
 grazing land, while others could eke out their subsistence by 
 occasional labour in the fields during harvest and at other 
 busy seasons. As weaving came to be more and more attracted 
 to the industrial centres, and to be organised by capitalists who 
 provided weaving sheds in which the hands worked under super- 
 vision, there was less opportunity for combining agricultural work 
 with cloth-making. The introduction of the power-loom drew 
 the industry still more into factories and completed the divorce 
 of the weavers as a class from the soil ; they could no longer 
 rely on a rural by-occupation for the means of subsistence, but 
 were forced to be dependent on wages alone, at the very time 
 when wages had come to be very irregular. In this way, the 
 introduction of machinery accelerated the aggregation of the 
 population in factory towns. The prejudicial effect of this 
 change is most clearly seen in the case of the Yorkshire 
 weavers, who strove to resist it by all the legal means in their 
 power ; but industrial employments of other kinds and in other 
 places were somewhat similarly affected. Artisans, who had 
 had allotments from which they could procure garden produce, 
 were deprived of this outside source of supplies and were 
 reduced to the position of mere wage-earners, when the ex- 
 pansion of the great towns like Sheffield covered the available 
 space with busy shops'. In the pre-revolutionary days the 
 
 1 Cunningham, Growth of English Industry, II. 480. 
 
crtAP. i.j The Industrial Revolution. 233 
 
 majority of the skilled workmen of the country seem to have 
 had a second string to their bow ; in the early part of the 
 present century they appear to have become wage-earners pure 
 and simple. 
 
 The concentration of industrial enterprise in large centres 
 has been an inevitable result of the age of invention and has 
 many economic advantages ; it gives great facilities for effective 
 supervision^, while it enables the capitalist to turn natural 
 supplies of power to good account'; none the less must it be 
 recognised that the effects on the hands were temporarily 
 injurious from the iirst, and that the permanent loss to the 
 rural districts has been very great. So long as weaving was 
 widely diffused throughout the country, there was in every 
 district plenty of work for those women and children who liked 
 to betake themselves to the spinning of wool' ; this served as a 
 by-employment by which a substantial contribution could be 
 made to the family income of rural labourers and of farmers. 
 The concentration of the trade, and still more, the introduction 
 of spinning machinery, deprived the agricultural population 
 of this opportunity of earning a livelihood; the period of 
 transition was tided over by a liberal distribution of poor 
 relief, which had disastrous results in pauperising the rural 
 districts; but the net result, at the close of the Napoleonic 
 War, was similar in rural and urban life, — the labourer was 
 everywhere reduced to the condition of a mere hand, who was 
 wholly dependent on his wages for the means of subsistence, 
 and who had no means of supplementing his earnings from 
 any other source. 
 
 126. This serious industrial change occurred at a time 
 
 ' See above (p. i8i) on the Gilds and capitalist organisation. 
 
 * This is especially true in regard to water, which was the motor-power 
 chiefly used in the first phases of the industrial revolution. 
 
 * Cotton-spinning was a comparatively small aftair, and was confined 
 to a small area before Arkwright and Hargreaves revolutionised it by 
 their inventions. 
 
234 Western Civilisation. [BOOK VI. 
 
 when English agriculture was also being revolutionised, and 
 when the general trend of progress in the 
 listic* o^Janll management of land was proving disastrous to 
 cuiture"*^ *^"' *^ ™''^^ labourer. In many parts of the 
 country some sort of open field cultivation 
 continued to be practised in the eighteenth century; the 
 yeoman farmers had holdings of thirty or forty acres each, 
 and these consisted of separate strips, intermingled with 
 those of other cultivators. All landlords and others who 
 were interested in promoting agricultural improvements re- 
 garded this primitive system of tillage as a serious obstacle 
 to the changes they contemplated; and the process of en- 
 closure was pushed on rapidly, so that each farmer might 
 have his own land in severalty, and be able to work it to 
 the best advantage, according to his own ideas*. This 
 rearrangement might have been beneficial to all parties, but 
 it was so costly, that the small farmers had difficulty in 
 paying their share of the expense ; and during the period of 
 transition, a great many of the little holdings appear to have 
 been consolidated. The yeoman farmer, whether freeholder or 
 tenant, who worked the land himself, with only occasional help, 
 was rapidly superseded by the capitalist farmer, who habitually 
 employed labourers for wages. Some of the small farmers. prob- 
 ably sank in the social scale to the position of mere labourers, 
 who as a class, also seem to have suffered by enclosing, at all 
 events, in cases where they had been permitted to put a little 
 stock on the common waste. Generally speaking, the labourers 
 lost their chance of rising in the world ; this had always been 
 open to them so long as small holdings were available, which 
 they might sooner or later be able to stock and to work. The 
 progress of enclosure deprived the rural labourer of an effective 
 
 1 Enclosures had taken place in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, 
 in order to develop sheep-fanning and at the expense of tillage, but in the 
 eighteenth century they were introduced for the sake of improved tillage. 
 
CHAP. I.] The Industrial Revolution. 235 
 
 ambition, at the very time when the loss of employment in 
 spinning was pauperising his family. 
 
 We may thus see that the changes which followed on 
 the age of invention resulted in the development of similar 
 economic conditions both in town and country. Throughout 
 England we find the triumph of capitalist organisation. The 
 domestic^ system was passing away so far as the clothing 
 trade was concerned, and the yeoman farmer was rising to a 
 different grade, or was disappearing altogether. Both in town 
 and country life there were capitalist employers, who con- 
 trolled and supervised the work of labourers; in town and' 
 country alike the labourers were strictly dependent on the 
 em,ployer for the means of subsistence, and had no means of 
 supplementing their earnings by applying themselves occa- 
 sionally to other occupations. The age of invention ac- 
 celerated the change which, had been going on slowly for 
 centuries", and brought about the complete reconstruction 
 of society, economically considered, on a capitalistic basis. 
 
 127. We have already seen that, at its first introduction, 
 the, , capitalistic organisation of industry proved 
 to be incompatible with the existence of the gration of Na- 
 gilds and other institutions of mediaeval civic tionai Econo- 
 
 ° mic Life. 
 
 life ; in some , places they checked the mtro- 
 duction of capitalism, in others they were completely super- 
 seded by the new scheme which gave greater scope for 
 the division of labour. The antagonism between the old 
 associations and riew methods becomes more obvious when 
 we see the disintegrating influence of the modern system at 
 work on a large scale. Capital, when it learned to employ the 
 new forces which were put at its service by the age of invention, 
 
 ' This term, as commonly used does not include all those artisans who 
 worked at home, but applies to the economic system, where the weaver 
 worked on material he purchased, and sold the result of his work to the 
 cloth merchant. 
 
 * See above p. 180. 
 
236 Western Civilisation. [BOOK VI. 
 
 outgrew the English system of regulation, which had been 
 established in the interest of the nation as an economic 
 whole. During the early part of the present century, the 
 structure which had been consolidated in the age of Elizabeth 
 was discarded bit by bit, until at last all legislative attempts to 
 pursue the special interest of Great Britain, as distinct from 
 and opposed to that of other countries, were definitely aban- 
 doned. Economists claimed that national prosperity was best 
 attained by leaving capital absolutely unfettered. In the be- 
 ginning of the present century, Parliament was inclined to 
 accept this opinion as axiomatic ; and it is worth while to 
 notice the effect of this maxim and to trace the successive 
 steps by which the great Elizabethan system of regulation was 
 rapidly undermined. 
 
 The first important agitation arose in connection with 
 the cotton trade. This industry, which had previously been 
 pursued on a very small scale, had developed enormously 
 owing to Arkwright's inventions ; the cheapness of cotton yarn 
 and cloth had stimulated the demand, and, despite the im- 
 provements in the processes of production, there was a much 
 greater demand for labour in connection with the expanded 
 trade than there had been in the old days. The application 
 of machinery to this manufacture had not -injured the labourers 
 at all; it had provided an increased and not a diminished 
 field for employment. The fluctuations in the trade, however, 
 which rendered employment irregular and caused frequent 
 changes in the rates of wages, had reduced the workmen to 
 the lowest depths of distress. The men were anxious to in- 
 troduce greater stability into the conditions under which the 
 industry was carried • on, and attempted again and again to 
 secure, by arbitration, a list of the prices which should be 
 adhered to; they recognised, too, that it was practically im- 
 possible for the masters generally to abide by the rates of 
 the list, if any single employer began to cut down wages. 
 In the hope of obtaining a remedy for this state of things, 
 
CHAP. I.] The Industrial Revolution. 237 
 
 the workmen fell back on the Elizabethan Act for the regula- 
 tion of wages — a measure which had long before ceased 
 to be effective, but which seemed to bear directly on the 
 case, and, at least, gave a legal character to their demand. 
 They asked that the provisions of the statute should be set in 
 force^; but when the attention of Parliament was called to 
 this obsolete enactment, the House of Commons took an unex- 
 pected view of the situation ; instead of re-enforcing an existing 
 law, they swept away the clauses which had been intended to 
 protect the labouring classes, by providing that wages should 
 be periodically assessed and the . rates fixed according to 
 the plenty or scarcity of the time. It is not certain that this 
 measure had ever been generally enforced ; attempt had been 
 made to put it in operation in a systematic London^, though 
 the system seems to have been allowed to fall into desuetude 
 during the seventeenth century and Parliament could hardly 
 have succeeded in re-enforcing it in the nineteenth; but the 
 repeal of these clauses marks a change in the current view of 
 the duty of the Government towards the workman. In the time 
 of Elizabeth, magistrates were expected to assess fair wages; 
 in 181 1, this safeguard against the mischief which competition 
 may do in reducing wages to starvation rates was swept away. 
 
 Disputes in the woollen trade were the cause of the 
 repeal of the apprenticeship clauses of Elizabeth's great labour 
 code. Many of the weavers in the West of England had not 
 complied with the requirements of the Act by serving a seven 
 years' apprenticeship; the legal weavers, who had undergone 
 this long training, demanded that the provisions of the Eliza- 
 bethan Statute should be enforced against the ' illegal' workmen. 
 This the capitalist employers of the West of England determined 
 not to do, as they had no complaint to make of the 'illegal' 
 
 ^ Cunningham, Economists as Mischief Makers, in Economic Review, 
 IV. p. 8. 
 
 2 E. A. McArthur, Regulation of Wages in English Historical Review 
 (July 1900), p. 449. 
 
238 Western Civilisation. [BOOK VI. 
 
 weavers, many of whom were competent workmen ; for the 
 long term of apprenticeship was not a good guarantee of real 
 efficiency, at all events so far as weaving was concerned'. 
 The legal weavers had started an agitation for enforcing 
 existing, though obsolete, laws ; but in the course of the dis- 
 cussion that followed, parliamentary opinion became more and 
 more opposed to their demands. The principal question raised 
 was in regard to apprenticeship ; and the House of Commons 
 finally took the extreme step of withdrawing all the legal 
 encouragement which had hitherto been given to this method 
 of industrial training. The advocates of laissez faire believed 
 that in those trades where it was working well, the seven years' 
 apprenticeship could hold its own, without legislative support ; 
 but later events have proved they were mistaken ; the capitalist 
 organisation of industry is not favourable to apprenticeship, 
 and the system has practically disappeared ^ The Yorkshire 
 weavers, who looked on the binding of apprentices as a barrier 
 to the farther inroads of capitaUsm on their "domestic system," 
 were perfectly right in their forecast of the results of repealing 
 the measure ; the change has been the most drastic of all the 
 innovations caused by the industrial revolution. 
 
 The introduction of the factory system and the depletion 
 of the rural districts have also tended to bring about the dis- 
 integration of the household as an economic whole. In pre- 
 revolutionary days the children had been kept at home 
 and helped in domestic work or outdoor tasks in farm or 
 garden; and so long as apprenticeship lasted there was a 
 natural training at home for the industrial duties of adult life. 
 Each household, moreover, was an economic whole', as the 
 
 ^ The art could be learned in two years, and the long term was 
 inconvenient to the masters in the case of idle youths, and pressed hardly 
 on the youth who was doing man's work, but not getting man's pay. 
 
 " On present methods of entering different trades, compare S. and 
 B. Webb. Industrial Democracy, 11. 454 — 507. 
 
 ' The contrast between the mediaeval and modern methods of regulation 
 is instructive. The craft-gilds, by exercising a right of search, could bring 
 
CHAP. I.] The Industrial Revolution. 239 
 
 various members contributed their quota of work, and obtained 
 support from the common stock. The factory system has 
 changed the character of the family as an economic group ; 
 the women and children may go out to earn wages at the 
 factory; domestic employments must necessarily be neglected; 
 and the children, as self-supporting by their own earnings, 
 assume a position of independence which would not have 
 been natural in the old days. As a consequence, parental 
 responsibility for maintenance of the family ceases at an earlier 
 age than was formerly the case^; but the sense of duty in this 
 respect was seriously weakened by the action which the 
 guardians of the poor in rural districts felt forced to take 
 during the wool famine of 1793 a.d. At a time when food 
 was scarce and dear the women and children in rural districts 
 were prevented by lack of material from adding to the family 
 income by spinning, as they had been accustomed to do. 
 The guardians in one district after another granted allow- 
 ances to supplement wages, as a means of tiding over what 
 seemed to be a temporary difficulty; but the industry never 
 revived, and the application of machinery to the spinning 
 of wool killed it off altogether. The action of the poor law 
 authorities in assuming so much of the burden of supporting 
 families was a most serious departure from the principle, which 
 had been assumed from time immemorial, of recognising and 
 enforcing the responsibility of parents for the upbringing of 
 their children. 
 
 The last remnants of the regulations which had been 
 
 pressure to bear on men working at their homes as to the condition under 
 which work was done, and the payment and treatment of workmen. The 
 factory Acts and factory and mining commissions aim at supplying similar 
 supervision and are probably much more effective ; but the household is no 
 longer the unit to be taken into account, and the master of the household 
 is no longer the responsible party. The whole series of factory Acts 
 assumes the existence of new conditions of industry, and helps us to see 
 how complete the disintegration of the household had become. 
 
 ' The evidence before the commission on mines in 1840 a.d. brought out 
 the necessity of protecting children against their parents. 
 
240 Western Civilisation. [BOOK VI. 
 
 framed with the object of building up a national industrial 
 system, were swept away, as a result of a parliamentary com- 
 mittee' which reported in 1824 a.d. In pre-revolutionary times, 
 when nations were engaged in keen industrial rivalry, such as 
 subsisted between France and England, the authorities were 
 particularly careful to prohibit the emigration of skilled artisans, 
 who might carry trade-secrets with them and plant some 
 valuable art in another country. Great efforts had been made 
 to keep English weavers at home, and to stop artisans from 
 emigrating to the colonies''- Circumstances had so far changed, 
 however, that it seemed unnecessary to maintain these restric- 
 tions ; machinery, rather than manual labour, was now the 
 dominating feature in industrial success. The limitations on 
 the employment of workmen abroad caused special incon- 
 venience to engineers, who were practically prevented from 
 erecting machinery in foreign countries, and no serious effort 
 was made to retain the prohibitions in the Statute Book. 
 There seems to have been an impression that England could 
 .maintain her superiority in manufacture without any such 
 adventitious aid; but the fact that the rules were allowed 
 to drop, shows how completely the old methods of building 
 up national industry to the exclusion of possible rivals had 
 been discarded. 
 
 This particular change was of great importance in another 
 respect; it removed the legislative hindrances which had 
 stood in the way of founding a new colonial empire on sounder 
 principles than those of the eighteenth century. Mr E. G. 
 Wakefield and a group of enthusiasts were eagerly advocating 
 the planting of Australia as an expedient for relieving the 
 plethora of labour and of capital from which, as they believed, 
 England was suffering. He argued that the colonies should be 
 rendered, so far as possible, self-sufficing communities, equipped 
 
 ' The most important result of this enquiry was the repeal of the Com* 
 bination Acts ; on these, see below p. 247. 
 ' See below p. 277. 
 
CHAP. ].] The Industrial Revolution. 241 
 
 with an urban as well as a rural population, and that their 
 prosperity would react favourably on the material wealth 
 of the mother country. He was not able to persuade the 
 Government to interest itself energetically in promoting coloni- 
 sation ; the public were, for a time, indifferent to the expansion 
 of England, but at all events, they ceased to be jealous of 
 the new settlements. All attempts to subordinate the economic 
 development of the colonies to the interests of the mother 
 country have been long since abandoned. The prohibition 
 of the emigration of artisans was one of the last surviving 
 elements of the national system of industrial regulation, but 
 this was finally swept away by a great repealing measure in 
 1825 ' A.D., and the field was cleared for building a new colonial 
 empire. 
 
 The laissez faire principle, — that regulation was not neces- 
 sary to promote prosperity and that it might often prove 
 injurious, — was at length applied, though not without hesi- 
 tation, to the mercantile marine, which had been the most 
 important factor in creating England's greatness. The main- 
 tenance and improvement of shipping, as the mainstay of the 
 power of a maritime nation, had been the foremost considera- 
 tion in the economic policy of the country since the time of 
 Burleigh; but in the first half of the present century, this 
 legislative interference was abandoned; it seemed to be no 
 longer necessary, and, in any case, it was of doubtful advan- 
 tage. During the eighteenth century, the development of 
 commercial intercourse had been regarded as of less import- 
 ance than the fostering of English shipping; but under the 
 teaching of Adam Smith, public men began to regard inter- 
 course as in itself a good thing, and to hold that the supposed 
 advantage which accrued from.stimulating shipping was illusory, 
 especially when the loss due to limiting the opportunities of 
 exchange was taken into account. The first great relaxation 
 in the Navigation Acts was made in 1796 a.d., in favour of the 
 1 5 Geo. IV. c. 95, 
 
 C. W. C. II. 16 
 
J42 Western Civilisation. [book VI. 
 
 United States; and experience seemed to show, that free 
 communication with the independent country was far more 
 advantageous than the restricted and regulated commerce with 
 the colonies had been. A few years later, in 1820 a.d., the 
 London Chamber of Commerce took the matter up as a 
 general principle of policy, and insisted that the interests of 
 trade demanded the fullest freedom of intercourse between 
 countries, rather than the special encouragement of our own 
 mercantile marine. The object which had so long been the 
 corner-stone of British policy was deliberately rejected, and 
 the navigation system was rapidly modified, in accordance with 
 the new views. 
 
 The adherents of the old system of national economics 
 took their last stand in regard to the food supply; it had 
 been the traditional practice in England for centuries to 
 foster agriculture, and so to ensure the existence of sufficient 
 corn for the population'. This was a line of policy that was 
 peculiarly English ; , the profitableness of sheep-farming in the 
 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries had seemed to be a national 
 danger, and special pains were taken for the encouragement of 
 tillage in the Tudor times. The fiscal convenience of govern- 
 ment in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had told in 
 the same direction; it seemed desirable to provide for the 
 welfare of the agricultural interest, since the taxation of the 
 country fell so heavily on the land. There was a strong 
 
 ^ The teaching of Malthus had caused a singular change in the ordinary 
 attitude of the public towards the increase of population. In the pre- 
 revolutionary period, there had been frequent anxiety about the alleged 
 decline of population, and some discussion as to the means of stimulating 
 its increase. The rapid development of industry had, as Sir James Steuart 
 insisted, brought about this result so effectively, that the popular mind was 
 scared by the dread of over-population. Further consideration shows that 
 both these fears are illusory; the impulse to increase suffices to take 
 advant^e of any opportunity offered by the means of subsistence, but it 
 does not necessarily bring about such an increase of population as to lower 
 the standard of comfort of any class. Modern Civilisation, 173. 
 
CHAP. I.] The Industrial Revolution. 243 
 
 phalanx of traditional opinion and of vested interests which 
 combined to pass the Corn Law of 1815 a.d., in the hope that 
 this measure would maintain the conditions which had come 
 into existence during the war, and had given an unhealthy 
 stimulus to corn-growing in Britain. This protective measure 
 failed to accomplish the object with which it was framed; it 
 did little to benefit the agricultural interest generally, though 
 it seems to have been beneficial to the landowners as a class : 
 on the other hand, it hampered our commerce and checked 
 the development of our, manufactures ^ The success of the 
 Free Trade movement was inevitable; and the genius of 
 Cobden secured a very rapid triumph for the principles he had 
 espoused, by the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 a.d. The 
 abandonment of the traditional scheme of economic policy in 
 regard to the food supply — the most vital of national interests 
 — was the final blow before which the old system succumbed. 
 At that date, national wealth and prosperity ceased to be a 
 distinct aim towards which national efforts could be wisely 
 directed; the triumph of individual enterprise, against all 
 forms of restriction and regulation, was at length complete. 
 
 The triumph of individualism over nationalism in internal 
 affairs involved a complete change in the economic attitude 
 which Englishmen took towards other countries. The greatest 
 advantage to Great Britain, under the new conditions, lay in 
 having the freest possible intercourse with other countries, so 
 as to obtain access to the largest markets possible, and to 
 procure supplies on the cheapest terms. It was not to her 
 interest to continue to pursue the exclusive commercial policy 
 by which her naval power had been built up; and her 
 acceptance of a place in a cosmopolitan Economic System was 
 loudly hailed as the harbinger of an era of universal peace. 
 The jubilations of the Free-traders and Peace party have 
 proved premature ; but yet they were not wholly absurd. The 
 desire to pursue an exclusive commerce has been a frequent 
 1 Cunningham, Growth of English Iiidustry, li. 591. 
 
 16 — 2 
 
244 Western Civilisation. [BOOK VI. 
 
 occasion of war in the past ; national economic rivalry and a 
 war of tariffs keep alive a spirit of hostility which may break 
 out unexpectedly and suddenly in actual fighting. The aban- 
 donment of her traditional system by the greatest of commercial 
 nations has already diminished the causes of conflict so far as 
 England herself is concerned. Foreign traders generally have 
 little to gain through a loss to England of any of those 
 portions of her Empire where she has been free to carry out 
 her new commercial policy. Free trade has not secured peace, 
 but it has done much to remove occasions of active hostility. 
 
 At any rate the discarding of an exclusive economic policy 
 by the country in which nationality was attained at such an 
 early time is noteworthy. It at least raises the question 
 whether nationality gives the final form for the organisation 
 of industry and commerce. It suggests the speculation that 
 frequent intercourse between different parts of the world may 
 so increase, that all countries may come to be more and more 
 interdependent economically; and that larger and larger sections 
 of the community may find that their interests are suffering 
 from the maintenance of national economic schemes, and may 
 desire instead to be free to make the most of their oppor- 
 tunities as members of a Cosmopolitan System. 
 
 128. Attention has been called in earlier chapters of this 
 Re ada ta- ^ssay to the fact that there have been three 
 tion and Re- main types of social structure, which have formed 
 the basis of economic organisation — the family, 
 the city, and the nation. The self-suflScing households of 
 great landed proprietors were superseded, as the basis of in- 
 dustrial life, by the growth of cities ; the city with its exclusive 
 policy, passed away, before the rise of nationalities. The 
 industrial revolution has tended to introduce a thoroughgoing 
 individualism: it makes for the disintegration of the family 
 and it is opposed to nationalism. But it may at least be doubted 
 whether nationalism is a final form in economic development ; 
 and the maintenance of English power under new conditions 
 
CHAP. I.] The Industrial Revolution. 245 
 
 has discredited the perspicuity of the mercantilists who 
 acted on the opinion that the business pursuits of individuals 
 should be habitually subordinated to the interests of national 
 wealth. 
 
 Neither the family, the civic, nor the national types of 
 organisation can claim the predominance which each in 
 turn has formerly exercised; they may, however, each have 
 useful economic functions to discharge. There is no immediate 
 prospect that any of them can be dispensed with altogether, 
 for all may contribute effectively to individual well-being. The 
 importance of the family and the home in connection with the 
 upbringing of each new generation, is obvious and need not be 
 dwelt upon ; it is recognised by all grades ; not only by Trades 
 Unions whose policy shows that they are fully alive to the 
 importance of family life as an element in the well-being of 
 the working classes', but also by civic authorities and private 
 philanthropists who are concentrating attention on the problem 
 of so housing the poor, in town and country, that families may 
 be able to live in decent conditions. 
 
 The city, too, is the appropriate organ for attending to 
 many requirements, which are of vital significance to the 
 individual citizen; provision for lighting, for the supply of 
 water, for rapid transit, for sanitation, and for opportunities of 
 healthful recreation in public parks, are essential to the well- 
 being and efficiency of the inhabitants as individuals. The vast 
 aggregations of population, which have been brought together 
 since the age of invention opened, have rendered these problems 
 more difficult, and there is an ample field for the activity of 
 municipal governments in dealing with them effectively". 
 
 The nation also has economic functions to discharge, which 
 cannot be dealt with so satisfactorily by any organ of local 
 government. In so far as it is desirable to secure favourable 
 conditions for labour, it is advisable that there should be a 
 
 1 Cunningham, Politics and Economics, 100. 
 ' Modern Civilisation, 182. 
 
246 Western Civilisation. [BOOK VI. 
 
 similar rule through the whole area in which there is a free flow 
 for labour and capital'. The work of factory inspectors and 
 inspectors of mines, has done much to prevent the deterioration 
 of the population. They have been appointed to enforce laws 
 which lay down a minimum of safety and sanitation and a 
 maximum of hours; in this way there has been a gradual 
 amelioration of the conditions in which work is carried on. 
 It is the duty of the Government of a country to look far 
 into the future^, and to consider the maintenance of national 
 resources, while it is not necessarily the interest of any 
 capitalist, however enterprising, to take account of future 
 generations. 
 
 The final result of the Industrial Revolution, so far as it can 
 be traced in England, has been, not the destruction of the 
 fundamental types of social organisation', but their adaptation 
 to modern requirements and changed circumstances. At th6 
 same time some institutions have arisen that are so distinct from 
 anything that has preceded them, that they may be regarded 
 as wholly new. Of these, the most important are the Trades 
 Unions. The labour organisations of the Middle Ages, at all 
 events in England, were strictly municipal ; the modern labour 
 association has no such localised character, but is adapted for 
 creating international federations, and for pursuing cosmo- 
 politan aims. Both in its genesis and in its constitution, the 
 Trades Union is very different from the ancient collegia and 
 the mediaeval craft gilds which are its nearest analogues. 
 
 ' See above on the definition of a country, p. 158. 
 
 * A new economic importance attaches both to the city and the nation, 
 since the system of public borrowing has become so common. Each is 
 able to draw on its probable future, for tlie sake of iimnediate requirements, 
 on far easier terms than is possible for any individual. 
 
 ' On the whole, the old civic institutions have been destroyed; but 
 some remain, and considerable efforts are being made to give them a new 
 economic importance. We may notice this tendency in the proposal to 
 utilise the Livery Companies in connection with technical training at the 
 present time. 
 
CHAP. I.] The Industrial Revolution. 247 
 
 Trades Unions have arisen tentatively or permanently, as a 
 means of protecting labour from the dangers to which it is 
 exposed, when the action of capitalists is quite unfettered and 
 there are no safeguards against reckless competition; and 
 Unionism has gradually felt its way towards a more positive 
 programmed So long as the State professed to undertake the 
 duties of assessing wages and of providing for the efficient 
 training of workmen, there was some reason for objecting 
 to the action of private individuals, associated together for 
 interference in matters of public concern. But the repeal of 
 the Elizabethan industrial code left the workman exposed to 
 all the uncertainty and misery caused by the introduction of 
 machine industry and the sudden fluctuations and ruinous 
 competition which followed in its train. There had been a 
 traditional suspicion of workmen's combinations, and, during 
 the political scare of 1799 and 1800^ a.d., another attempt was 
 made to put them down altogether, as they seemed to be possible 
 centres of sedition. The conditions of secrecy, under which 
 the societies were forced to work, contributed to give them a 
 tyrannical and criminal character', and placed them at a special 
 disadvantage in any attempts to obtain a legal status. As a 
 matter of fact, however, they were only contending for a more 
 thoroughgoing application of the principle of laissez /aire; 
 if the individual ought to be free to act in his own interest, 
 he ought also to be free to combine with other individuals 
 for the pursuit of their common interesf*. In 1825 a.d. the 
 
 1 It may now be summarised as the struggle for a,Standard Wage and 
 Normal Day, to be secured by legislative action. 
 
 * Cunningham, Economists as Mischief Makers, in Economic Seview, 
 IV. 1 2. 
 
 * Webb, History of Trades Uniotiism, 72. Mrs L. Bankes, Bond slaves. 
 
 * The freedom of combination for all sorts of economic objects, is the 
 last triumph of individualism. In the days of slave labour, combination 
 might mean a servile war. Even among the free labourers of Athens, 
 there seems to have been very little association ; while the collegia had 
 a chequered existence st Roine- In the Middle Ages the craft gilds, with 
 
248 Western Civilisation. [book vi. 
 
 Combination Laws were repealed, under the mistaken belief that 
 it never could be for the real interest of individual workmen to 
 combine for trade objects, and that they would soon discover 
 this fact, when once they had perfect freedom of action in 
 the matter'. But the steady increase in the numbers and 
 power of labour organisations, during the last seventy-five years, 
 has given another instance to show how completely mistaken 
 the most skilled observers may be in their forecasts on political 
 and social affairs. The Trades Unions have, for the most 
 part, discarded the restrictive policy which they were inclined 
 to follow at first', and try to pursue a course that is compatible 
 with the attainment of the highest possible efficiency". In so 
 
 all their dignity, were often Itept in hand by municipal authority or royal 
 regulations; the possibility that they might prove an economic danger 
 was clearly understood. In our country and days attempts at suppressing 
 such organisations have ceased to be possible, even if they were desirable ; 
 the freedom to form voluntary associations for economic objects has been 
 won ; but there may still be graVe anxiety about the wisdom of the Unions, 
 and of the policy they pursue. If these associations concentrate attention 
 on the special interests of one section or class, and -are not ready to 
 abandon any line of action which is injurious to the public as a whole, 
 there must be class antagonisms on the largest scale, entailing frightfiil 
 economic loss. If they have self-restraint enough to take the well-being of 
 the whole community as a principle controlling their action, they will prove 
 their fitness for a share in government by themselves adopting the principle 
 which was authoritatively imposed on voluntary associations and com- 
 binations in earlier times. 
 
 ' This was the opinion of Francis Place and Joseph Hume, under 
 whose guidance the House of Commons was induced to include the 
 Combination Acts in the great Statute of Repeal in 1825. Wallas, Life 
 of F. Place, 211, 217. 
 
 ' For instances of this action see Webb, Industrial Democracy, 392 ; on 
 the objection to machinery, see Modern Civilisation, 126 — 7, also Outlines 
 of English History, 226. 
 
 ' The Manchester School did not take sufficient account of the fact that 
 improved conditions for labour may often bring about increased efficiency 
 of labour, and that under certain circumstances the indirect effect of 
 shortened hours may be to increase and not to diminish production. On 
 the whole, however, they were right in taking the greatest possible amount 
 
CHAP. I.] The Industrial Revolution. 249 
 
 far as they keep within these lines, their action is innocuous, 
 while they have introduced some useful correctives to the 
 mischiefs which accompanied the transition to capitalist 
 organisation. They have set themselves to introduce greater 
 stability, so as to diminish the violence of trade fluctuations, 
 with its disastrous result on the lot of the workman ; and they 
 have also endeavoured to maintain the workman's standard of 
 comfort, and to oppose all influences which directly or indirectly 
 tend to diminish his welfare. 
 
 It is sometimes asserted that the improved condition of the 
 English working classes is due to the "general progress of 
 Society," and that there would have been similar results if 
 factory Acts and Trades Unions had never existed ; the statement 
 is certainly unprovable, and it is, on the face of it, highly 
 improbable. Mere individual competition may tend to the 
 progress of society, but it does not necessarily take account of 
 the probable position of the next generation, or of the 
 prosperity of the wage-earning class generally. The State has 
 stepped in with legislation and inspection, and the artisans 
 have organised themselves to secure important elements of 
 well-being, which individuals, as such, would have hardly had 
 the power to obtain. Despite the miserable circumstances of 
 many of the poor, there is yet reason to believe that the new social 
 conditions introduced by the Industrial Revolution are favour- 
 able to the welfare of the working classes, both as regards ma- 
 terial surroundings and personal character. It is easy to idealise 
 
 of production as a test of the beneficial or the hurtful effects of industrial 
 changes. Any combination, be it of labourers or of capitalists, that by its 
 demands or rules limits the total of production and thus reduces the 
 possibilities of enjojrment is justly suspected of being a public nuisance. 
 There may be adequate grounds for such action, but at least it demands a 
 very full justification, and there is a primd facie case against it. There is 
 also a real danger that, since economic relations and organisations are 
 becoming more and more cosmopolitan, there may be no political power 
 which is capable of dealing effectively in any one district with organisations 
 which have such wide ramifications. 
 
250 Western Civilisation. [BOOK VI. 
 
 the past, and to paint a picture of the independent and happy 
 weaver, living in a pretty village, working on his own account, 
 and assisted by his wife and family. But the more we examine 
 the details, the more we shall see reason to suspect that the 
 life of the manufacturer in pre-revolutionary days was not one 
 which would rouse the jealousy of the average modern artisan. 
 The standard of comfort was low ; and the weaver, who could 
 earn good wages, was content to spend much of his time in 
 mere idleness; in the narrow circle of village life, he could 
 have no intelligent interests in politics or sport, while he was 
 cut off from all opportunities of musical or literary cultivation. 
 We know, from surviving examples, how miserable were the 
 rooms in which he did his work, and there is no reason to believe 
 that his children always found him a just and self-restrained 
 master ; the primitive factories adopted the normal arrangements 
 of domestic industry, so far as sanitation and ventilation are 
 concerned. The factory system brought to light the thoroughly 
 unsatisfactory state in which men, women and children were 
 living and working, and made it possible to attempt a remedy. 
 There doubtless has been serious los§ to the individual, who 
 has found that he is no longer an independent man, but a hand 
 controlled by the tyranny of the factory bell ; but the discipline 
 of regular work and hours, and the training which comes by 
 association in work, have contributed to the formation of an 
 admirable type of character. As we look back to pre-revolu- 
 tionary days, through all the misery of the transition period, we 
 may doubt if there is any point in which the artisan and his family 
 were better off then than they are to-day. This result has not 
 been due, however, to the blind play of economic forces ; so far 
 as these were concerned they only caused social disintegration 
 and individual degradation. It is the machinery which has 
 been devised to control these blind forces which has been 
 mainly instrumental in bringing about this general amelioration, 
 and has rendered it possible to care for the interest of the 
 masses of the population, present and future. 
 
CHAP. I.] The Industrial Revolution. 251 
 
 129. Every scheme of nationalist economic policy had 
 assumed as axiomatic, that there were certain 
 kinds of material prosperity, which it was desir- tions in '^^' 
 able to cultivate in the interests of national English 
 
 « , , . , , ^ , „ Finance. 
 
 Strength ; and that it was the duty of the Govern- 
 ment to induce the business energy of the people to take those 
 directions which would be beneficial to the country as a political 
 power. Under the influence of Adam Smith, this doctrine fell 
 into disrepute. Since the community is an aggregate of 
 individuals, it seemed that the general wealth was best attained 
 by leaving each man to pursue his own affairs ; it was felt too 
 that if general prosperity were increasing, there would be 
 facilities for procuring any particular form of wealth that might 
 be desired. The recognition of nationality as the guiding 
 principle in all economic organisation had been an important 
 step in advance, but so soon as the country became doubtful 
 of the wisdom of controlling all the economic activities of 
 Englishmen with the aim of fostering the power of the realm, 
 the whole system of national regulation fell into abeyance. 
 Enactments to direct the course of industry, to encourage 
 shipping, and to obtain a sufficient food supply at home, 
 were, as we have seen, abandoned one after another. Para- 
 doxical as it may appear, it is yet strictly true to say that 
 for commercial and industrial purposes, England has ceased 
 to be a "nation" in the economic sense of the term. The 
 change has, however, introduced considerable difficulties in 
 regard to the financial system of the country. From time 
 immemorial, the chief expenses of government, so far as they 
 were defrayed by taxation, had been borne by the land; 
 customs were comparatively unimportant, so long as the trade 
 of the country was trivial, and excises were not levied before 
 the Great Rebellion. The landed proprietors bore the 
 principal part of the burden of taxation, and after the 
 Restoration they showed an increasing jealousy of the moneyed 
 interest, who managed to enjoy great fortunes, while they 
 
252 Western Civilisation. [BOOK VI. 
 
 contributed but little to the expenses of the nation. Fiscal 
 convenience rendered it easy to assess and collect contributions 
 from those who had a fixed stake in the country ; while Locke 
 taught that the burden of taxation must ultimately fall on the 
 landed proprietors, and that it was best and cheapest to levy it 
 upon them directly. 
 
 The highly protective Corn Law of 1815 a.d. was in part an 
 attempt to remove the unfairness which was due to the pressure 
 of taxation ; this fell unduly on the landed interest, while agri- 
 culturists were also burdened by the obligation to pay tithe, and 
 the necessity of supporting the pauperised population in rural 
 districts. The Act failed to accomplish its object of rendering 
 the landed interest more able to bear the unfair share with 
 which it was charged. The cost to certain sections of the 
 community proved so great, that it was impossible for Govern- 
 ment to persist in this clumsy expedient for rectifying the 
 injustice of the fiscal system. Considerable progress has been 
 made, however, in solving the difficulty in a better way; 
 arrangements have been devised which have proved fairly 
 successful in assessing and collecting revenue from citizens 
 whose wealth does not consist in real estate. The excise and 
 customs have come to be very large branches of revenue, and 
 they are paid by consumers of every class, rich and poor, rural 
 and urban. Still more important in its principle is the income 
 tax, which forces the capitalist to contribute from the profits of 
 his business, and the rentier to pay a portion of the revenue 
 from his savings. The machinery for the collection of this 
 branch of Inland Revenue can be used for adjusting the 
 incidence of taxation, to a considerable extent; though it is 
 not easy to fix on any standard of fairness or unfairness in 
 apportioning public burdens between the landed and the 
 moneyed interests. There is however one obvious advantage 
 which arises from the existence of the income tax ; it has become 
 possible to discard the nationalist economic policy without 
 serious financial danger. In days when landed proprietors 
 
CHAP. I.] The Industrial Revolution, 253 
 
 were the only class that could be reached by the collectors of 
 revenue, it was necessary to safeguard their interests ' j but the 
 income tax gives the means of deriving revenue for the State 
 from the profits of capital invested abroad; it removes the 
 financial motive which formerly gave rise to jealousy lest 
 colonial progress should interfere with the sources from which 
 national revenue was drawn. So long as moneyed Englishmen 
 continue to prefer their own country and make it their home, 
 it is a matter of comparative indifference to the Government, 
 whether their capital is invested in India, or the colonies, or 
 in this island ; it still pays its quota of revenue to the Crown. 
 The re-organisation of our revenue system, which was accepted 
 by the country in 1874 A.D., is compatible with the development 
 of English economic activity, not merely on national, but on 
 cosmopolitan lines. 
 
 England has been the pioneer of the age of invention ; by 
 herself accepting the results of the industrial revolution, she 
 has been fitted to take a principal part in diffusing these 
 industrial improvements and introducing rapid means of 
 communication in all parts of the globe. The work she has 
 already accompHshed, directly and through her great offshoots 
 in America and Australasia, give her a unique importance in 
 the history of the world, while it has forced her to adapt her 
 own economic life to a cosmopolitan environment. A country 
 has been defined for economic purposes as an area within 
 which there is a free flow of labour and capital ; but Englaiid 
 recognises and imposes no limits of area ; she has allowed the 
 emigration of her skilled labourers since 1825 a.d., and has 
 become fiscally indifferent to the fields which may be chosen 
 for the investment of capital. For good or for evil, she has 
 abandoned a national economic policy, alike in commerce and 
 industry, in agriculture and finance. 
 
 ' This is particularly noticeable in the treatment which Ireland 
 received in the seventeenth century. Cunningham, Repression of Woollen 
 Trade, in English History Review, I. 287. 
 
^54 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 GENERAL TENDENCIES AND PARTICULAR 
 CONDITIONS. 
 
 130. The rapid material progress which began in England 
 last century is being communicated to the rest of 
 awe^'tendency the world. The benefits which the new pro- 
 of Economic ccsses of industry and means of intercourse 
 offer are so great that peoples, like the Japanese, 
 who have long remained in an almost stationary condition are 
 glad to imitate the progressive races of the West, and to 
 introduce mechanical inventions of every kind. In other 
 cases, such as that of China, the necessities of military defence 
 have compelled princes to adopt modern weapons, and to 
 borrow some assistance from European instructors. Enter- 
 prising capitalists are ready to force their way into any part 
 of the world, where there is a prospect of developing natural 
 resources, which will yield a profitable return on their ventures. 
 Mechanical improvements and the capitalist organisation of 
 industry — with which machine-production is most conveniently 
 associated — are superseding the primitive industrial arts and 
 earlier types of economic life in every known region of the 
 globe. 
 
 Some of these changes are inevitable; it may often be a 
 matter of regret, but the great economic forces, when once 
 they are allowed to come into operation, will not be gainsaid ; 
 and it is improbable that the movements which begin when a 
 
Chap, ll.] General Tendencies, Particular Conditions, 25S 
 
 country is drawn into the circle of trading intercourse, can be 
 arbitrarily arrested at any point. When barriers are once 
 broken down, the substitution of money payments for natural 
 economy, of competition for regulated prices, and of capitalistic 
 supervision for gild organisation, is likely to go on apace ; it is 
 difficult to conceive of any means by which these changes can 
 be checked so that the old social forms and customary usages 
 may be preserved intact. It is easy to denounce the " greed " 
 of prospectors and pioneers who open up some new country ; 
 but their gains are not merely personal, since their enterprise is 
 only rewarded^ when they succeed in meeting a general 
 demand by catering for the requirements of the inhabitants of 
 the thickly populated European countries. We live in times 
 when claims to exclusive privilege are subjected to careful 
 scrutiny; civilised peoples are insisting that the resources of 
 the earth shall be utilised to their fullest extent; they resent 
 the claim of any barbaric or half-civilised people to retain 
 territory when they are careless about turning it to good 
 account. It is in the interest of the race as a whole that the 
 possibiUties of life on the globe should be fully enjoyed ; and 
 those who prefer to live as hunters or nomads on land that is 
 suitable for tillage will never be able to hold their own in the 
 struggle for subsistence. If any tribe or community refuses to 
 bring its energy to bear in turning the land to the most 
 profitable use, it is likely to be ousted by others who are 
 ready to undertake the task. 
 
 131. There are many persons who believe that these changes 
 are deleterious and who look towards the future pessimism 
 with the gloomiest sense of foreboding. They ?"^ Anarch- 
 believe that every step of progress means that a 
 larger and larger portion, of the population of the globe is 
 drawn into a keener struggle for existence ; that every improve- 
 ment in the industrial arts conduces to providing a larger food 
 
 1 Modem Civilisation, 141. As Mr Booth urges, profit is not so much 
 a motive as a guide. Life and Labour of the People in London, ix. 1 70. 
 
256 Western Civilisation. [BOOK VI. 
 
 supply, but with severer toiP; and that the race is steadily 
 tending towards a desperate plight when the numbers will be 
 far greater than at present, and the misery of all more intense. 
 But this pessimistic view of the future of the race rests on the 
 assumption that man is the slave of his grosser impulses. 
 Each advance in material progress in the past has opened up 
 an opportunity which may be used either for the diffusion of 
 increased comfort, or for the mere multiplication of numbers 
 on the existing level of comfort, or partly for one and partly for 
 the other. There is a current opinion that such advantages are 
 sure to be misused for the increase of the numbers at the old 
 standard, but this is not necessary or inevitable; still less is 
 there any reason to believe that the increase of population mil 
 go on mechanically sp as to drive the masses to a lower level of 
 life". So far as we can judge, the standard of comfort of the 
 skilled artisan in America and in England is higher than it has 
 been at any previous period of the world's history; and the 
 labouring classes possess so much political power in these 
 countries that the efforts they are making to maintain or to 
 raise that standard will not be easily thwarted. So long as this 
 is true of the most advanced communities we need not fear 
 that material progress must necessarily lead to the increased 
 misery and degradation of the race. 
 
 The mere increase of numbers and the capitalist organisa- 
 tion of modern society are, however, inconsistent with the aims 
 that many individuals cherish for themselves personally. The 
 classical economists ideaUsed a condition of affairs in which 
 every man should be free to pursue his own interest as he con- 
 ceived it ; and they urged that this is advantageous for the com- 
 munity as a whole, since it conduces to the production of the 
 greatest mass of goods. A more thoroughgoing individualism 
 insists that in the existing state of society the majority of 
 the population are deprived of all opportunity of making their 
 
 ^ On the law of diminishing returns, see Modern Civilisation, 77 — 79. 
 » Ibid. 174. 
 
CHAP. II.] General Tendencies, Particular Conditions. 257 
 
 way in life, and are condemned from their birth to toil in a 
 fashion which may be advantageous to others, but is not in 
 their own interests at all. As the line between the employing 
 and the labouring classes becomes more clearly drawn, and as 
 there is increasing difficulty in passing from one grade to the 
 other, together with diminished facilities for rising into the 
 more important positions in the employing class, there is less 
 scope for the individual to carve out a career for himself. 
 Persons of exceptional ability are still able to force their way 
 to the highest rungs on the social ladder, but those with 
 ordinary attainments and abilities can hardly hope ever to 
 advance to the grade above them. There are larger and larger 
 numbers of people who feel that they have never had a chance 
 of improving their position, and who resent the institutions of 
 society which have condemned them and so many of their 
 fellows to a life of drudgery. Anarchism is not a mere 
 inexcusable madness ; it is a very real danger to existing society 
 because it is the logical outcome of certain widely current 
 beliefs as applied by many individuals to their own circum- 
 stances. The mass of available wealth is of little account to 
 such men, except in so far as it is available for them to enjoy 
 during their own lives ; they demand freedom for individual 
 self-development, and do not admit that they are called upon 
 to sacrifice themselves personally either for the sake of the 
 existing order or for generations to come. 
 
 However excusable this attitude of mind may be, such 
 ultra-individiialism is inconsistent with the maintenance and 
 progress of human society ; we must not neglect either the 
 personal or the social side of the matter. It is true that the 
 institutions of any society are to be judged by the effect they 
 have on the character of individuals ; but it is also true that 
 the worth of the individual is to be gauged by his ability and 
 readiness to contribute to the well-being of society present 
 or future. That the sphere for independent action is being 
 narrowed by capitalist organisation is a real hardship to the 
 
 c. w. c. IX. 1 7 
 
2S8 Western Civilisation. [BOOK VI. 
 
 individual ; but from the social standpoint it is advantageous 
 because it is disciplinary, and renders the man more efficient 
 than he would otherwise be. We must remember, too, that 
 the highest development of character is quite compatible with 
 consciously accepting a place in the social order and making 
 the most of it. It is a mistake to assume that the limitation 
 of opportunity, which is brought about by the increase of 
 numbers and greater complexity of society, must necessarily 
 involve personal degradation. 
 
 Those who contemplate the greater command over the 
 means of production which has been placed within our reach 
 by the age of invention, cannot but feel a sense of dis- 
 appointment that so little has resulted for the happiness of 
 the human race. Still, though we can no longer sympathise 
 with the light-hearted optimism of the classical economist, we 
 need not fall into the opposite blunder of decrying material 
 progress as if it were merely mischievous, or necessarily in- 
 volved serious evils. It does open up the possibility for an 
 improved standard of comfort, though the occasions it offers 
 may be neglected or misused ; it leaves less scope for individual 
 independence, but this does not necessarily imply a deterio- 
 ration of personal character. 
 
 132. At the same time, it is to be noticed that the mis- 
 
 Controi ver ^^^^^^ ^"<i hardships, on which pessimists and 
 
 the operation anarchists lay such stress, are real ; and they are 
 
 forces^r'" deeply to be regretted ; but, while the march of 
 
 different cir- progress moves relentlessly on, it is yet true that 
 
 cumstances. ^, .- i-ii r 
 
 some 01 the evils, which have often accompanied 
 it, are not inevitable; for successful attempts have sometimes 
 been made to prevent their occurrence or to check them where 
 they have arisen. The best safeguard against some dangers 
 is to be found in recognising their existence, and in being 
 prepared to face them; and it is well that we should re- 
 member that social distress often attends the introduction of 
 economic changes. There is need for citizens to be constantly 
 
CHAP. II.] General Tendencies, Particular Conditions. 259 
 
 on the alert, so that associated effort and legislative enactment 
 may be steadily directed to counteract any mischiefs that may 
 arise during a period of transition. 
 
 This is the principal duty, in regard to economic problems, 
 which rests with the political authorities of the present time. 
 The diffusion of democratic principles and the manner in 
 which political power has passed into the hands of the 
 masses of the population among English-speaking peoples 
 have turned attention to the welfare of manual labourers 
 as a class; and this has come to be a criterion of national 
 prosperity. We are no longer concerned with discussing the 
 methods by which national resources may be most rapidly 
 developed so as to conduce to the increase of national power, 
 or to the largest mass of products; that question is solved. 
 Experience has shown us that material prosperity can be best 
 attained by giving play to the capitalist administration of in- 
 dustry. The modern problem is that of controlling this force 
 so that its disintegrating effects on society and its pressure 
 upon individuals may be kept within due limits; and that 
 advances in material progress may really subserve the moral 
 and intellectual welfare of mankind. This problem is not 
 susceptible of any general solution; it must be dealt with in 
 different fashions, according to the particular circumstances 
 of each community ; and peculiarities of physical character, 
 national temperament and political constitution must be taken 
 into account. 
 
 New inventions and methods of business organisation have 
 been introduced into countries where the economic conditions 
 are very dissimilar to those in Great Britain. In some places 
 natural economy is still dominant, or prices are practically 
 determined by custom ; while other peoples are habituated to 
 money-bargaining and competition. The physical resources 
 which attract capitalists may be different ; in one country there 
 are great opportunities for mining, in others for wheat-growing, 
 in others for manufacturing; and the reactions on society 
 
 17—2 
 
26o Western Civilisation. [bOOK VI. 
 
 generally and on existing industry will be quite distinct in 
 character. The improvement of internal communication by 
 means of railways has dissimilar results in the unoccupied 
 prairies of the West and in a thickly populated country like 
 India. Benefits accrue in both regions; but just as the 
 advantages are distinct, so the evils that may arise, and that 
 ought to be guarded against, are not the same. In the 
 United States, the railroads have been the pioneers which 
 opened up the country and rendered the Settlement and 
 cultivation of distant districts possible ; but there is a danger 
 that these roads may become a giant monopoly that will control 
 all future developmeht in its own interest. In India isolated 
 villages have been brought into contact with the outside 
 world, and have a better market for their products; but the 
 rapid transition from natural to money economy and the 
 abandonment of village self-sufficiency have tended to render 
 the pressure of taxation more onerous, and to remove some of 
 the old safeguards against times of scarcity and famine. In 
 whatever form the capitalist system is introduced, the mass of 
 the population will be under the necessity of readjusting their 
 ordinary habits of life to new conditions ; but the nature of the 
 strain upon society, and the character of the results will differ 
 according to circumstances. In a country like Great Britain, 
 where the land is owned by large proprietors with great 
 political power, the contest betweeri the landed and the 
 moneyed interests took a special form; in other areas, both in 
 America, Europe or India, where there are peasant holdings, 
 the corresponding struggle is more likely to arise over the rate 
 of interest' than over the legislative protection of farmers. 
 And so with all other changes. The mischiefs due to the 
 
 ' The indebtedness of the cultivators to agricultural banks or to local 
 usurers has become a veiy serious question in many parts of the World. 
 Very remarkable success has been obtained by the Governments of New 
 Zealand and other Australasian colonies in organising public institutions for 
 granting loans to occupiers of the land. 
 
CHAP. II.] General Tendencies, Particular Conditions. 261 
 
 breaking up of family life will be felt most severely in countries 
 where there is a hard and fast social system, and where labour 
 is divided into distinct castes. In India, for instance, trades 
 are hereditary and highly stereotyped, and the organisation of 
 factories and engineering shops cannot be introduced without 
 a revolution in all the habits of life. The transition from 
 domestic industry must always involve social disintegration, 
 which will be greater according to the rigidity of the system 
 which is being undermined. 
 
 It must also be borne in mind that the remedies which can 
 be applied in one country are unsuitable to the circumstances 
 of another ; it may not be possible to transplant the English 
 Factory Inspector or Trades Unions to other climes; new 
 forms of administrative machinery may be required to under- 
 talce the work they are accomplishing. Some peoples by 
 habit and training may be able to organise themselves 
 for self-protection, while others can only look helplessly 
 for State interference in their behalf. The French have been 
 habituated for centuries to depend on administrative initiative 
 to a much greater extent than the English; such national 
 characteristics must be taken into account, and each country 
 must be considered separately and independently. The 
 method of coping with such problems which has been suc- 
 cessful in one land may be quite impracticable in another, 
 but this does not absolve any people or Government from 
 the duty of trying to deal with these difficulties in any form 
 in which they may appear. In no case can it be good policy 
 to let the economic forces work their way without any attempt 
 so to direct them as to reduce the mischief that may arise 
 in the course of the transition. 
 
 133. There is, however, one condition which is essential in 
 all countries alike ; if the play of economic forces Nationalism 
 is to be wisely controlled, so that the evils which and cosmo- 
 accompany industrial changes may be minimised, p° '**"'^'"' 
 there must be political power that is strong enough to hold 
 
262 Western Civilisation. [BOOK VI. 
 
 its own and enforce its dictates. There should be an effective 
 authority which can ensure that the true interest of the" com- 
 munity as a whole shall not be sacrificed to the immediate 
 gain of any one class. In the civilised states of the old 
 world and the new, such Governments exist ; but there is need 
 for the establishment of effective police in many parts of the 
 globe, and it is desirable that this should be exercised not 
 merely in personal or national but in cosmopolitan interests. 
 The areas occupied by half-civilised and barbarous peoples 
 are likely to suffer severely until they are brought under the 
 authority of some power which the white man respects. This 
 is not only desirable in the interests of foreign capitalists, but 
 also essential as the only chance of ensuring that the native 
 population shall receive fair treatment. The energy of pioneers 
 and the enterprise of traders and miners, when uncontrolled, 
 have driven the American Indians and other native populations 
 into desperate straits, and have given rise to outbreaks which 
 occasioned ruthless retaliation. There is great difficulty in 
 allowing uncivilised peoples to retain independence, and 
 attempts at the rapid assimilation of backward races to modem 
 habits of thought and action have often been failures; it is 
 wisest to preserve an artificial isolation in order that the 
 necessary modification may take place gradually, and without 
 causing the best elements in native character and traditions 
 to be subverted. Only under the aegis of a strong political 
 power can territorial ' reservations ' be allotted to the primi- 
 tive tribes and proper steps taken for promoting their gradual 
 amelioration. 
 
 The expansion of modern industry and commerce has 
 rendered it most desirable that there should be an extension 
 of the political power of civilised communities, so that one 
 or other of them shall preside over, and be responsible for, the 
 material development of all parts of the globe. It is in the 
 interests of the whole world that security for life and property 
 should be everywhere assured. And this is being brought 
 
CHAP. II.] General Tendencies, Particular Conditions. 263 
 
 about. France, Germany, Belgium and England have estab- 
 lished distinct spheres of influence in Africa. In the far East 
 a similar process is going on; a great part of Asia is under 
 the control of Russia, and England governs the thickly 
 populated area of India ; while the United States aspire to an 
 indefinite protectorate in the New World and the islands of 
 the Pacific. A startling extension of civilised rule has followed 
 as a necessary consequence upon the opening of new and wide 
 fields for economic enterprise. The crucial question for the 
 future is whether this new authority shall be wielded for 
 cosmopolitan welfare or merely directed to particularist and 
 national interests. 
 
 This rapid political expansion has certainly not been due 
 to any concerted action for the common good ; indeed it can 
 be directly traced to the increased bitterness of national rivalry 
 which has been brought about by the Industrial Revolution. 
 The period which immediately succeeded the Napoleonic war 
 was one of exhaustion and quiet; observers were inclined to 
 believe that civilised men had entered on an industrial era, 
 when the jealousies of nations would be laid aside, and all 
 would vie in the cultivation of the arts of peace and the 
 holding of Universal Exhibitions. But this was an entire 
 mistake ; Germany, Italy, and America were only beginning to 
 attain to a consciousness of national existence in the decades 
 when this sentiment was ceasing to be the dominant force in 
 English politics. Events have proved that their industrial 
 development has served to whet the commercial rivalries of 
 rising nationalities. So long as countries traded with each 
 other in their natural products, it was easy to feel that one 
 land was supplementing the requirements of another and that 
 each was profiting by the interchanges; so long even as 
 particular industries depended on hereditary and localised 
 skill, it was not hard to acquiesce in the purchase of manu- 
 factures to which some people had a sort of established 
 claim. But since machinery has superseded personal skill, 
 
^^4 Western Civilisation. [BOOK VI. 
 
 there is ho longer the same reason for accepting a position of 
 econonnic dependence ; each country can procure • materials 
 and manufacture for itself; each country can therefore aim 
 at supplying its own market, and attaining to a greater measure 
 of economic self-sufficiency. 
 
 There have been other ways in which modern inventions 
 have tended to reinvigorate national economic jealousy. As 
 machine industry has been developed in different lands, pro- 
 ducers have become ambitious of obtaining access not only to 
 home but to foreign markets. Nations that wished to secure 
 exclusive markets for their goods have engaged in a scramble 
 for territory in Africa and for spheres of influence in the Far 
 East. Giant industry cannot be satisfied with a home market 
 only — even in the United States — but aims at access to wider 
 spheres. Germany with her newly found national unity is the 
 most conspicuous example of this tendency; she is endeavouring 
 to develop her industrial resources and make up for her lost 
 opportunities of expansion and thus to build up an exclusively 
 national economic system as a basis for national power. On 
 the whole it seems that the age of invention has not made for 
 peace; it has given new facilities for organised warfare, while 
 international jealousies and rivalries have become keener, as 
 various countries aim at securing economic independence 
 and vie in obtaining markets for their manufactures. 
 
 There is some reason to hope, however, that this recrudes 
 cence of national economic jealousy is only a passing phase 
 and not a permanent political condition. England had pur- 
 sued an exclusive economic system for centuries; she discarded 
 it fifty years ago, not out of mere philanthropy, but because, 
 under changed conditions, it suited her interest to do so. She 
 had more to gain from accepting a position in a cosmopolitan 
 system, and recognising the interdependence between all states, 
 than by striving to maintain a self-sufficing economic Ufe of 
 her own. The difficulty of procuring an adequate food supply 
 forced her to adopt this course ; but the benefit which accrues 
 
CHAP. 11,] General Tendencies, Particular Conditions. 265 
 
 from the new scheme is not confined to England alone; the 
 cosmopolitan policy, which she accepted from sheer neces- 
 sity, leaves all other nations free to take full advantage of 
 the markets and industrial opportunities afforded by every 
 territory under her government. 
 
 The difference between the old nationalism and the new 
 cosmopolitanism, comes out, not merely in the treatment 
 accorded to the Colonies ', but in the attitude which England 
 takes in her new possessions towards the capital and industry 
 of other civilised nations. English officials are exercising a 
 control in Egypt, with considerable difficulty and under great 
 provocation ; while French capitalists reap the advantage of 
 improved conditions, and take a large part in the trading and 
 industrial development of the country. The Nile Valley has 
 recently been opened up at English expense, but no attempt 
 has been made to restrict the economic advantages of this 
 large area to British subjects. The English subjugation of 
 India by Clive was of no direct advantage to the British 
 Colonies in America, but the policy of England in Egypt 
 and on the Nile is beneficial to all civilised nations, since it 
 insures fair play to English, American, French, and German 
 alike. Other nations may not improbably come in time to 
 outgrow the nationalist policy they are pursuing so eagerly at 
 present. They may have it forced upon them by experience 
 that they can obtain access to the largest markets and secure 
 the commodities they require on the best terms, not by main- 
 taining particularist rights but by fostering frequent and general 
 commercial intercourse. Cobden's expectations of the universal 
 adoption of free trade have been woefully disappointed; a nation 
 must be far advanced in its economic life before it finds its 
 greatest advantage in adopting a cosmopolitan policy ; but this 
 is a stage of development to which commercial nations are 
 likely sooner or later to attain. 
 
 There are important political results which might accrue if 
 ' See above, p. 220. 
 
266 Western Civilisation. [BOOK VI. 
 
 this economic policy were adopted more generally. In so far as 
 any country finds that she is able without detriment to herself 
 to modify or reconstruct her commercial policy on cosmopoli- 
 tan lines, the occasions for international dispute are likely to be 
 considerably diminished. The cessation of national economic 
 rivalries would do much to remove the most potent of all 
 incentives to war. When we remember how much of the fight- 
 ing in all- ages has been due to efforts to secure or maintain 
 exclusive trading rights, we may feel that the most favourable 
 augury of a coming universal peace lies in the fact that one 
 country has found it desirable to lay aside this policy, and 
 that all nations are allowed to share equally in the commercial 
 advantages of any territory where British rule is established. 
 
 While cosmopolitanism in commercial policy encourages us 
 to cherish hopes for an improvement in the relations between 
 nations, it also supplies more favourable conditions than a 
 national economic policy can ever afford, for the internal 
 government of large dependencies. So soon as exclusive 
 national interests are definitely discarded it becomes less 
 difficult for Governments to take fair account of the habits 
 and customs of subject races, and to make their welfare 
 a primary consideration. In the eighteenth century, the wel- 
 fare of colonists and of the peoples in conquered countries 
 was deliberately subordinated to the prosperity and power of 
 European nations. The policy of civilised states at that time 
 was so self-regarding, that it was hardly ever in accordance 
 with the best tradition of that Roman Empire which, with 
 all its defects and despite its inherent weakness, still sets 
 the type of the grandest polity the world has ever known. 
 It is the lasting glory of that Empire that it retained so 
 many of the noblest elements of earlier civilisations; the Greek 
 cities maintained the traditions of Greek culture ; the Goths 
 and other colonies of barbarian soldiers on the frontiers 
 preserved much of their primitive virtue. England in her 
 treatment of Canada and of India has shown herself capable 
 
CHAP. II.] General Tendencies, Particular Conditions. 267 
 
 of achieving a similar result, and has avoided any interference 
 with the sentiments or the traditions of her subject popula- 
 tions. The province of Quebec affords a striking example. 
 In 1759 A.D. the most successful of all the French colonies 
 was brought under English rule; but there was no insistence 
 on stamping out what was characteristically French. The lan- 
 guage and religion were carefully maintained, and there is no 
 place on the globe where the more wholesome elements of the 
 Ufa of old-world France have been so effectively preserved as 
 in Canada. The French population are loyal to English 
 rule because they are confident that there is no danger of 
 attempts to assimilate them to customs and institutions they 
 dislike. Again, as the administration of India has come 
 more and more under English authority, there has been a 
 scrupulous effort to iinderstand native law and custom, to take 
 account of them and to respect them. Just as Rome rescued 
 Greek literature, art, and institutions when Greek political 
 life was perishing, so English influence is helping to preserve 
 for the world the great heritage of Eastern thought and civilisa- 
 tion. 
 
 It is necessary that law and order should be established 
 everjrwhere, and that there should be an effective police 
 throughout the known world. These are the very foundations 
 of society ; but only on the cosmopolitan system is it possible 
 to give security to life and property, and yet to be willing to 
 leave racial habits and national customs comparatively un- 
 affected, and to allow for the perpetuation and diffusion of the 
 best social elements in the countries which are brought under 
 civilised control. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 134. The foregoing sketch has been directed to the 
 elucidation of one particular question ; an attempt 
 action of'Man, has been rhade to discriminate the specific con- 
 vironment?' tribution of eadi of the great peoples of the 
 past, who have combined to transmit the 
 heritage of Western Civilisation from one era to another. 
 This grand and complex tradition- has been shaped and 
 altered, enlarged or embellished a little by each of the 
 hands that have passed it on. The various streamlets have 
 sometimes added to the volume, and sometimes changed the 
 character of the river they helped to form. We have noticed 
 the industrial skill of the Egyptians, the passive trade of 
 Judaea, and the active commerce of the Phoenicians, as the 
 elements of economic life; we have marked how the Greeks 
 subordinated their regard for material resources to the aim of 
 attaining a worthy human life ; we have seen how the city life 
 of the Greeks was perpetuated and diffused by Alexander the 
 Great and under ■■ the Roman Empire ; we have tried to trace 
 the causes which resulted in the ruin of that Empire and the 
 decay of ancient civilisation. 
 
 We have also examined the process of reconstructing 
 civilised society, under new authority and sanctions; the 
 gradual restoration of much that had been lost in the West; 
 the first steps in the expansion of Christendom ; the influences 
 which brought about its disruption; the rise of nationalities, 
 
Concbision. 269 
 
 with the consequent commercial and colonial rivalries since 
 the age of geographical discovery. Attention has been callegl 
 to the increased power over nature and the keener jealousies, 
 which have been awakened by the age of invention. We, on 
 the eve of the twentieth century, are debtors to countless 
 generations of men of diverse races and many lands ; and 
 common gratitude demands that we should try to understand 
 the nature of our obligations to each. 
 
 There is a marked difference in the character of the 
 earlier and of the later contributions. Man is at first 
 " immersed in na:ture " ; physical conditions determine his 
 destiny ; the climate and soil fix the arts to which he can 
 devote himself, — hunting, pasturage, tillage, or whatever it 
 may be ; and these employments apparently react on character 
 and aptitude. But, a:s time goes on, and the arts are more 
 developed, and intercommunication diffuses them among the 
 peoples, man comes to have more mastery over nature; he 
 can alter his surroundings ; by the acclimatisation of plants 
 and animals, he may do much to subdue the earth, and force 
 it to suit his convenience. The Phoenician, the Greek and 
 the Roman had attained to such dominion over physical 
 environment, as to be able to a considerable extent, to mould 
 it to their will. 
 
 Hence in the modern world we have less to do with 
 physical conditions as controlling the character and direction 
 of human development; we see more of human effort de- 
 liberately exerted, and of human aims and aspirations as 
 determining the lines of human progress. The ' course of 
 geographical discovery was not determined by physical pressure 
 or accidental conjunctions of circumstances; it was mainly 
 due to the inteUigent and assiduous human energy, consciously 
 directed to this purpose. So too with the progress of inven- 
 tion; this was not the mere outcome of a happy chance, but 
 the work of men who had the wit to meet the requirements 
 of their times. 
 
270 Conclusion. 
 
 The growing importance in the later history of civilisation 
 of human activity, as compared with that of physical sur- 
 roundings, may be seen in another way. The great resources 
 which the age of maritime discovery opened up could not 
 in themselves serve to enrich the peoples who controlled them. 
 Portugal was exhausted by her East Indian commerce, and 
 Spain failed to profit by her American possessions. Oppor- 
 tunities by themselves are of little account; the wisdom to 
 use them is the really important thing. Hence the main 
 contributions of modern nations to the economic progress of 
 the world have lain in their experiments in policy, in the aims 
 they cherished, the means they used in the pursuit of wealth 
 and the success or failure of their attempts. 
 
 135- There has, then, been a reciprocal influence between 
 man and his environment; but in the later stages, 
 ai"advancei°"" human activity has been the more potent factor. 
 It is, however, curious to notice how much of 
 that activity has been unconscious, that is to say, not in- 
 tentionally directed to the results it produced. We can never 
 understand economic phenomena unless we look outside them 
 to those other sides of human life, which have an indirect 
 bearing upon the course of material progress. It is through 
 the reaction of political life on economic conditions, that the 
 most striking developments have been brought about; or by 
 the reaction of commercial expansion on industry, and of 
 industrial improvement on commerce. Those who built up 
 our free political system, had no conception that they were 
 providing us with the means of securing and developing a 
 colonial empire. Those who devoted themselves to the en- 
 couragement of our mercantile marine, had no idea that they 
 were creating the circumstances which rendered an age of inven- 
 tion possible. Nor had the monks and missionaries who laid the 
 foundations of mediaeval society much deliberate aim beyond 
 that of saving their own souls and those of other people. The 
 economic bearing and results of such work are too far off for 
 
Conclusion. 27 1 
 
 any human being to foresee or to take them intentionally into 
 account; and thus the whole has grown up to a large extent 
 through human action that was not consciously directed to 
 these objects. 
 
 136. Though the growth of Western Civilisation has been 
 brought about with so little conscious human ., 
 
 ° Progress as 
 
 effort, it is difficult to suppose that its course real, and not 
 has been wholly fortuitous. Constant change °'''"'to"s- 
 and decay are characteristic of all organic growth; yet there 
 has been advance on the whole, even though there has been 
 decline here and destruction there all the time. We may take 
 what test we like,— the command over natural forces and the 
 power of obtaining natural products for the use of man, — the 
 facilities for intercourse between all parts of the globe, — the 
 possibilities of maintaining a large population in comfort — and 
 we shall find, that tried by whatever criterion, there has never 
 been an age that could compare with the present. Despite the 
 evils of our time, we may feel that there has been progress in 
 solving some of the most difficult social problems. There never 
 was a time when there were such facilities for organising vast 
 masses of labour, and there never was a period when the indi- 
 vidual labourer had more opportunity, not perhaps for choosing 
 his own circumstances, but for pursuing his own self-develop- 
 ment. , If we compare the work of constructing the Forth Bridge 
 with the traditional accounts respecting the raising of the Great 
 Pyramid, we shall feel that there has not only been progress 
 in the mechanical arts, but in the power of so ordering 
 society that it shall be possible to get the most effective com- 
 bination of masses of labour, and yet to secure for each 
 individual some opportunities of political power and intel- 
 lectual interest. 
 
 The change in regard to commerce has been even more 
 striking ; when we take such beginnings of trade as the 
 ' mutual gifts ' and tribute of the Egyptians, the barter of the 
 Phoenicians in Africa and their half piratical expeditions on 
 
272 Conclusion. 
 
 the Mediterranean, and contrast them with the commerce of 
 the present day — the world-wide safety it enjoys, the com- 
 plicated machinery by which it is carried on, the keenness in 
 bargaining which prevents its benefits from being monopolised 
 by one party to the exclusion of others — we are better able to 
 gauge the extraordinary progress that has been made. Even if 
 we feel that the dreams of universal peace are idle, that com- 
 merce depends on international security, and security in the 
 last resort on armaments, we may yet see that an international 
 organisation of postage, of banking, of traffic, is being gradually 
 built up, and that arbitration is settling questions which would 
 in old days have been decided by war ; it is not possible to lay 
 down limits as to the possible growth of international institu- 
 tions in the future. Without indulging in distant speculations, 
 we may yet recognise the real progress that has been made in 
 such great departments of social life as industrial efficiency and 
 organisation, in commercial activity and the safety of inter- 
 national intercourse. The course of these changes has hot 
 been uninterrupted, but they have seemed to be directed 
 towards one goal — that of establishing man's dominion over 
 the earth, and utilisirig its resources to the fullest extent for the 
 well-being of the race. 
 
 137. When we contrast the earliest known beginnings 
 
 with the latest developments of human material 
 
 and'^™"nent progress, the difference is extraordinary ; and yet 
 
 Elements in jj jg worth while to remember that each factor 
 
 Civilisation. . ... 
 
 m the great movement has been in itself com- 
 paratively trivial. There have been changes that were startling, 
 but they were not sudden; the way had been prepared for 
 them ; the discovery of the direct route to the East was not a 
 happy accident ; years of patient enterprise had led up to this 
 crowning feat; the work of each individual was superseded, 
 and forgotten, but it was a necessary step in the advance, and 
 thus it has had a permanent value and result. Much has 
 passed away, but little has been lost; all forms of human 
 
Conclusion. 273 
 
 skill have been surpassed in time, all the various types of 
 economic group have been outgrown; none have been final 
 and lasting. 
 
 Nothing has proved of permanent and unchanging value, 
 except the principles which lie at the foundation of all modern 
 society, and which are essential to its progress in the future. 
 The very greatness of our advance in material prosperity may 
 blind us to the truth that human life does not consist in the 
 abundance of the things that man possesses. Great accumula- 
 tions may cause only jealousy and greed; the mechanical 
 powers and faculty for organisation, which have developed in 
 the present day, may be made to subserve short-sighted and 
 destructive passions. It was the work of the Greeks to set 
 before us a high ideal of the possibilities of human nature, 
 in the individual and in society; and it is a most important 
 Christian duty to strive to maintain an even higher ideal in 
 each generation. 
 
 Free play for the individual is the distinguishing feature of 
 our present civilisation, and is alike its glory and its danger. 
 Hence the problem of the age is that of education, which 
 implies not merely the instructing nor even the disciplining of 
 children, but the forming individuals who are capable of self- 
 discipline, and of thus voluntarily rendering themselves useful 
 and effective members of society. Nor has any sounder 
 scheme of self-discipline been devised, than that which is 
 based on truths that were revealed eighteen centuries ago; 
 which rests on the belief in the immortal existence of the 
 human personality, and on the desire to use things material as 
 a preparation for a nobler and worthier life when the temporal 
 shall have passed away. There has been no other teaching 
 which alike enhances the dignity of- human nature and brings 
 its most exalted hopes to bear directly and immediately on the 
 routine of ordinary life and the control of mundane affairs. 
 The same principles which served to lay the foundations of a 
 healthier civilisation, when the old seemed to be shattered 
 
 C w. c. II. 18 
 
2^4 Conclusion. 
 
 for evef, will suffice to strengthen the cohesive forces of society 
 and to guard against utter disintegration and anarchy. 
 
 In falling back on these principles we may be protected 
 against another danger which threatens us. The expansion of- 
 Western Civilisation has brought the various races of the 
 world, with apparently irreconcilable differences of habit, and 
 custom, into the closest contact ; there has been much ruthless 
 extermination wherever the civilised and the half-civiUsed meet, 
 and there are increasing racial jealousies between civilised 
 peoples of distinct races. Deeply ingrained antagonisms 
 cannot be suppressed, but they may be so modified as to 
 cease to be a danger; they do cease to be a danger if we 
 not only recognise that the fitness of different races for different 
 conditions of climate and soil constitutes in itself a right to 
 existence, but also endeavour gradually to raise the lower races 
 to higher ideals of life, so that the introduction of modern 
 machinery and modern organisation may not be in itself a 
 curse. It is only as they and we can take common ground, in 
 accepting the same ideals and striving to realize them, that 
 there can ever be a harmonious development of the activities 
 of all mankind. 
 
275 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 THE TRANSPLANTATION OF ARTS AND INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 There are often striking similarities in the arts which are 
 practised and the administrative organs which exist in different 
 parts of the globe. Such a resemblance may be accounted 
 for in various ways. It may be due to the fact that there has 
 been direct descent from a common source along separate and 
 distinct lines ; or it may be explained by independent origination 
 in two different places. There is, however, a third way of ex- 
 plaining the phenomena — by the conscious and deliberate trans- 
 plantation of arts and institutions from one place to another. The 
 full significance of this third mode of transmission is not obvious 
 at first sight ; but careful consideration brings out the fact that 
 the possibilities of conscious transplantation have been so many 
 and frequent, that it is rarely necessary to assume either inde- 
 pendent descent or independent origination as the most probable 
 explanation of an observed similarity. 
 
 An illustration may make the point at issue more clear. Ma- 
 terial relics of Roman civilisation are found in many parts of 
 England, and it seems natural at first sight to assume that any 
 of our institutions which are closely analogous to those of the 
 Romans have had a persistent life in this island and are unbroken 
 survivals of the habits and practices of Roman Britain ; alleged 
 instances have been noted both in rural and urban life, in methods 
 of taxation and in conditions of tenure. The more the point is 
 examined, however, the more it becomes probable that the alleged 
 persistence of organised society in Britain through the period of 
 English invasion is incredible, and that the resemblances can be 
 best explained as the work of ecclesiastics and later immigrants 
 who reintroduced into England institutions and terminology that 
 had survived from Roman times in other parts of Europe. Since 
 
 i3 — 2 
 
276 Appendix. 
 
 we can account for the facts by the influence of that conscious 
 transplantation which was slowly and steadily at work for centuries, 
 we are not entitled to assume an independent line of descent in 
 this island itself, especially as there is much historical evidence 
 which conflicts with that hypothesis. 
 
 There is always a danger of being guilty of anachronism and 
 of taking for granted that social forces which are familiar in our 
 own day must also have been frequently operative in earlier times. 
 The English race, for the last two centuries, has been eagerly 
 engaged in a struggle after progress, and has been consciously 
 endeavouring to devise improvements in all the arts of life. Labour- 
 saying contrivances are invented every day in some branches 
 of industry ; we are inclined to attribute a similar fertility of 
 invention to the human race at all stages of development. There 
 is reason to doubt, however, whether the independent origination 
 and introduction of new arts and institutions has been either as easy 
 or as frequent as we might at first sight suppose ; the history of 
 inventions shows that it has been extraordinarily difficult for any 
 genius to render a new process a practical success ; while it has 
 never been easy to induce peasant farmers to adopt fresh methods 
 of cultivation. The obstacles even to the transplantation of existing 
 industries have been considerable, and there must be still greater 
 hindrances to be overcome by those who create a hitherto unknown 
 art. The probabilities of the independent origination in two dis- 
 tinct places of the same industrial or social habit are comparatively 
 small : but we ought also to remember that this mode of accounting 
 for the phenomena is inherently unsatisfactory, since it is not 
 susceptible of verification^. We may often be unable to show 
 from what source some practice was derived, but we can never 
 hope to prove that it was not derived at all. We may be justified 
 in making the negative statement that we cannot account for the 
 phenomena in any other way, but never in asserting independent 
 origination as a fact. It is only allowable to have recourse to 
 this explanation in the last resort, and we ought never to refer 
 any act or institution to independent origination until we have 
 
 ^ "It appears, then, to be a condition of a genuine scientific hypothesis, 
 that it be not destined always to remain an hypothesis, but be of such a 
 nature as to be either proved or disproved by that compavison with 
 observed facts which is termed verification." Mill, Logic, u. 14. 
 
Appendix. 277 
 
 examined all the possibilities of transplantation and have decided 
 against them. 
 
 Without attempting an exhaustive classification, vi^e may notice 
 that tliere are three ways in which the transplantation of arts and 
 institutions may be readily effected ; by personal communication, 
 by the imitation of foreign models, and by literary suggestion. 
 
 {a) The migration of persons who possess some definite form 
 of skill is the simplest means of transferring an art, and in some 
 cases it is the only possible method by which an industry can 
 be introduced into other lands. There are many matters of 
 technique that can only be communicated by personal instruction, 
 especially where manual dexterity is concerned. The invention 
 of machinery not only saves the drudgery of labour, but supersedes 
 many forms of specialised technical skill, and thus enables men 
 to dispense with the effort to acquire aptitudes, which were in- 
 separable from the workmen in all the ages that preceded the 
 industrial revolution. The importation of the necessary machinery 
 is the chief step that is needed now for introducing a new industry, 
 but it was not so in former days. The impossibility of transplanting 
 an art, unless the men skilled in it were transferred as well, has 
 been so generally recognised, that at many periods in the world's 
 history cities or nations have attempted to protect themselves 
 against foreign competition by prohibiting the emigration of arti- 
 sans^ with the view of retaining a monopoly of some craft ; while 
 the greatest efforts were made by progressive communities to 
 induce skilled workmen to immigrate. The history of particular 
 industries abounds with illustrations of the manner in which the 
 enterprise and intelligence of some one immigrant, or group of 
 immigrants, have been directly instrumental in planting a craft in 
 places where, though it had not previously existed, it could be 
 advantageously carried on, — the new drapery and the silk trade of 
 England^, thp paper making of Scotland', and the linen manu- 
 
 ' Vol. I. p. 32. On the other hand, Leo the Isaurian, in attempting to 
 enforce his iconoclastic policy, drove many artists from the Empire, and 
 gave a great stimulus to the pursuit of fine arts in Italy. Labarte, [iistoire 
 des arts industriels, I. 105. Cunningham, Growth of English Industry, 11. 
 
 348, 361- 
 
 * Cunningham, Growth of English Industry, II. 36. 
 ' Cunningham, Alien Immigrants in England, p. 242. 
 
278 Appendix. 
 
 facture of Ireland' may be adduced as cases in point. For recent 
 centuries, it is comparatively easy to trace the existence of groups 
 of aliens in England and to specify the industrial impulse which 
 they severally communicated. There is every reason to believe 
 that a similar process has gone on in all ajes, though the evidence 
 as to the precise links of connection has been lost. When we 
 consider the occasions and the frequency of personal intercom- 
 munication which existed in bygone times, we shall see that it 
 is impossible to lay down any limits as to the extent of the influence 
 which may have been exercised in this fashion, even though no 
 information has survived as to the time or the form in which the 
 movement occurred. 
 
 In the ancient world, warfare, followed as it often was by the 
 military occupation and the deportation of considerable popula- 
 tions^, must have played a considerable part in the diffusion of 
 a knowledge of the arts of life ; while the organised slave trade, 
 which existed in the ancient world and lasted through the Dark 
 Ages till mediaeval times, gave immense opportunities for personal 
 migration. 
 
 Many facilities for travelling have been introduced within the 
 last century and have rendered touring a pleasure, but we are apt 
 to forget what numbers of persons were compelled in the later 
 middle ages to be constantly facing the dangers and difficulties 
 of the roads. Much of the business which can now be done by 
 letter or even by telegraph could not have been transacted by 
 mediaeval merchants without personally undertaking a journey'. 
 The great households of nobles were continually on the move, 
 and many persons went as pilgrims to celebrated shrines in their 
 own or in distant lands. The vast concourse of traders at medi- 
 aeval fairs* is a sufficient proof that, despite the local restriction 
 which was maintained in many places and for certain classes, there 
 was also a large population which enjoyed considerable freedom 
 of movement. All through the Middle Ages there was abundant 
 opportunity for much personal migration, so that there is no 
 
 ^ Cunningham, Alien Immigrants in England, p. 240. 
 ^ Numerous instances occur in the Old Testament, for instance, in 
 the Babylonian captivity of the Jews, and the repeopling of Samaria. 
 ' Jusserand, English Wayfaring Life, 244. 
 * Bourquelot, Foires de Champagne, I. 132. 
 
Appendix. 279 
 
 difficulty in understanding the transmission' of any art or practice 
 from one part of Christendom to another. 
 
 The possibility of personal migration will frequently suffice to 
 explain the transference not merely of arts but of institutions from 
 one place to another ; we are not compelled to suppose that these 
 last were an independent growth at each new centre. It was a 
 common thing at the period of the Crusades, when town life was 
 reviving, to grant to the citizens of one place all the rights and 
 privileges which were already enjoyed by the citizens of some other 
 borough which was taken as a model'. The customs thus conferred 
 may in some cases have been fully committed to writing ; but the 
 practice occasionally involved personal intercourse for the settle- 
 ment of disputed points. In one recorded instance, too, it seems 
 to have been felt that skill in administering institutions, like the 
 technique of some arts, was best learnt from experts who were 
 induced to migrate. When Bishop Robert laid out the town of 
 St. Andrews in Fife he not only borrowed a foreign plan for the 
 streets, but introduced a provost from Berwick^, who was used to 
 municipal government, and who was capable of organising the 
 institutions of the new town. There is no reason to believe that 
 this case is unique or even exceptional ; it would appear to be 
 highly probable that the hanse, or any element which a merchant 
 class contributed to the growth of town life in the backward regions 
 of Europe, was brought from abroad by foreign settlers who had 
 some familiarity with commercial life in more advanced com- 
 munities. 
 
 {b) Transplantation may also have taken place at times by 
 the transference of manufactured articles of a new character or 
 design. This may have happened in the course of commerce or 
 through warfare ; and the subsequent imitation of any goods that 
 were much admired would sometimes be comparatively simple. 
 There are many things which are easy to make, when once they are 
 thought of, and the accidental securing of a single specimen might 
 give the necessary suggestion. Such imitation is a very different 
 thing from independent invention. There is considerable resem- 
 blance between the chain-armour worn in the East and the brynja 
 
 ' On the affiliation of burghs, compare Gross, Gild Merchant, I. 241. 
 ? pcott, Berwick, p. 6. 
 
28o Appendix. 
 
 of the Viking* ; it would not be hard for the Norse workmen 
 fo make such protective armour when once the thing or the idea 
 of the thing had been brought under their notice ; and the fact of 
 commercial intercourse between the Norsemen and the peoples 
 of the Levant is so far established, that there is no difficulty in 
 accounting for similarities of this kind. 
 
 if) There is another method by which a knowledge of arts 
 and institutions may be transmitted not- only over considerable 
 distances in space but across long periods of time. Laws and 
 administrative methods, systems of taxation and business practice, 
 may be embodied in writing, and by this means the revival of a 
 long-forgotten usage may be facilitated. The diffusion of Law 
 Merchant, and the influences exercised in the later Middle Ages 
 by the study of Roman Law, may be taken as illustrations. The 
 similar action with regard to wages and prices, which occurred 
 almost simultaneously in many cities and countries after the Black 
 Death, becomes more intelligible when we remember that a 
 tradition may well have survived of attempts which had been 
 made throughout the Roman Empire to meet such dearth by 
 analogous regulations. In more recent times the special character- 
 istics of the Mother of Parliaments were noted by such a keen 
 observer as Montesquieu, and his treatise has not merely had the 
 effect of spreading a knowledge of the British Constitution but 
 has induced nearly every civilised country to adapt its govern- 
 ment, more or less consciously, to this one model as the French 
 writer described it*. 
 
 A knowledge of industrial arts may be conveyed in the same 
 sort of way. The importance of recipes not merely for the 
 cure of diseases, but for such processes as dyeing, and for the 
 decorative arts generally, has been very great. The most cele- 
 brated treasury of such information was the Diversarum Artiuin 
 Schedula, written by Rogkerus, a goldsmith, who was a Benedictiiu 
 monk at Helmershausen^, in the eleventh or earlier part of the 
 twelfth century. The number and dates of the manuscripts which 
 
 ' Du Chaillu, The Viking Age, I. 215; 11. 99. 
 
 ^ The existence of two chambers and the alleged severance of the 
 executive and legislative powers were points on which he laid stress. 
 
 " Ilg, Theophiltu Presbyter xa Qtiellenschriften fiir Kunstgeschichte und 
 Kunsttechnik des Mittelalters, vil. p. xliii. 
 
Appendix. 281 
 
 survive prove that his book had a very wide and long-continued 
 popularity. In this compendium, according to the author, you will 
 "find out whatever Greece possesses in kinds and mixtures of 
 various colours ; whatever Tuscany knows of in mosaic work, or in 
 variety of enamel ; whatever Arabia shows forth in work of fusion, 
 ductility, or chasing ; whatever Italy ornaments with gold, in 
 diversity of vases, and sculpture of gems or ivory ; whatever France 
 loves in a costly variety of windows ; whatever industrious Ger- 
 many approves in work of gold, silver, copper and iron, of woods 
 and stones*." The generous spirit in which the monk sought to 
 diffuse such technical knowledge contrasts strikingly with the care 
 of the ordinary craftsmen to keep the secrets of the trade to them- 
 selves, and in particular to prevent the copying of their recipes. 
 We learn from a case in the glass-industry that the master's 
 daughter did not always sympathise with the parental policy 
 towards apprentices in this matter^. 
 
 When the indefinite possibilities of transmission are once recog- 
 nised, a large field is opened up for the students of the special 
 history of any one art or institution. The building trades, which 
 have supplied such lasting monuments of the activity of bygone 
 ages, give the most unimpeachable evidence of the growth and 
 diffusion of particular expedients in construction or design. The 
 invention of the arch, the combination of the arch and column, 
 the use of the dome, are important structural improvements ; and 
 the districts where early experiments were attempted, as well as 
 the development and diffusion of these architectural features, have 
 been traced with care. The regions within which similar taste 
 in Gothic building was prevalent are well marked ; and the history 
 of architecture in the Isle de France or in England shows not only 
 the regular course of progress in these areas', but the occasional 
 introduction of extraneous influences. The visits of workmen from 
 a distance are especially obvious in connection with decorative 
 work, such as carving or the fixing of stained glass ; and the inlaid 
 marbles of the Taj Mahal at Agra show us how far Italian crafts- 
 men might be willing to travel in the seventeenth century*. Civil 
 
 1 Theophilus Rugerus, Preface (Hendrie's Translation), p. li. 
 
 " Lobmeyr, Die Glasindustrie, ihre geschichte, 73. 
 
 ' E. S. Prior, A History of Gothic Art in England, p. 16. 
 
 * Ferguson, History' of Indian and Eastern Architecture (1876), 588. 
 
282 Appendix. 
 
 and domestic as well as religious buildings offer frequent examples 
 of the transplanting of particular types of design. We may notice 
 it in the stoep of the Dutch house, in the position assigned to the 
 fireplace in New England homesi, in the method of grouping 
 contiguous houses in streets, as well as in the plans which have 
 been adopted at various times for the laying out of cities^. 
 
 It is in connection with the building and decorative arts, that 
 there is the greatest mass of evidence available for tracing the 
 course of development in any locality and for detecting the intro- 
 duction of outside influences. But we have reason to suppose 
 that there is a similar story to be told in regard to other arts, 
 if we had but the means of spelling it out. The introduction of 
 ihe horse into Egypt, with all the influence which it must have 
 exercised on the arts of peace and of war, can be approximately 
 dated^ ; there are probably few lands where ploughing with oxen 
 is indigenous ; if we could trace the diffusion of this practice, 
 we might also have the means of following out the introduction 
 of the institutions for collective husbandry with which it seems 
 to be intimately connected*. 
 
 There is also an interesting field for the student of social history 
 in trying to detect the modifications which a transplanted insti- 
 tution may undergo on a new soil. It is curious to notice the 
 changes by which the craft gilds, which were organised in certain 
 English towns under the Angevins to enable colonies of aliens to 
 obtain a political status^, were adapted in the fourteenth century 
 to serve as a machinery for supervising the quality of manu- 
 
 ' Isham and Brown, Early Rhode Island Houses, p. i6, Early Con- 
 necticut Houses, p. 7. 
 
 ' See above, p. 92. In regard to the ground-plans of towns it is at 
 least clear that simplicity of design is not primitive, but has only been 
 attained in advanced civilisations. The American method of laying out 
 cities in blocks was seen to be simple, as soon as it had been introduced in 
 Philadelphia ; but it was not natural to the settlers at Montreal or Quebec, 
 at Boston or New York, or to the founders of numberless cities in the old 
 world. 
 
 * C. A. Pietrement, Les chevaux dans Its temps prihistoriques et his- 
 toriques (1883), p. 459 fol. 
 
 * Cunningham, Growth of English Industry, I. ^t. 
 f Ibid. 1. 647. 
 
Appendix. 283 
 
 factures', and survive in London in the present day to be the 
 organs of civic munificence. The difference in the course of the 
 development of the corresponding institutions in Scotch towns ^ is 
 very remarkable. Climate and soil, or social atmosphere, may 
 affect a transplanted institution very deeply, and the genius of a 
 particular country is more clearly seen in its real power of adapting 
 what it borrows, than in a fancied facility for independent origi- 
 nation ; that seems to have been a rare occurrence, depending on 
 the conjunction of personal ingenuity and exceptionally favourable 
 circumstances. 
 
 It is easy to trace analogies between the development of animal 
 life and of the social organism ; but the student of sociology is 
 often at a loss to secure a sufficient number of independent in- 
 stances to enable him to formulate well-founded generalisations 
 as to the course of human progress. There certainly appears 
 to be a considerable contrast between the evolution of new forms 
 in the animal world and the course of human history. We do 
 not find an infinite number of experiments in social progress with 
 the survival of the fittest ; there is not such marvellous pro- 
 ductivity in the social as in the animal life. Rather does it seem 
 that there is apt to be stagnation and decadence in human insti- 
 tutions, and that progress has on the whole been due to success 
 in cherishing the rare and occasional efforts of human genius. 
 
 ' Cunningham, Growth. of EngUsh Industry, 1. 342. 
 * Gross, Gild Merchant, i. 199. 
 
284 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Accounts, roi, 10$ «• 
 
 Acre, 127 IT. 
 
 Active trade, 49, 63, 63 «., 94, 
 177, 183, 201, 268 
 
 Acts of Parliament, 160; Combi- 
 nation, 240«., 248/1.; Corn Boun- 
 ties, 2 19K.; wages, 237; Factory, 
 138 «., 249; Navigation, 203, 
 241 
 
 Adam of Bremen, 109 
 
 Aden, 185 
 
 Administration, 25, 27, 33, 34, 76, 
 2i6«., 217, 218, 229, 279; eccle- 
 siastical, 141; of estates, 99, 100, 
 103; military, 173; naval, 217 «.; 
 Roman tradition of, 5, 6, 23, 24, 
 26, 41 
 
 Adriatic, 127, 12S, 178 
 
 Advenae, 59 
 
 Africa, 3, 27«., 124, 125, isr, 135, 
 136, 188, 190, 208, 229, 263; 
 Arab dominions in, 120; Arab 
 trader in, 190; Christian factories 
 in, 122; Moslem rule in, 121; 
 slave-trade of, 133; Northern 
 Africa, 115, 121, 131, 178 ; 
 South Africa, 54 «. 
 
 Agapetus, 31 
 
 Agency, business-, 180 
 
 Agra, 281 
 
 Agricultural banks, 260 «. ; classes, 
 174 ; interests, 218, 242, 243 ; 
 holdings, 234; life, J03; organi- 
 sation, 60 «., 100; population, 
 233 ; resources, 196 
 
 Agriculture, 55, ri t, 145, 154, 160, 
 162, 191, 194, 195. 2'3. 213"- 
 
 2 18, 219, 2r9»., 224, 226, 253; 
 Arabian, 116; capitalist, 167, 
 234 seq. ; in monasteries, 36 ; re- 
 volution in English, 234 ; scien- 
 tific, 209 ; fostered by Charles the 
 Great, 51, 53 
 
 Aix, 39, 49 
 
 Albigenses, 120 
 
 Albuquerque, 185, r86, 187, 189, 
 221, 224 
 
 Alexander the Great, 42, ir6, 158, 
 187, 268 
 
 Alexandria, 116 
 
 Alfred the Great, 4in., 134 
 
 Aliens, 177, 183, rgs, 222, 278; 
 colonies of, 282 ; alien merchants, 
 
 49. 59. '88 
 
 Allen, 34 
 
 Almanzar, 121 
 
 Almeida, 186 
 
 Alps, 129, 178 
 
 Amalfi, 90, 107 «., 125 
 
 Amber, 47, no, 113 
 
 Amboyna, 20o»., 201 
 
 America, 10, 15, 136, 161, 197, 
 198, 205, 208, 223, 253, 256, 
 260, 263, 265, 2 70 ; Civil War, 231; 
 colonies, 226; alleged discovery 
 of, by Norsemen, in, iii«. ; 
 discovery of, 178; Indians, I93«., 
 262; trade with, 178 «.; Central, 
 190; North, 203, 219; French in, 
 207; silver-mines of, 12; South, 
 190, 192 «. ; see also United 
 States. 
 
 Amsterdam, 176, 197, 198, 199, 
 203, 223 
 
Index. 
 
 285 
 
 Anarchism, 157, 258, 274 
 
 Ancim regime, 154 
 
 Ancona, 128 
 
 Anne of France, 157 
 
 Antilles, the, 207, 212 
 
 Antioch, 126 
 
 Antwerp, 176, 178, 179, 180, 188 «., 
 196, 198, 199, 203 
 
 Apostolic See, 85 ; see also Papacy. 
 
 Apprentices, 96, 97, 163, iSr, 238, 
 281; Statute of, 219 «. 
 
 Apprenticeship, 163 »., 237, 238 
 
 Apulia, 28 
 
 Arabia, 281 
 
 Arabs, 114 seg., 119, 125, 126, 
 183, 185, 186, 189, 200; agri- 
 culture, 116; astronomy, 115; 
 relations of with Christians, 1 20 ; 
 coins found in Sweden, no; 
 dominions in Africa, 120; in- 
 fluence, upon Frederick II, ibid., 
 116 n.; in Languedoc, 116, 120; 
 in the Mediterranean, up; in 
 Provence, n6; monopoly m In- 
 dian Ocean, 189 ; philosophy, 
 115; textiles, 116; theocracy, 
 Ii8; trading, 183, 184, 187, 189; 
 in Spain, 120 
 
 Aragon, 151, 193 ». 
 
 Archangel, no 
 
 Architecture, 70 f. 
 
 Arianism, 7«., 26»., 30, 44, 116 
 
 Arkwright, 227, 288, 233 »., 236 
 
 Aries, 2o«., 28 
 
 Armenia, 1 1 6 
 
 Armies, feudal, 170; transport of, 
 
 Artisans, 59, 180, 208, 235, 240, 
 241, 250, 256; combination of, 
 29 «. ; continental, 98 ; emigra- 
 tion, 277 ; in monasteries, 37, 
 
 Arts, decorative, 281, 282; mdus- 
 trial, in monasteries, .36; textile, 
 in nunneries, 38 «. ; transplan- 
 tation of, 275 
 
 Asia, 186, 229, 263 
 
 Asia Minor, 49 
 
 Assize of Bread, 65 «., 81 
 
 Ataulfus, 26 
 
 Athens, 93, i6o«., 170, 247 «. ; 
 
 money-economy at, 170 
 Attica, 75 
 Attila, 20 
 Augsburg, 99, 129, 156, 203 ; 
 
 capitalists of, 175 ». 
 Augustus, 33, 158 
 Australasia, 253, 260 ». 
 Australia, 54«., 240 
 Authority, ecclesiastical, 9, 141 ; 
 
 imperial, 139; moral, 18, 140; 
 
 municipal, 247 n. ; Papal, 19, 20, 
 
 140; Royal, 144, 210, 211, 
 
 157; secular, 148; seignorial, 90; 
 
 effective, 262 
 Auvergne, 22 n. 
 Avars, 46 
 Avignon, 139 
 Avitus, 20 «. 
 Azores, 191 
 
 Bagdad, 119 
 
 Balance of trade, 222 
 
 Baltic, the, 113, 114, i88»., 197, 
 198 «., 211 ; commercial life in, 
 109 ; German mercantile colonies 
 in, 112; Baltic lands, 47, 109, 
 IIS, 198; trade and traders, 112, 
 127, 201, 203; see also Hanse. 
 
 Bank, of England, 223, 2:3 «.; 
 Law's, 223 «. 
 
 Bankers, 75, 89, 94, 169, 173, 
 176; South German, 180; Italian, 
 67, 86, 176; Jewish, 75; foreign,, 
 86, 203, 272 
 
 Bantam, 200 
 
 Barbarians, 20, 23, 32, 43, in, 
 117, 138, 266; invasion of, 37; 
 Norsemen, 109 
 
 Barcelona, 127 
 
 Bari, 107 n. 
 
 Barter, 74, 131 
 
 Battle, 8s «. 
 
 Belgium, 263 
 
 Belisaiius, 30 
 
 Benedictines, 2S> 36, 38, 141, 280; 
 monastic organisation, 37; Rule, 
 141; monasteries as nuclei of 
 towns, 38 «. 
 
 Beneficia, 51 
 
286 
 
 Index. 
 
 Bergen, 113, 179 • 
 
 Berwick 279 
 
 Beverley, 95 
 
 Biervliet, 197 
 
 Bills of Exchange, 86, 176, 177 
 
 Birca, 109 
 
 Biscayan harpooners, 202 
 
 Bishop of Rome, 19, 30, 31 ; see 
 Papacy. 
 
 Bishops, mediaeval, 19, 20, 21, 91; 
 public influence of, 21, 22, 23, 
 29, 30; in North Africa, 121 
 
 Black Death, the, 10, 102, 139, 
 143, 144, 280; trade after, 14O 
 
 Black Sea, the, no, 125, 126, 127, 
 178 
 
 Bohemia, 47, 68, 86 
 
 Boileau, £tienne, 96 
 
 Book-keeping, 205 «. 
 
 Bordeaux, 47, 58 
 
 Bosphorus, the, 3 
 
 Boston, U.S.A., 282 n. 
 
 Bougie, 123 
 
 Boulogne, 47 
 
 Bourges, 155 
 
 Brabant, 197, 199 
 
 Brahmanism, 66 
 
 Brandenburg, 1 49 ». 
 
 Brazil, 188, 190 »., 203, 212 n. 
 
 Breton fishermen, 207 
 
 Bridges, 5, 39, 40, 146, 209; Barn- 
 staple, 146; Forth, 271; London, 
 98 n. ; Mayence, 48 
 
 Bridgewater, Duke of, 226 «. 
 
 Brie, 94 
 
 Bristol, i8r«. 
 
 Britain, 21, 37 ; in Roman period, 
 6, 227 «., 275 ; English invasion 
 of, 275 ; mineral wealth of, 227 «. 
 
 British Constitution, the, 280; Em- 
 pire, 244 ; economic policy, 242 ; 
 Government, 223 «. ; industry, 
 253 ; naval power, 243 ; rule, 
 266 
 
 Brokers, 180 
 
 Bruges, 73, 99, 113, 179, 180, 
 
 Brynja, 279 
 
 Building trades, 98»., 281; terms 
 used in, 128 //. 
 
 Bullion, ir, r4, 43«., 53, 84, 86, 
 173, 192, 196, 222; buUionist 
 policy, of Spain, 195, 196 ; 
 buUionist system, 222, 223 
 
 Burg, 59 
 
 Burgundians, 20»., 29, 30 
 
 Burleigh, Lord, 53, 218, 241 
 
 Bury, 92 «. 
 
 Byzantium, 41 «., 128 ».; Empire, 
 277 «.; statesmen, i68; see Con- 
 stantinople. 
 
 Cabot, 219 
 
 Cadiz, 191 
 
 Caesarius, 20 ». 
 
 Caffa, 125, 134/2. 
 
 Calicut, 131, 183 
 
 Calimala, Arte di, g^n., i6;», , 
 
 182 
 Caliphate, the, 114, 115, 116, 118 
 Camera, 86 
 Canada, 54»., 266 
 Canals, 5, 39, 40, 209, 227 «. 
 Cannanore, 184 
 Canon Law, 67, 68, 85, 153; 
 
 Canonists, 152, 175 
 Canossa, 19 
 Canynges, William, of Bristol, 
 
 156 «., 175 
 
 Cape Bojador, 131 
 
 Cape of Good Hope, 178, 199, 
 201 K. 
 
 Cape Verde Islands, 131 
 
 Capital, 8, io«., 14, 15, 136, 137, 
 158, 162 seg., 168, 170, 178, 
 196, 198 »., 203, 204»., 2IT, 
 212, 216, 223, 223 «., 226, 227, 
 236, 240, 265; in ancient Rome, 
 165 ; in the cloth manufacture, 
 165 «.; deficiency of, in 171)1 
 cent., 14; a disintegrating force, 
 167; fluidity of, 164, 177; free 
 flow of, 158, 246, 253; fresh 
 applications ofj 165 ; investment 
 of, 201, 223, 253; abroad, 253; 
 "sunk" and "fixed," 164 ».; 
 transference of, 176 
 
 Capitalism, 153, 163, 169, 235, 
 238; mediaeval, 164 
 
 Capitalist administrative machinery, 
 
tndex. 
 
 287 
 
 171; application of, 14-16; com- 
 panies, 177 «., 181; in cloth, 
 165 ; direction, 229 ; employers, 
 181-2, 235, 237; farming, 210, 
 234; German, in Spain, 194; 
 manufacturers, 195 ; merchants, 
 181 ; oligarchies, 125; triumph of, 
 235 ; organisation of agriculture, 
 234 seq.\ of industry, 195, 210, 
 232, 238, 254, 259; military or- 
 ganisation, 1 71-2; of society, 
 dangers inherent in, 166, 256 ; 
 policy, 181 ; effective supervision, 
 255; waste of, at Rome, 14 
 Capitalists, 54«., 88, 89, 97, 98, 
 
 99' "3. 136. 156. 163 «•. 170. 
 171, 175 «•> 176. 179, 180, i8o»., 
 182, 195, 204, 231, 233, 246, 
 247, 248 »., 252, 254, 259, 260, 
 262; of Augsburg, 175 «. 
 
 Capitularies, 41, 44»., 45, 48, 61, 
 104. 133; <i' Villis, 51, 53, 
 100 ». 
 
 Caravans, trade-, 63 ; caravan routes, 
 121, 126, 131, 185 
 
 Carcassonne, 92 
 
 Caribbean Islands, 1 35 ». 
 
 Carrying-trade, 178, 225 ; Dutch, 
 198, 203"; Portuguese, 204 
 
 Carthage, 6, no; archbishop of, 
 121 
 
 Carthusians, 38 
 
 Cartier, 207 
 
 Cassiodorus, Secretary of Theo- 
 doric, 24, 24 ». , 25, 28, 3 1 »., 
 81 ».; fiscal system of the time, 
 24 «. 
 
 Castile, 151 
 
 Catalans, 127 
 
 Cathedral, 85 ; Cathedral fabric- 
 rolls, 98 «. 
 
 Cato, 104 
 
 Census, 24 k., 33 
 
 Central America, 190 
 
 Ceuta, 123 
 
 Ceylon, 54 k. 
 
 Chalons, 22 n. 
 
 Champagne, Fairs of, 94, 176, 180 
 
 Champlain, 207 
 
 Charles I, of England, 215 
 
 Charles II, of England, 203 
 Charles V, Emperor, 156 «., 175, 
 
 192, 193 »., 194 «., 195, 204 «. 
 Charles VII, of France, 154, 156, 
 
 207 
 Charles VIII, of France, 157 
 Charles the Great, Charlemagne, 5, 
 
 42> S3> S4i 59. 61, 66, 76, 82, 
 
 104, 108, 109, III, 113, 114, 119, 
 120; compared with Alfred the 
 Great, 41 k. ; Church and State 
 under, 45 ; commerce under, 46 
 seg.; contrasted with Theodoric, 
 42 ; currency, 50 ; debt of English 
 civilisation to, 54; the economic 
 household under, 51; Empire of, 
 171 ; endower of monasteries, 
 44 n. ; Mediterranean fleet of, 
 47; as model king, 41, 44, 44 ». ; 
 economic policy of, compared with 
 Burleigh's, 53; the vi//a under, 
 Siseg. 
 
 Charles Martel, 114 
 
 Chateau Gaillard, 73 «. 
 
 China, 186, 200, 254 
 
 Christendom, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 
 II, 18, 19, etc., 138, 139, 140, 
 143, 146, 151, 152, 158, i6s, 
 167, 189, 197, 279 ; assimilation 
 of pagan elements by, 71; dis- 
 ruption of, 13, 138, J43, 157, 
 160, 268 ; Eastern, 32 ». ; ec- 
 clesiastical organisation of, 74, 
 76 ; economic institutions of, 70 ; 
 labour regulation in, 16; homo- 
 geneity of, 66; provinces of, 138; 
 secularisation of, i^Ssej., 145 ».; 
 social system of, 67, i6i 
 
 Christian IV, of Denmark, 198 «. 
 
 Christian chivalry, 130; conception 
 of price, 28-9; colonies, 67; duty, 
 273 ; economic doctrines, 9, 10 ; 
 ideal of civic duty, 45 ; in- 
 fluence, 27, 118, 140; principles, 
 permanent, 273 ; teaching, 7, 8, 
 10, II, 16, 23, 25, 27, 35, 45, 
 etc.; theory of slavery, 133-4 
 
 Christianity, 2, 7, 7«., 8, 9, 18, 36, 
 
 105, io8, 118; contrasted with 
 Islam, 26«., 118; civil liberty 
 
288 
 
 Index, 
 
 and, 31 H.; "established" by 
 Charles the Great, 44 ; in the 
 East, io«. ; influence of, 18, aj; 
 Latin, 29, 31 ; militant, 3, in 
 Crusades, iii, 113; Norsemen 
 converted to, 1 1 1 ; as regenerating 
 social force, 69, 118 
 
 Christians, Nestorian, 184 
 
 Church-building, 70-72, 98 ». 
 
 Church lands, 194 «. 
 
 Circulating medium, 169; see Cur- 
 rency. 
 
 Cistercians, 38, 71; see also Citeaux. 
 
 CM, in French towns, si «., 58 
 
 Citeaux, 71, 141 
 
 City, the, 158; see also Town; as 
 economic unit, 99, 244, 245- 
 
 City-states, Greek, 7, 75, 150; 
 mercantile policies of, 149 
 
 Civic economy, 89; life, 107, 150; 
 organisation, 93 ; patriotism, 
 Dutch, 204; policy, 99, 148-9; 
 nationalising of, 159 
 
 Civil Law, the, 68?*., 152, 154 
 
 Civilisation, ancient, 1; Arab, 120; 
 Greek, 66 n. ; Phoenician, ibid. ; 
 Roman, ibid., 275 
 
 Civilitas, 25 
 
 Civitas, 21, 2i»., 22». ; civitates, 
 21 
 
 Classes, the, agricultural, 174 ; 
 employing, 257 ; industrial, 169, 
 174; labouring, 256-7 ; mercan- 
 tile, 125, 169; trading, 154-5 
 
 Classical Economists, 256, 258 
 
 Clermont, 49 
 
 Clive, Lord, 265 
 
 Cloth, 94K., 99, 113, 128; cotton, 
 226, 231, 236; woollen, 230; 
 worsted, 230; cloth dressing, 
 39, 165 n. ; manufacture, 232 ; 
 merchants, 94, 230, 230 «., 235; 
 cloth trade, 194 
 
 Cloth-of-gold, 208 
 
 Clothier, 230, 230 «. 
 
 Clovis, 30 
 
 Cl^ny, 71, 141 
 
 Cnut, H2 
 
 Coal, 228 
 
 Coasting voyages, 185 
 
 Cobden, Richard, 243, 265 
 
 Coblentz, 39, 48 
 
 Cochin, 184 
 
 Codes, barbarian, 32 
 
 Coeur, Jacques, 155, 156, 175 
 
 Coinage, debasement of, the, 83, 
 169 
 
 Coins, 84, no; see Currency. 
 
 Colbert, his economic policy, 157, 
 i9o»., 203, 213, 2i3»., 214, 215, 
 219 »., 222 
 
 Coligny, 212 «. 
 
 Collection of revenue, 156, 163 «., 
 167, 172 
 
 Collect! vist trading, 123 
 
 Collectores, Papal, 87; royal, 88 
 
 Collegia, 6, 24 n., 65, 97 »., 246, 
 247 «. 
 
 Cologne, 21, 39, 48, 58; Jews at, 49 
 
 Coloni, i2«., 58 
 
 Colonial Empire, 204, 2ri, 220, 
 240, 241, 270; in the East, 200; 
 French, 207, 212; Portuguese, 
 206; Spanish, 190, 196 
 
 Colonies, British, 198, 216 «., 222, 
 240, 242, 253, 265, 266; of 
 aliens, 282; in America, 226; 
 French, 207, 212, 213, 267; Ger- 
 man mercantile, in the Baltic, 
 112; Spanish, 193, 199 
 
 Colonisation, 11, 12, 132, 162, I75»., 
 214, 227; English, 241; motive 
 of, 220, 221 ; why successful, 
 224; French, 207, 208, 211 ; 
 Greek, 158; Norse, no, iio». ; 
 Phoenician, no, no«.; Teutonic, 
 SS. 5S»-; schemes of, 227 
 
 Columbus, 131, 132, 13s ». 
 
 Combination, 248 n. ; of artisans, 
 29 ». ; freedom for, 247, 247 n. 
 
 Commerce, in, 145, 154, 162, 213, 
 221 ; active, 6, 183,201; British, 
 253 ; under Charles the Great, 
 46 seg. ; cosmopolitan, 130 ; sti- 
 mulated by Crusades, 92 ; Dutch, 
 202; Eastern, 183; French, re- 
 vival of, 207; internal, 209; inter- 
 civic, 9, 226 ; Levantine, 208 ; 
 monastic, 36, 39; Scandinavian, 
 112 
 
Index. 
 
 289 
 
 Commercial life in Baltic, 109 ; 
 colonies, 93, 124; dep6ts, 128, 
 185; Portuguese, 188; enterprise, 
 i7S»-, 213; expansion, 270; in- 
 tercourse, II, 137, 181; interests, 
 217-8; monopolies, 174; motive 
 in Crusades, 72; exclusive, 243- 
 4; regulation, rudimentary, 63; 
 routes, 128; supremacy, 211,225, 
 227 «. 
 
 Commission, dealing on, 179 
 
 Commissions, Factory, 238 «. ; 
 Mining, ibid., 239 «. 
 
 Common Estimation, 80 
 
 Communes, the, ^, 90-2, 94; rise 
 of the, 89 seq. 
 
 Communication, means of, 157, 
 226W., 245, 253-4, 260; trading 
 lines of, 127 
 
 Companies, capitalist, Vl'in., i8i ; 
 Livery, 246 ».; merchant, 157, 
 179 1 trading, English, aSn. 
 
 Company, East India, see under 
 India; of New France, 212 
 
 Competition, 176, 177, 220, 230, 237, 
 249' 255. 259, 277; foreign, 231 ; 
 rents settled by, 102 ; wages, 
 ibid. ; reckless, 247 
 
 Compositions, money-, 102 
 
 Concessions, 192 n., 194 n. ; trade-, 
 179; of tribute, 186 
 
 Congiegeld, 204 ». 
 
 Constantine, 3 
 
 Constantinople, i, io»., 26, 41a., 
 49, 68«., 90, io7»., no, 117, 
 125, 126, 127 
 
 Consuls, of trading cities, 122 
 
 Contractus Trinus, I53«. 
 
 Copper, 113 ; mining, 175 «. ; 
 -work, 281 
 
 Corbie, 44 «. 
 
 Cordova, 120, 194 
 
 Cordwainers, 65, 95 
 
 Cork, no 
 
 Com, I2»., 198, 198 »., 201, 209, 
 242, 243 ; com trade, 204 «., 
 205, 213 «.; transport, 198 
 
 Com Bounties Act, 219 ». 
 
 Corn Laws (1815), 243, 252; repeal 
 of. ^43 
 
 Corporations, industrial, 157 ; see 
 also Corps de Meiers, Gilds. 
 
 Corps de Metiers, 96-7, i8i, 210 
 
 Corpus Juris Civtlis, 152 
 
 Cosmopolitan commerce, 130 ; 
 economic policy, 253, 265 ; re- 
 lations, 248 K. ; system, 243-4, 
 264 ; interests, 262 ; police, 262, 
 267 ; welfare, 263 
 
 Cosmopolitanism and nationalism, 
 261 seq., 265 
 
 Cost of production, 81 
 
 Cotton, 124 ; cotton cloth, 226, 
 231, 236; famine, 231; trade, 
 230, 236; spinning, 231, 233 ».; 
 yam, 231, 236 
 
 Council of Paris, 32 
 
 — of Trent, 144 
 
 — Papal, 140 
 
 Country, economic definition of, 
 158, 246 »., 253 
 
 Courts, civil, 152 ; ecclesiastical, 
 ibid, and 85 ; of Piepowder, 95 
 
 Craft-gild ; see Gild. 
 
 Credit, io»., 14, 164, 170, 174, 
 202; credit system, 223 
 
 Crusades, crusading, 66, 68«., 92, 
 107 «., 108 seq., 117, 119-21, 
 123-4, 124 »., 125-6, 129-30, 
 132, 136 »., 139, 158, 164, 189, 
 206, 279 ; Second Crusade, 86 ; 
 Fourth, 126; commercial motives 
 in crusading, ibid, and 72, 108; 
 impetus to shipping, 125-6 
 
 Cuenza, 194 
 
 Cultivation, 136, 276 ; open-field, 
 234; see Tillage. 
 
 Curator, 29 
 
 Curiales, 73 n. 
 
 Currency, the, 50, 83, 84, 177, 
 223 «.; under Charles the Great, 
 
 5° 
 Customary prices, 82, 259; rates, 
 
 102-3 
 Customs, 34, 48, 76, 88, 157, 185, 
 
 187, 192, 205 «., 251, 252; see 
 
 also liez/emte. Tolls. 
 Cypres, 127 
 
 Dagobert, 38 
 
 C. W. C. II. 
 
 19 
 
290 
 
 Index. 
 
 Damnum emergens, 176 
 
 Danes, 36; Danish pirates, 115; 
 raids upon monasteries, 40 ; 
 settlement in Ireland, no 
 
 Danube, canal from, to the Main, 
 46; valley, 113, 115, 128 
 
 Danzic, 188 «. 
 
 Debts, of the Crown, 174 ».; re- 
 pudiation of, 202, 203 
 
 Defensor civitatis, 22, 28, 29 
 
 Demand and supply, 78, 177, 178, 
 227 ; demand for labour, 236 
 
 Denarii, 50 
 
 Denmark, 3, 197; German colonies 
 in, 112 
 
 Deportation of population, 278, 
 278 «. 
 
 Depositaries, 86 
 
 Depots, commercial, ioj«., 128, 
 178, 185 
 
 Derby, 1 10 ; Derbyshire, 227 «. 
 
 Dialogus de Scaccario, 87 
 
 Dieppe, 208 
 
 Dignity of labour, 35, 36 
 
 Diminishing returns, law of, 256 ». 
 
 Diocletian, regulation of prices 
 under, 28 
 
 Discipline, industrial, 250, 258 ; 
 self-discipline, 273 
 
 Discovery, of the New World, 129; 
 voyages of, 183 
 
 Disintegration, economic, of the 
 household, i%8n.,'m; of nation- 
 al economic life, 235 ; social, 145, 
 146, 260-1, 274 
 
 Diversarum arlitim Schedula, 280 
 
 Division of labour, 235 
 
 Domesday Book, 61 n. 
 
 Domestic industry, 202 «., 235, 
 238, 250, 261 
 
 Dominicans, the, 121 
 
 Dordrecht, 197 
 
 Dover, 84 «. 
 
 Drapers, 96, 230, 277 
 
 Dublin, no 
 
 Dupleix, 207 
 
 Dutch, 189, 197, 198 «., 200-2, 
 204-6, 212, 215, 217, 282 ; 
 carrying-trade, 198; 203 ; com- 
 mercial system, 198, 204; fisher- 
 
 men, 203; monopoly, 198, 203; 
 naval administration, 2r7«. ; pas- 
 turage, 197; policy in India, 221; 
 prosperity, 203 ; shipping, 196 
 seq. ; East India Company, 206; 
 West India Company, 203; 199, 
 200, 204, 226; trade, 198, 198 «., 
 202, 2X1 ; wool, 197 
 
 Duties, import, 202; see Customs. 
 
 Duty, civil, Christian ideal of, 16, 
 
 45. 273 
 Dyeing, dyers, 230, 280 
 
 East, the, low., 73, 124, 126, 127, 
 r29, 131, 155, 178, 183, 185, 
 200, 207, 215, 224, 226, 231, 
 279 ; the " changeless," 229 ; 
 civilisation of, 267 ; Dutch in, 
 199 seq.; direct route to, 272; 
 legislative codes of, X33; English 
 Empire in, 200, 224 
 
 East, the Far, 263 , 
 
 East India Co., 221, 222 
 
 Eastern Empire, 32 «., 43«., 44, 
 107 n. 
 
 Ebro, 46 
 
 Ecclesiastics, 275 
 
 Economic policy, 12, 16, 53, 146 
 ■s^?-. I54> 158-9. 160, 175, 182, 
 189, 190, 192, 195, 209, 214, 
 217-19 «., 224, 241, 243, 251- 
 3, 264-6 
 
 Economy, civic, 89; household, 81, 
 99 seq. 
 
 Edward I, 12, 73, 76, 84»., 88, 
 89, 92 
 
 Edward III, 88, 203 
 
 Edward IV, I56». 
 
 Egypt, 1, 6, 49, 127, 134 »., 15s, 
 185, 186, 23r, 265, 268, 271, 
 282 
 
 Elbe, no 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 53, 215, 216 «., 
 218, 219, 236 
 
 Elizabethan economic regulation, 
 236, 247 
 
 Emigration, 240, 241, 253, 277 
 
 Emmanuel, King of Portugal, 185 
 
 Emperor, men of, 112 
 
 Emperor and Pope, 2, 9, 67, 140 
 
Index. 
 
 291 
 
 Emperor, Roman, 72, 139, 154, 
 
 109 
 Employers, capitalist, 181, 182, 235, 
 
 237. i»57 
 
 Employment, inconstancy of, 232 
 
 Enamel, 281 
 
 Enclosures, 234, 234 «. 
 
 England, 11, 12, 34, 41, 47, 50, 
 S3, 68, 72, 76, 86, 88, 89, 90, 
 94«., 96«., 98, 99, 100, loi, 
 no, 128 »., 139, 146, 148, i6yn., 
 
 i73»-. 174. 175. '77. i77»-. 
 igo^., 197, 203, 206 »., 209, 
 2n, 215, 216, 219, 220, 222, 
 223, 223 «., 224, 225, 226, 226 »., 
 227, 227 »., 229, 240, 244, 246, 
 253. 254, 256, 263, 264, 26s, 
 266, 267, 275, 277, 281 ; Bank 
 of, 223 ».; expansion of, 241; 
 export of wool, 81 ; Jews in, 
 89 ; landed aristocracy in, 54 ; 
 national unity of, 151 «.; Papal 
 influence in, 85 
 
 English, agriculture, 218; as inven- 
 tors and pioneers, 16, 225 ; 
 capital, 204 «. ; colonies, 212, 
 216 «., 217, 218, 220, 221, 240, 
 241 ; in India, 221 ; manufac- 
 tures, 199, 222, 228, 230; mari- 
 time power, 203, 215, 218, 219; 
 mercantile system, 215; shipping, 
 193, 218, 221, 226, 241, 251 
 
 Enterprise, commercial, 213, 243, 
 263; maritime, 109, 111, 124; 
 Viking, 112 
 
 Environment, 268 
 
 Erfurt, 47 
 
 Ergastula, 53 , 
 
 Eric, the Red, no 
 
 Essay, 97 
 
 Estate, 174, 209, 219; abbey, 
 142; accounts of, loi; bailiff of, 
 loi ;- Tuscan, 1^6 n.; manage- 
 ment, 100, 139, 175 «. 
 
 Eurasians, 187 
 
 Euphrates, 185 
 
 Exchange, 79, 80 ; , Bills of, 86, 
 176, 177; foreign, 84, 176, 187; 
 tables, 84 «. , ; 
 
 Exchequer, English, &7 
 
 Excise, 251 
 
 Explorers, 131, 227 
 
 Export trade, 81, 82, 86, 88, 231 
 
 Sxtenia, 52, loi 
 
 Factories, Commercial, 63, no, 179; 
 189, 198; Christian among Mo- 
 hammedans, 122, 127; German, 
 in Baltic, 112; industrial, 232, 
 238, 250 
 
 Factory Inspectors, 246, 261 
 
 Fairs, 6, 6r, 84, 94, 109, 176, 
 178, 180, 278; at Troyes, 48; 
 at Paris, 48 
 
 Family, as economic unit, 244, 
 
 ,245 
 Farmer, capitalist, 210, 234; 
 
 peasant, 276; small, 232, 234 
 Farming, the revenue, 163 
 Faubourg, 21 k. 
 Fecamp, 39 
 Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, 
 
 131. 151, '91 
 Ferrara, 128 
 Ferm, 87 
 Fife, 279 
 Finance, 155, 174, 253; Paj>al, 
 
 &^seq., 87,. I7r, 176 
 Financiers, 153, 159, 169, 173, 
 
 202, 211 
 Firma uttius noctis, 82 
 Fishery, 202, 178, 197, 202, 219 
 Flanders, 4, 55, 66, 72, 88, 90, 
 
 "9> i39> 148, 149' 165 »■. i97> 
 
 199, 202 ; clothing trades in, 
 
 39, 197; Galleys, 130 
 Florence, 73, 94, 94«., 99, 149, 
 
 165, 182, 202, 208 
 Florentines, 123, 128, 178 
 Florida, 212 «. 
 
 Fluctuations in trade, 232, 236, 247 
 Food supply, 160, 213 «., 214, 
 
 231, 242, '243, 251, 255-6, 264 
 Foreign Exchanges, see Exchange. 
 Forestalling, 29, 80 
 Fortification, military, 73, 128 «. 
 Forth Bridge, 271 
 France, 4, n, 16, 22, 34, 36, 41, 55, 
 
 58, 66, 72, 73, 85«., 90, 96:«., 
 
 119, 121, 136 «., 139, ,r46, 148, 
 
292 
 
 Index. 
 
 151. i54> 15s. i69»-> i77> 181, 
 
 197, 202, 206, 207, 208, 210, 
 211, 214, 215, 216, 217, 222, 
 223 «., 226, 227, 240, 263, 281; 
 
 Isle de, 281 ; New, 212 
 Francis I, 207, 208 
 Franciscans, 121 
 Franks, 2, ion., 24, 25, 29, 30, 
 
 31. 32. 33. 34. 44 
 Prankish Empire, 23, 45, 47, 49, 
 
 91 n. ; slave-trade, 45 
 Frederick II, Emperor, 116 
 French colonial empire, 207, 212 
 Friars, 142, 143 
 Frith Gilds, 65 
 
 Fuggers, r56»., 175, 192 «., 203 
 Fulda, 44 ». 
 
 Furs, trade in, 47, 113, 121, 201 
 Fustian manufacture, 211 
 
 Gama, Vasco da, 131, 183 
 
 Gascony, 88, 156 
 
 Gau, 22 n. 
 
 Gaul, 12, 21, 25, 37 
 
 Gebhart, Bp, 59, 281 
 
 Geneva, 176 
 
 Genoa, 93, ^g, 121, 133, 125, 126, 
 128, I34»., 178, 196 
 
 Georgia, 54 ». 
 
 German, 265 ; capitalists, 194 ; 
 factories in Baltic, 112; finan- 
 ciers, 202 ; merchants, 1 78 
 
 Germany, 4, 5«., 21, 41, sS. 66, 
 68, 72, 73, 98, 119, 136 «., 139, 
 146, 149, ISO, 151, 197, 202, 
 231, 263, 264, 281 
 
 Gesta, 23 
 
 Geselle, 98 
 
 Ghent, 73, 96, 197 
 
 Gilbert of Sempringham, 38 «. 
 
 Gilds, 6, 63, 65, 93, 167, 195, 
 202 »., 233 »., 235; craft, 103, 
 165, 181, 182, 2i6«., 238«. ; 
 jouirneymen, 167 n. ; masons, 
 98 n. ; merchant, 64, 96 n. 
 
 Goa, 186, 187 
 
 Gold, 121, 131, 191, 222; ratio of 
 to silver, 83; Cloth of, 208 
 
 Gothland, 109 
 
 Goths, 2o»., 26, 16 n., 30, 44, 
 
 173 «., 266 
 Governmental, initiative, 207, 214, 
 
 226; monopolies, 174, 192 
 Guienne, 156 
 Guinea Coast, 131 
 Gustavus Adolphus, ig8«. 
 Granada, 130, 151, igr 
 Great Britain, 225, 226, 228, 231, 
 
 236. 243, 259, 260 
 Greece, 6, 160 «., 281 
 Greek, city states, 75, 150, 266; 
 
 colonisation, 158 
 Greenland, 86, no 
 Greifswald, 112K. 
 Grosseteste, Robt., Rules of, 100 
 
 Hadrian, i, 3 
 
 Hanse, 63 «. 
 
 Hanse towns, 113, 114, 127, 156, 
 
 179, 188 »., 198, 198 «., 201 
 Hargreaves, 233 «. 
 Haroun-al-Raschid, 46 
 Hatfield Chase, 216 
 Havana, 191 
 Helmershausen, 280 
 Henry I (Eng.), 95, 173 «. 
 Henry II (Eng.), 65 ». 
 Henry IV (Emp.), 19 
 Henry IV (Fr.), 147, 157, 190 «., 
 
 208, 209, 210, 211 
 Henry VIII (Eng.), 218 
 Henry, Prince, the navigator, 129, 
 
 135, 19° 
 Heraclea, 21 «., 261, 263 
 Hidalgos, 195 
 Hilda of Whitby, 38 «. 
 Holland, 151, 177, 180, i96fol., 
 
 209, 211, 216, 217, 225, 231 
 Holy Land, 108 
 
 Holy Office, 188 
 
 Household, as economic unit, 51, 
 
 54. ^> 238, 238 «. 
 Household economy, 81, 99 seq., 
 
 278 
 Huguenot, 212 »., 214, 222 
 Humanists, 145 ». 
 Hume, Joseph, 248 n. 
 Hungary, 175 «. 
 Huns, 20, 21 «., 59, 119 
 
Index. 
 
 293 
 
 Iberian peninsula, 47, 189, 190 
 Iceland, 3, no, 113 
 Immunities, 39, 49, 50, 50 
 Incidence of Taxation, 76, 169 »., 
 
 452 
 Income-tax, 252 
 India, S4«., 66, 183, 187, 190, 
 
 221, 223, 229, 253, 260, 261, 
 
 265, 266, 267 
 Indian Ocean, 183, 184, 188, 189 
 Indiction, 33 
 Indies, East, 161, 183, 187, 196, 
 
 197, 198, 200, 200 »., 215, 221, 
 
 226; West, 54«., 131, 196, 
 
 203 
 Individual initiative, 216, 228, 243 
 Individualism, 244, 247 »., 256, 
 
 ■273 
 
 Indulgences, 146 
 
 Industrial arbitration, 236; arts, 6, 
 7, 36; classes, 169, 174, 247! 
 corporations, 157 ; depression, 
 230; revolution, 167, iSo seq., 
 225 seq., 233n., 238, 244, 246, 
 ^49' 253. 263, 277 
 
 Industry, capitalist organisation of, 
 202, 210, 238, 254, 259; domes- 
 tic, 250, 261 
 
 Ingenuits, 32 ». 
 
 Inland Revenue, 252 
 
 Innocent III, 121 
 
 Interest on loans, 108, 176, 180, 
 260 
 
 Inter-municipal trade, 92, 113, 173, 
 226 
 
 Invention, age of, 225 fol., 232, 
 Hi> ^53> 258, 264, 269, 270 
 
 Ireland, 3, 47, no, 253 «., 278 
 
 Irminon, Abbot, iio?2. 
 
 Iron, 113, 227, 227 »., 228 
 
 Islam, 49, ii6, 118, 130 
 
 Isenbert, 98 «. 
 
 Isle de France, 281 
 
 Isonzo, Battle of, 27 
 
 Jtalian bankers, 67, 86, 89, 176 
 
 Italy, 4, 27, 30, 39, 43, 47, 66, 
 72, 84, 90, 113, 119, 120, I2r, 
 126, 128, I36?»., 139, 148, 149, 
 150, 151, i6o»., 181, 2b8, 263, 
 277«., 281 
 
 Ivory, 121, 281 
 
 James I (of England), 215, 219 
 
 Japan, 15, 186, 200, 254 
 
 Java, 200 
 
 Jerusalem, 72, 126 
 
 Jews, 26«., 49, 75, 89, 143, 278 «. 
 
 John the Good (King of France), 
 
 John (King of England), 98 ». 
 
 Jo^iah, 45 
 
 Journeyman, 96, 97, i8o; gilds, 
 
 167 n. 
 Judaea, 268 
 Judices, 51, 52 
 Juniiiges, 39 
 Jumna, 47 
 Justinian, I2«., 30, 31, 49, 153 
 
 Kind, payments in, 82, 88, 100, 
 
 I02 
 
 Kirkvirall, 4 
 
 Labour, as Christian discipline, 
 106; as drudgery, 35; dignity of, 
 35> 36 ; division of, 235 ; free 
 flow of, 158, 246, 253; migration 
 of, 182; of children, 233, 238- 
 9, 239 «., 250; of women, 233, 
 239, 250; organisation of, 103, 
 167, 248, 271; regulation of, 16, 
 
 ^S7 
 Laffemas, 209, 210, 238, 341, 247 
 Lana, arte di, 94«., 165 «. 
 Lancashire, 227 «. 
 Landed interests, 91, 223, 252, 
 
 260 
 Languedoc, 90, 116, 120 
 Law, John, 223 «. 
 Law, see Canon, Civil. 
 Law merchant, 3, 91, 95, 153, 
 
 280 
 Law, Salic, 31 ; sumptuary, 195 
 Leicester, 1 10 
 Leo the Great, 20 
 Leo the Isaurian, 277 «. 
 Levant, 108, 185, 201, 2S0 
 Levantine trade, 46, 50, 127, 208 
 Lewis of Bavaria, 142 
 Liguria, 28 
 
 19—3 
 
294 
 
 indi 
 
 ex. 
 
 Linen manufacture, 199, ill 
 
 Lisbon, 178, 188, 199, 204 ». 
 
 Lisieux, Bishop of, 8i 
 
 Lithuania, 3 
 
 Livre des MHiers, 96 n. 
 
 Loans, 156, 169, 174 fol., idon. 
 
 Locke, John, 31 »., 252 
 
 Loire, 40, 64 
 
 Lombards, 173 
 
 London, 65, 94, 95,. 98, 110, 113, 
 
 '75> '79. m. 223, 226, 137, 
 
 242, 283 
 Louis XI, 154, 157, 207 
 Louis XIV, 13, 206, 214 
 Loiivain, 197 
 I-ouvre, 210 
 Lucrum cessans, 175-6 
 Ludovic and Lotliaire, 44, 45 
 Liibeck, 112, 113 
 Luther, 157 
 
 Luxury, 118, 128, 208, 217 
 Lyons, 22 «., 156, 172?;., 176, 
 
 180, 208, 2 10 
 
 Macchiavelli, I73«. 
 
 Machinery, 14, 227 «. , 229, 232, 
 
 236,. ^47. 248, 263, 274, 277; 
 
 administrative, 159, 213, 250, 
 
 261, 275, 282 
 Macon, 22 «. 
 Madagascar, 200, 212 
 Madeiras, 131 
 Magdeburg, 47, 49 
 Majorca, 120 
 Afajores, 51 
 Malabar coast, 184 
 Malacca, 1 85 
 Malthus, 242 ». 
 Manchester School, 248 «. 
 Maneriiim, 10 r 
 Marburg, 44 «• 
 Margus, 21 n. 
 Market, 58, 80, 94, 231, 2C0 ; 
 
 colonial, 194; money-, 173, 176, 
 
 177, 180; foreign, 230, 231, 264, 
 
 265; limited, 226 
 Market Cross, 61 
 Marlborough, 95 
 Marseilles, 46, 123, 12O, 155 
 Masons, 98»., 128». 
 
 Mauritius, 207 
 
 Maximum prices, 28, 45»., 194 
 
 Mayence, 21, 47, 48, 58 
 
 Medicine, 115, 119 
 
 Medicis, Marie de, 211 
 
 Mediterranean, 47, 108, 109, 114, 
 119, 124, 126, 130, 132, 155, 
 165, '87, 196, 198, 201, 272 
 
 Mercantilists, 43 »., 222, 223, 245 
 
 Mercanzia, 64 ». 
 
 Mercatum legUimiiin, 61 
 
 Mercenaries, 155, 171, 172 
 
 Mercers, 94 
 
 Merchant Adventurers, 179 «. 
 
 Merchant, GiId-,7« Gild Merchant, 
 64 
 
 Merchant, Law-, see Law Merchant, 
 
 9'. 95 
 Merovingian kings, 33, 36, 39, 
 
 S3. 
 Messina, 1 28 
 Mesta, 194 
 Metals, 121; precious, 11, 50, 83, 
 
 8672., 222, 223 
 Metayer, 209 
 Methuen treaty, 204 
 Metz, 2 1 
 Mexico, 191 
 Middlemen, 28, 50 
 Migration, 182, 277 
 Mines, 182, 192, 222, 226, 246; 
 
 Commission on, 238 »., 239 «. 
 Mining, 53, 62, 136, 192, 193, 
 
 219, 259; concessions, 156; 
 
 copper, 175 ».; quicksilver, 175 
 
 n. ; silver, 1 75 n. 
 Ministers' accounts, 53, 102 
 Missi, 59 
 
 Missionaries, in, 130, 270 
 Mississippi, 207 
 Mohammedan, 3, 18 «., 267/., 49, 
 
 108, 126, r34, 140, 155, 184, 
 
 188, 224 
 Monasteries, 35 seq., 56, 57, 58, 
 
 59, 67, 84, 100, HI, 142, 144,. 
 
 146, 147, 187 ; Agricullurtf' of, 
 
 36; artisans in, 37, 38; commer- 
 cial and trading side of, 38-9; 
 
 towns at, 58 
 Money, 74, 75, 78, 82, 83, 159, 
 
Index. 
 
 295 
 
 176; -aristocracy, 91; -bargaining, 
 259 ; -changing, 84 ; -economy, 
 54.74. 7S. 76. 77. 87, 89, 89«., 
 99. 13s. 137. 153. 'SO. 104. 
 I0S> 167. 170, 260; -lending, 
 134 «., 167, 175; -market, 173, 
 170, 180; revenue, 75, 76 
 
 Moneyed interest, 91, 136 »., 169, 
 152; 260 
 
 Moneyers, 65 w. 
 
 Monopoly, 127, 174, 183, 189, 
 200, 221, 260, 272, 277 ; Dutch, 
 198, 200, 203; prices, 29»., 176 
 
 Monsoon, 185 
 
 Montesquieu, 280 
 
 Montpazier, 92 
 
 Montpellier, 126, 155 
 
 Montreal, 212, 282 «. 
 
 Moors, 47 
 
 Moravia, 47 
 
 Moral authority, 18, 140 
 
 Moriscos, 195 
 
 Morocco, \i<jseq. 
 
 Moslems, see Mohammedan, 
 
 Nantes, 47 
 
 Napoleon, igp 
 
 Narbonne, \^, 49 
 
 Narses, 30 
 
 Nation, 157, 244, 245, 251 
 
 Nationalities, rise of, 11, 12, 151, 
 
 158, 162, 268 
 Natural economy, 50, 74, 75, 77, 
 
 83. 87, 88, 99, 103, 109, 139, 
 
 '53. "58, ^63 fol., 193, 209, 
 
 259, 260 
 Nautae Parisiani, 34 
 Navigator, Prince Henry, 129 seq., 
 
 '35. 19° 
 Negapatam, 200 «. 
 Negociator ecclesiae, 39, 58, 193 
 Nestorian, 184 
 
 Netherlands, see Holland, Flanders. 
 Netherlander, 178, 197, 198, 204 
 New England, 282 
 New France, 212 
 New World, 136, 167, 208, 214, 
 
 215, 217, 226, 263; see Ameriea. 
 New York, 282 «. 
 New Zealand, 26011. 
 
 Nile Valley, 265 
 
 Ntmes, 60 
 
 Nomads, 255 
 
 Noricum, 20 
 
 Normandy, 156, 212; Dukes of, 
 
 112 
 Normans, 50, 54, 71, 120, 124 «., 
 
 '3°. 
 Norse, no, 130, 280 
 Norsemen, 47, 59, 108, 109, no, 
 
 J13. 119. 13* 
 North Cape, no 
 Norwegians, 112 
 Norwich, 92 ». 
 Novgorod, 1 13, 179 
 Nuremburg, 129 
 
 Occam, William of, 142, 143, 
 
 Oder, 47, no 
 
 Odessa, 205 
 
 Odyssey, 109 
 
 Olfa of Mercia, 47 
 
 Old Sarum, 92 11. 
 
 Oligarchies, 92, 125, 145, 210, 
 
 2IO». 
 
 Open field cultivation, 234 
 
 Opera vendita, 102 
 
 Oresme, Nicholas, 82 sq., 83 
 
 Organisation, agricultural, 60 «., 
 100; capitalist, i63«., 171, 181, 
 232, 249, 257 ; civic, 93 ; com- 
 mercial, 159; fiscal, 86, 155; 
 industrial, 95 secj., ijg, 272, 248 
 
 Orleans, 20, 49 
 
 Ormuz, 185 
 
 Ostrogothic kingdom, 42-3, 45 
 
 Ostrogoths, 24 
 
 Oxford, 95 
 
 Pacific, 263 
 
 Paganism, 9, i8«., 71 
 
 Falseologus, Michael, I26«. 
 
 Papacy, 30«., 85, 106; and Em- 
 pire, 67, see Revenue. 
 
 Paper money, 223 «. 
 
 Paper-making, 277 
 
 Paris, 48, 49, 58, 9r«., 96, 157, 
 2 10, 208; butchers, 34«., craft- 
 gilds in, 96; fairs at, 48, 48 ». 
 
 Passive trade, 64, 268 
 
296 
 
 Index. 
 
 Pasture, 191, 194, 197, 269 
 
 Patents, no, 216 ». 
 
 Patiens, Bp., 12 ». 
 
 Pax Romano, 30 
 
 Payments in kind, 74, 88, 100 
 
 Payments, money-, 84, 102 
 
 Fekin,. 46 
 
 Pepper, 185 
 
 Perigord, 22 
 
 Perigueux, 22 
 
 Persia, 126, 199 «. • 
 
 Persian Gulf, 183, 185 
 
 Peru, 191 
 
 Pesos, 192 
 
 Pessimism, ii%seq. 
 
 Peterborough, 92 «. 
 
 Peter's pence, 85 
 
 Petershausen, 59 
 
 Philadelphia, 282 n. 
 
 Philip II (of Spain), 192, 199, 
 
 202 
 Phoenicia, i, 6, 66»., no, 185 »., 
 
 269 
 Piazza S. Marco, Venice, 73 
 Piepowder, Courts of, 95 
 Pilgrimages, 46, 59, 63, 67, 278 
 Pipe Rolls, 87 
 
 Piracy, 113, 122, 132, 191, 271 
 Pisa, 123, 128 
 Place, Francis, 248 «. 
 Plantagenet, 130 
 Plantations, 136, 219 
 Plassy, 230 ». 
 Plate-fleet, 191, 192 
 Poland, 198, 198 «. 
 Pole, W. de la, 54 
 Polyptyque, 100 «. 
 Pombal, Marquis of, igow. 
 Pomerania, 47 
 Pope, 67, 84, 139 
 Pope's merchants, 86, 87 
 Portugal, II, 130, 131, 18s, 188, 
 
 197, igg, 201, 224, 270 
 Postal service, 24«. , 34«., 272 
 Potosi, mines of, 192 
 Power-loom, 232 
 Precious metals, 50, 83, 86«., 222, 
 
 223 
 Price, .Christian doctrine of, 9, 28; 
 
 just, 78, 84 ; maximum, 81 ; 
 
 customary, 82, 259; fall of, 2C0; 
 monopoly, 29 n. ; reasonable, 
 81, 103; rise of, 194, 195; regu- 
 lated, 28, 255 
 
 Proven9als, 127 
 
 Provence, 39, 90, 114, 123, 126 
 
 Prum, 39 
 
 Prussia, 198 
 
 Pyrenees, 114 
 
 Quakers, 212 
 
 Quebec, 230 k., 267, 282 «. 
 Quicksilver, I7S»., 192 ». 
 Quit-rents, 82 
 
 Raids, 40, 59, 109 
 
 Rate, of interest, 180, 260; of 
 
 wages, 102, 232, 236; of foreign 
 
 Exchange, 84; monopoly, 176 
 Ratio, of gold and silver, 83 
 Ravaillac, 211 
 Ravenna, 24 
 
 Reasonable prices, 81, 103 
 Recipes, 280 
 Red Sea, 178, 183, 185 
 Redemptionists, Order of, 121 
 Reformation, 13, 35, 67, 86, 157 
 Regrating, 29 
 Renaissance, 145 
 Rent-charge, 168 
 Rentier, 252 
 Rents, competition of, 102; quit-, 
 
 82 ; sale of, 168 
 Reservations, 262 
 Revenue, 75, 88, 174, 209, 218, 
 
 252, 253 ; collection of, 156, 
 
 163, 167, 172; farming, 163; 
 
 towns, 93; Papal, 67, 85, 145; 
 
 Royal, 87 seq., 155 ; Spanish, 
 
 192 
 Rhine, 39, 46, 112, 197 
 Rhine valley, 48, 55, 58, 90 
 Rhodes, H3«. 
 Richard, Bp, 87 
 Richelieu, 211, 212, 213, 214 
 Riga, II 2 ». 
 Right of search, 238 «. 
 Robert, Bp of S. Andrews, 279 
 Robert of Sicily, 203 
 Rochelle, 11 1». 
 
Index. 
 
 297 
 
 Rogkerus, 280 
 
 Roman Empire, 1, 3, 1, 41, 64, 
 
 69, 106, 138, 139, 140, IS9, 
 
 166, id^, 280 ; Provinces- of, 
 
 138 
 Roman Law, 'Jan., 152, 153, 154, 
 
 280 ; survivals, 6, 33, 60, 63, 
 
 ^Si 109; tradition, 41, 64; villa, 
 
 6, 37. 53. 100 
 Rome, 3, 18, 42, 65, 75, 85, 97«., 
 
 104, 107 «., 109, 247 ». 
 Root crops, 202 
 Rostock, 112 «. 
 Rouen, 38, 47, 96, 157, 208, 211 k.; 
 
 cordwainers at, 65 
 Routes, Alpine, 129; caravan, 121, 
 
 126, 131, 185; commercial, 128, 
 
 178 
 Russia, 113, 127, ig8, 201, 263 
 
 Sagas, 109, no, in, 132 
 
 S. Agatha, 71 «. 
 
 S. Ambrose, 31 
 
 S. Anianus, 20 
 
 S. Augustine, 35 
 
 S. Benedict, 36, 67 
 
 S. Boniface, 5 ». , in 
 
 S. Columba, 18 
 
 S. Columbanus, 5 «. , 38 
 
 S. Eligius, 38, 134 
 
 S. Louis, 16 
 
 S. Lupus, 20 
 
 S. Magnus, 4 1 k. 
 
 S. Paul, 133 
 
 S. Peter's at Rome, 146 
 
 S. Severinus, 20 
 
 St. Andrews, 279 
 
 St. Lawrence, 207 
 
 St. Malo, 211 ?«. 
 
 St. Omer, 63 ». 
 
 St. Wandrille, 39 
 
 Saintonge, 98 n. 
 
 Salic Law, 31 
 
 Salisbury, 92 n. 
 
 Salt, 63 
 
 Samaria, 27872. 
 
 Sanctuary, 59 
 
 Sanctus bell, X23 
 
 Sanitation, 245, 246, 250 
 
 Saracens, 191 
 
 Sardinia, 120, 125 
 
 Saxons, 36, 43, 44, 46, 82 
 
 Saxony, 3, 62 
 
 Scandinavia, 3, 41, n3, 177 
 
 Scheldt, 1 80 
 
 Scotland, 3, 77»., 92K., 277, 283 
 
 Scudi de ntarche, 177 
 
 Search, right of, 238K. 
 
 Secularisation, 138 J«?., ij^^n., 152, 
 
 162 
 Security, 17, 19, 24K., 59, 122, 
 
 262, 267, 272; loans on, 173, 
 
 "74 
 
 Seine, 34, 39, 40, 64, 109, 157 
 
 Self-sufficiency, economic, 264 
 
 Semites, 119 
 
 Sempringham, Gilbert of, 38 ». 
 
 Senegal, 131, 212 
 
 Seneschaucie, 100 
 
 Septimania, 47, 90, 114, 125, 155 
 
 Serfs, 58, 77, 82, loi, 102, 13s, 
 142, 167 
 
 Serres, Olivier de, 209 
 
 Seville, 191, 192, 194 
 
 Shearmen, 230 
 
 Sheep-farming, 194, 219 «., 242, 
 234 K. 
 
 Sheffield, 232 
 
 Sheriff, 87, 88 
 
 Shipping, 188, 196; Dutch, 169 
 seq., 204, 226; English, 218, 221, 
 226, 241, 251; impetus by Cru- 
 sades, 125-6 ; Venetian, 201 
 
 Sicily, 84, ii6«., 124 «., 125; 
 Mohammedans in, 120; Normans 
 in, ib. 
 
 Silk, 99, 124, 128, 208; cultiva- 
 tion, I2«. ; manufacture, 211; 
 trade, 181, 194, 199 «., 277 
 
 Silver, 51, 189, 191, 193, 196, 222; 
 mining, 175 «.; plate, 191; 
 ratio of, to gold, 83 
 
 Sinews of war, 222 
 
 Steuart, Sir Jas., 242 n. 
 
 Slave industry, 167, 247 n. ; trade, 
 45, 112, 131, 193, 278 
 
 Slavery, 54«., 109, 118, 137, 166; 
 Christian theory of, 133-4 . i" 
 Italy, 136 «.; manumission, 134 
 
 Sliding-scale, 81 
 
298 
 
 Index. 
 
 Smelting, coal, 227 «. 
 
 Smith, Adam, 198 »., 241, i%x 
 
 Smuggling, 196 
 
 Smyrna, 201 
 
 Social disintegration, 146, 260-1, 
 
 274 
 Socotra, 185 
 Solidi, 50 
 Solignac, 38 
 Solon, 75 
 Sorbonne, 147 
 Sound, 198 «., 203 
 South Africa, 54 «. ; see Afiica 
 Spain, 3, ir, 46, 114, 119, 121, 
 
 125, 151, 174, 175K., 189, 191, 
 
 192, 194 «., 196, 199, 202, 222, 
 
 270 
 Spanish policy, 190, 195-6; cloth, 
 
 191; colonial empire, 196, 199; 
 
 revenue, 192; wool, 191 
 Speyer, 21 
 Spice Islands, 185, 198, 200 ; 
 
 monopoly, 200; trade, 184, 185, 
 
 199, 199 ». 
 Spinning, 230, 235; cotton-, 231, 
 
 233 »., 239; machinery, 233; 
 
 wool-, 233 
 Standard of comfort, 166, 242 »., 
 
 249, 256, 258, 271 
 Staple 191, 200 »■ 
 Starvation wages, 237 
 Stationary State, 75 
 Steam-engine, invention of, 227 k. 
 Steelyard, 63 
 Stint, \l^n. 
 Stock in trade, 164 
 Stoep, 282 
 Stores, naval, 218 
 Stralsund, iiin. 
 Strasburg, 21, 48, 58, 165 
 Stuarts, 215, 2i6k. 
 Subiaco, 72 
 Suez, 185 
 Sugar, 124, 201 n. 
 Sully, 157, 209 
 Suliman, 184 ». 
 
 Supply and demand, 78, 177, 227 
 Supply, food-, 160, 213 fi., 214, 
 
 231, 242, 243, 251, 255-6, 264; 
 
 of water, 245 
 
 Supervision, capitalist, 233, 238, 
 
 Supremacy, commercial, 211, 225, 
 
 227 «. 
 Surveys, 52, 100 
 Survivals, see Homan. 
 Sweden, 113, 20 r; Arabian coins 
 
 in, no 
 Swiss, 172, 172 «. 
 Switzerland, 5 n., 151 
 Syracuse, 128 
 Syria, 12 «, 119, 124, 126, 155 
 
 Taille, 155, 174 
 
 Taj Mahal, 281 
 
 Tangier, 130 
 
 Taxation, 27, 33, 76, 85, 88, 96»., 
 loi, 155, 168, i69»., 174, 213, 
 218, 242, 252, 260, 275; inci- 
 dence of, 76, 1697/., 252; Papal, 
 67, 84, 145; remitted, 28 
 
 Technique, 277 
 
 Templars, 86»., 140 
 
 Territorial policy, ii,(>seq. 
 
 Teutonic Knights, in, 113 
 
 Textile trades, 14, 38 k., 116, 128, 
 193, 226 
 
 TheAtre df Agriculture, 209 
 
 Theism, 118 
 
 Theocracy, 118 
 
 Theodoric, 7.111., 23 fol., 41 fol. 
 
 Theodosius, 31 
 
 Thessalonica, 2i«., 31 
 
 Tiberius, 34 
 
 Tillage, 37, 53, 102, 191, 193, 
 205, 2I9«., 234, 242, 255, 269 
 
 Tithes, 44, 86, 252 ; in Greenland, 
 86 
 
 Token money, 83 
 
 Toledo, 194 
 
 Tolls, 36»., 61, 91, 157, 198 «.; 
 arbitrary, 48, 48n., see Customs. 
 
 Town, as economic centre, 93 ; 
 economic definition of, 56, 67> 
 72 ; survival of Roman, 60, 65 ; 
 walls, 6i, 174; as money-lenders, 
 175; nuclei of, 38 k.; institutions 
 in, 92 ; revenue of, 93 
 
 Touraine, 22 
 
 Tours, 22 
 
Index, 
 
 299 
 
 Trade, 107; Balance of, ^^'i\ carry- 
 ing, 178, 198, 203, 225; export, 
 81, 82, 86; fluctuations in, 232, 
 236, 247 ; intermunicipal, 92, 113; 
 international, 221; monastic, 58; 
 see Active, Free, Passive, Slave. 
 
 Trades Unions, 245 fol., 261 
 
 Tractatus de mutatione moneiarum, 
 82 seq. 
 
 Treasure, 11, iikk., 12, 53, ij^nn., 
 191, 222, 223 ; and military 
 power, 1 1 n. 
 
 Treaty, commercial, 122, 201, 206 
 n. 
 
 Trent, 109; Council of, 144 
 
 Treves, 21 
 
 Tribute, 120, rSg, 271; concessions 
 of, 186; in kind, 82 
 
 Tripoli, 124 
 
 Trondhjem, 4 
 
 Tropics, 207 
 
 Troyes, 20, 48 
 
 Truce of God, 144 
 
 Tunis, 123, 124 
 
 Tuscany, 136 »., 281 
 
 Tyre, 17, 126 
 
 Tyrol, 17s «. 
 
 Umiliati, 165 n. 
 
 Undertakers, 193 
 
 Unit, economic, city as, 99, 244, 
 245 ; family as, 244-5 ; house- 
 hold as. Si, 54, 54 K., ^% loi, 
 235 «.; nation as, 157; 244-5 
 
 United Provinces, 196, 198, 199, 
 205, 221 
 
 United States, 42 «., 231, 242, 
 260, 263, 264 
 
 Universal Exhibitions, 263 
 
 Upsala, 4 
 
 Usurers, 83, 91, 167, 260 «. 
 
 Usury, 45«., 153, 167, 168 
 
 Utilitas, 43, 43 n. 
 
 Valenciennes, 96 
 Valladolid, 194 
 Value, 78, 79 
 Vandals, 29, 30 
 Venetia, 28 
 
 Venetian galleys, 187 ; shipping, 
 
 201 
 Venetians, 123, 126, 127, 130, 
 
 178, 183, 184, 186 
 Venezuela, 175 «. 
 Venice, 73, 90, 93, 99, 125, 127, 
 
 128, 129, 179, 208 
 Ventures, 175 «. 
 Versailles, 27, 81, 206 
 Vienne, 20 «. 
 
 Vikings, \oi seq., 112, 132, 280 
 Villa, 6, 37, 52, 57, 100 
 Villein, loi, 135, 166 
 Villes-de-bourgeoisie, 92 
 Virginia, 217 
 Visigoths, 30 
 Voyages, coasting, 185 ; ocean, 
 
 178; of discovery, 183 
 
 Wages, 81 «., 97, i66, 280; assess- 
 ment of, 237, 247; competition 
 rate, 102, 232; starvation-, 237; 
 standard, 247 «. 
 
 Wakefield, E. G., 240 
 
 Wales, 73 
 
 Walter of Henley, Husbandry, 100 
 
 War, American Civil, 231 ; English 
 Civil, 215; Hundred Years', 129, 
 139, 146, 154, 208; Napoleonic, 
 233, 263; of Dutch Independ- 
 ence, 199, 208, 244; sinews of, 
 173, 222 
 
 Waterford, no 
 
 Waterloo, 230 «. 
 
 Water-power, 233 n. ; -supply, 245 
 
 Watt, J., 227 
 
 Weavers, 65, 95, 230 «., 232, 237, 
 240, 250; 'illegal,' 237; York- 
 shire, 163 «. 
 
 Weights and measures, 50 
 
 Welsers, 175 
 
 West Indies, 54 «. 
 
 West of England, lion., ^37 
 
 West Virginia, 54 ^A 
 
 Whaling, /202 \ 
 
 Whitby, Hilda^of, 3|8«. 
 
 William ^the Conqueror, '5^,' 88, 
 100, 130 I ( I ' I I I I 
 
 William of Occam, 142, 143 
 
 Wills, 141 ' , ' 
 
300 
 
 Winchester, 31 ««■ 
 Wine, 39, 88, 121 
 Wisby, 112, lU"- 
 Wismar, 112 «. 
 Wit, John de, 204 
 Worcester, 182 
 Worms, 21 
 
 Ximenes, 13S 
 
 Index. 
 
 Yam, cotton-, 231, 236 
 Yeoman farmer, 234, 235 
 York, 21 »., 182 
 
 Yorkshire, 163 «., 227 »•> 230 «., 
 232, 238 
 
 Zamorin of Calicut, 183 
 Zeelanders, 188 «. 
 Zeno, 29 »• 
 
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 AT THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
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