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220 The View from the Customs House
survival at least at some times, on what is imported through the
harbour. But it was not the primary purpose of the law to tax
trade, let alone to foster a commercial policy. Customs dues in
general concerned the regime of imports and exports to each
city community, and they took the ideal of self-sufficiency as
their basic principle.
In the Greek and Roman city, then, we see a very developed
response to Mediterranean conditions. Despite the difficulties
of the evidence, the density of the interconnections, the mesh of
the net, and the critical mass of the connectivity, all appear
plainly. But the underlying logic of the exactions, and the
network which they trace, is not unique to the ancient city,
since it is plainly apparent in the medieval examples which
we have noted. It remains to explore certain contexts in
which these systems have been developed on a much larger
and more integrated scale, and to investigate how those too
relate to the question of the distinctiveness of Mediterranean
history.
5. progressive regression?
The minimalist view that harbour taxes are another reason for
playing down the overall significance of ancient commerce has
been prominent in their discussion: ‘one should not underestimate
the ubiquitous harbour taxes’, and so on. 57 ‘The whole tax
structure was regressive, and became increasingly so as the
years went on’, it was claimed. 58 Progressive regressiveness—
something of a reductio ad absurdum of the teleological view of
history! The alternative view is that the vigour of ancient redistribution
was such that it made light of burdens of this kind,
which demonstrate the buoyancy of ancient trade rather than
explaining its weakness. In fact, the deleterious effect of customs
barriers is a venerable historical commonplace which is no
longer current in the historiography of post-Classical periods.
Thus, on the middle and upper Rhine, where until Napoleon
there were 39 toll stations, mainly between Mainz and Cologne,
these can be exonerated from responsibility for the decline in
57 Finley, Ancient Economy, 175; 159, cf. 164.
58 Ibid. 165.