Untitled - 24grammata.com

128 ANCIENT GREECE. [CHAP. x ,The free exertions of industry were in some measurelimited by the regulations of which we have spoken ;but ina very different manner from any usual in our times.Theywere the result of public opinion ;and if they were confirmed by the laws, this was done in conformity to thatopinion. In other respects, the interference of governmentin the matter was inconsiderable. No efforts were made topreserve the mass of spc< i,undiminished, or to increase it;nothing was known of the balance of trade and; consequently, all the violent measures resulting from it werenever devised by the Greeks. They had duties, as well asthe moderns; but those duties were exacted only for thesake of increasingthe public revenue, not to direct theefforts of domestic industry, by the prohibition of certainwares. There was no prohibition of the exportation of rawmaterials by way of 1protection no; encouragement of manufactures at the expense of the agriculturists. In this respect,therefore, there existed freedom of occupations, commerce,and trade. And such was the general custom. As everything was decided by circumstances, and not by there theories,may have been single exceptions and; perhaps singleexamples, 2 where the state for a season usurped a monopoly.But how far was this from the mercantile and restrictivesystem of the moderns !The reciprocal influence between national economy andthat of the state, is so great and so natural, that it was necessary to premise a few observations respecting the former.Before we treat of the latter, it will be useful to say a fewwords on a subject, which is equally important to both ;themoney of the Greeks.National economy can exist without money, but financescannot. It would be important to fix the time, when coinedmoney first became current in Greece, and when moneywas first coined in the countryitself. But it is difficult togive an exact answer to either of these questions, especiallyto the first. Homer never speaks of money ;and his silencefc-vB 6 ??^011/ a dcl f ? of food especially of corn, may have beenHibited.at Athens and proelsewhere,when a scarcity was apprehended. Suchprohibitions were natural, and could not well Ml of being made. The remark in the text refers to prohibitions to favour domestic industry; as of theexport of unmanufactured wool. This explanation is in answer to theremarks of Professor Boeckh in his work on the Public Economy of theAthenians, i. 56. 2 yAristot. de Be Pamil. 1. ii