The Athenians Passed A Number Of Laws Respecting Commerce, Mostly Of A
Prohibitory Nature.
Money could not be advanced or lent on any vessel, or
the cargo of any vessel, that did not return to Athens, and discharge its
cargo there.
The exportation of various articles, which were deemed of the
first necessity, was expressly forbidden: such as timber for building, fir,
cypress, plane, and other trees, which grew in the neighbourhood of the
city; the rosin collected on Mount Parnes, the wax of Mount Hymettus - which
two articles, incorporated together, or perhaps singly, were used for
daubing over, or caulking their ships. The exportation of corn, of which
Attica produced very little, was also forbidden; and what was brought from
abroad was not permitted to be sold any where except in Athens. By the laws
of Solon, they were allowed to exchange oil for foreign commodities. There
were besides a great number of laws respecting captains of ships,
merchants, duties, interest of money, and different kinds of contracts. One
law was specially favourable to merchants and all engaged in trade; by it a
heavy fine, or, in some cases, imprisonment, was inflicted on whoever
accused a merchant or trader of any crime he could not substantiate. In
order still farther to protect commerce, and to prevent it from suffering
by litigation, all causes which respected it could be heard only during the
period when vessels were in port. This period extended generally to six
months - from April to September inclusive - no ships being at sea during the
other portion of the year.
The taxes of the Athenians, so far as they affected commerce, consisted of
a fifth, levied on the corn and other merchandize imported, and also on
several articles which were exported from Athens. These duties were
generally farmed. In an oration of Andocides, we learn that he had farmed
the duty on foreign goods imported for a term of three years, at twelve
talents annually. In consequence of these duties, smuggling was not
uncommon. The inhabitants of the district called Corydale were celebrated
for illicit traffic: there was a small bay in this district, a little to
the north of Piraeus, called. Thieves' Harbour, in which an extensive and
lucrative and contraband trade was carried on; ships of different nations
were engaged in it. Demosthenes informs us, that though this place was
within the boundaries of Attica, yet the Athenians had not the legal power
to put a stop to traffic by which they were greatly injured, as the
inhabitants of Corydale, as well as the inhabitants of every other state,
however small, were sovereigns within their own territory.
In an oration of Isocrates an operation is described which bears some
resemblance to that performed by modern bills of exchange. A stranger who
brought grain to Athens, and who, we may suppose, wished to purchase goods
to a greater amount than the sale of his grain would produce, drew on a
person living in some town on the Euxine, to which the Athenians were in
the habit of trading.
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