خرید و دانلود نسخه کامل کتاب Trading Communities in the Roman World: A Micro-Economic and Institutional Perspective – Original PDF

this book investigates roman trade. More specifically, it investigates the trading communities that facilitated roman trade, taking a micro- economic and institutional approach to the subject. Abstract though this approach may seem, the problems addressed are concrete and down-to- earth. the leading question behind the work as a whole can be summed up in a single sentence: how did trade operate in the roman Empire under conditions of imperfect government enforcement and imperfect informa- tion? In the course of this book I will elaborate further on this question, but let me briefly explain what I mean here. the roman state commanded awe-inspiring powers of physical vio- lence and did not shy away from using them. However, unlike modern states it did not employ the powers at its disposal to enforce private con- tracts drawn up by ordinary individuals. the roman legal system, in that sense, can be said to have been ‘imperfect’. A party to a contract con- fronted with a default could not call upon the help of the roman authori- ties to make a contractual partner honor his obligations. of course, he could take a defaulter to court, but even with a favorable verdict in hand the vindicated litigant was still pretty much on his own. ordinarily, no police or military unit would have been available to back him up in put- ting the court’s ruling into effect.1 this is not to say that such help will never have been granted. there will doubtless have been instances where the roman administration—whether central or provincial—for whatever reason thought it expedient to lend some muscle to an individual litigant. But the point here is that any such help would have been random and arbitrary; it could not be relied upon. Government enforcement simply did not form part of the roman legal institution in the way it forms part of the legal institution of, for instance, the united States. Since the lightning-fast means of communication we take for granted were unavailable to the romans, information could only move as fast as sails and legs would allow. the slowness with which information trav- eled formed a serious constraint on overseas business, a constraint felt increasingly with growing distance. For anyone intending to enter into a transaction with someone in a far-away place it was difficult to assess risk;