The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-12-10

brilliant sparkle and money value, with
but little of that artistic merit and low
ing labor once lavished upon crozier an0'
cup, scepter and crown, rings, bracelets
and brooches corporation maces and.
mayora1ty chains"
& In the matter of organized industry
however, the division of labor through
the agency of exchange. modern CONNER
cial and manufacturing peoples have been
greatly in advance of the ancient ones,
OF the same general class and rank In
antiquity isolated manufacturing, like
isolated agriculture. was the rule. Each
family establishment was a closed cir.
Gle of production and consumption, the
proprietor, whether in city or country,
producing by means of slaves most of ths
ordinary wares required for his establish
ment. Trade was thus, of course, cor
respondingly less important. AS the an
cient world had no manufactures of the
modern kind. but only private shops with
their slave artisans, and no great indus
trial cities like Lowell or Fall River, so
it had no commercial centers that would
at all remind one of Liverpool HamburS>
or New York.
It ought, however, to be said that Rome
in particular is known to have been much
more of a commercial port than present
appearances would indicate. The whole
district west of the Aventine, outside cf
Porto Trigemina was once occupied by
granaries and warehouses for storing i'm
ports of all sorts. Between the north side
of Monte Testaceio and the Tiber still,
exist colossal remains of the great en-.
porium built by Marcus Emilus Lepidus
and Emilius Paulus, nearly 200 years be-
fore Christ. A good portion of the quays
were unearthed in 1868, along with some
600 rare and variegated marble blocks,
many of them immense, lying just as
landed from the galleys which had
freighted them from Numidia, the Greek
islands or Asia Minor. In 1885, during eX-
cavations for building in that locality,
two warehouses were discovered, ono
filled with elephants tusks, unfortunately
ly much decayed. the other with lentils,
which are said to have been sometimes
brought from the east as ballast.
Closely connected with the finer organi-
cation Of labor in the commercial era
comes the most momentous change in all
economic history, the passage from barter
and quasi barter to the general use OF
metallic money stamped by public author
ity Gold and silver put to this new use
advance In value and the loaning of them
grows into a branch of business by itself.
Banking originates and the beginnings OF
credit appear. 1t is not, to be sure, In
ferently necessary that credit business
should wait for the advent of money, yet
as a matter of fact money has always
been earlier than credit in asserting itself :
as an economic power. Money exchange
begins in cities soon after their origin
and works from them into the country.
greatly furthered probably by its accept
ance on the part of the state for taxes.
Legal tender laws carry this influence
further. 1t is likely that we always
underestimate the influence Of statute
and customary law in procuring the cur
rency of hard money and the conhdenr
use thereof in exchange. Such influence
is by no means confined to paper money.
Copyright, 1900