The Chief And Most Valuable Articles On Which, By This
Rescript, Duties Were To Be Levied, Were Cinnamon, Myrrh, Pepper, Ginger,
And Aromatics; Precious Stones; Parthian And Babylonian Leather; Cottons;
Silks, Raw And Manufactured:
Ebony, ivory, and eunuchs.
Till the reign of Justinian, the straits of the Bosphorus and Hellespont
were open to the freedom of trade, nothing being prohibited but the
exportation of arms for the service of the barbarians: but the avarice, or
the profusion of that emperor, stationed at each of the gates of
Constantinople a praetor, whose duty it was to levy a duty on all goods
brought into the city, while, on the other hand, heavy custom duties were
exacted on all vessels and merchandize that entered the harbour. This
emperor also exacted in a most rigorous manner, a duty in kind: which,
however, had existed long before his time: we allude to the annona, or
supply of corn for use of the army and capital. This was a grievous and
arbitrary exaction: rendered still more so "by the partial injustice of
weights and measures, and the expence and labour of distant carriage." In a
time of scarcity, Justinian ordered an extraordinary requisition of corn to
be levied on Thrace, Bithynia, and Phrygia; for which the proprietors, (as
Gibbon observes,) "after a wearisome journey, and a perilous navigation
received so inadequate a compensation, that they would have chosen the
alternative of delivering both the corn and price at the doors of their
granaries."
Having thus given a connected and general view of the Roman commerce, we
shall next proceed to investigate the progress of geographical knowledge
among them.
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