AGENTS’ “COMMISSIONS” IN ANTIQUITY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5072, 26 June 1877, Page 3

AGENTS’ “COMMISSION S” IN ANTIQUITY.

(From “ Trade Circular.”)

One of the most interesting discoveries which have been made in recent years at Pompeii took place in the beginning of .Inly, 1675, when a wooden chest was brought to light, containing the business receipts of one I Cajcilius Juciuidus. The chest itself crumbled to dust on exposure to the air, but tile tablets on which the receipts wove written have at length proved to be legible in many instances, and the result of a careful -study of these tablets by Mommsen and others has been to clear up several points in what was among the Romans a matter of great consequence, viz., the position of the middleman in affairs of business. There was not among the Romans tho same extensive system of shops as with ns, supplying every possible article of necessity or luxury, and for this reason there arose innumerable occasions of private persons desiring to dispose of this or that article, as, for instance, a surplus of agricultural produce, old carts, ploughs, or oven old and invalid slaves, as Cato recommends tlie landholder to do. The tablets in question arc dated, according to custom, by giving the names of the consuls for tho year, just as in Loudon, if wo had not a Christian era, wo should probably 'dato our letters “ in tho [mayoralty of so and so.” The greater part of the dates falls between A.r>. 53 and 62. A few are as early as A.D 15 and

57. Since 'there is no more recent date than a.d. S2, it becomes highly probable that the tablets of Jucundus had been overwhelmed in the earlier eruption of Vesuvius (February 6, a.d. 63), not in the later eruption, which finally destroyed Pompeii. The majority of the tablets are triptycha, and are written partly with letters incised on wax, spread over the table, and partly in ink on the bare wood. Among them there is only one which gives the amount of commission which he received, and that proves to be 2 per cent., which is known from other sources to have been the general rate. Usually he merely says “ minus the commission ” (mercede minus). The person on whom this expense fell was the buyer, who knew beforehand that if he purchased for £IOO he would have to pay £lO2. In ■other cases it would seem as [f the 5 per cent, had been equally divided between seller and buyer. In large transactions, where credit had to bo given, and the assistance of a banker (aryentarius) was required, probably the commission. was greater. The receipts of Jucundus begin’with a sum of money, written out in Roman ciphers followed by a statement of the source of this money, as for instance 'in the one where we read ; “qum pecunia in stipulatum L. Cfeciii Jucundi veuit oh auctioneer Lucreti Cari, Mercede quiuquagesima minus.” Here a line is drawn across the tablet, and the recipient proceeds to state that he has received the above :—“Numerata habere se dixit MLucretius Cams ab L. Caecilio Juoundo.” The date is then given—“ Act. Pompeis XI. C. Mart. Nerone et L. Antistio. That is February 19, A.D. 55, the year in which Nero and L. Antistius were consuls. Then follow the signatures of eight witnesses. What is meant by the stipulated sum is not clear, since it may either be the sum agreed on between the buyer and the agent, or between the agent and the seller. It is curious to observe that Jucundus does not give a detailed bill of Ida transactions, and often does not mention in any way the nature of the article he has disposed of. Once we find a sale of boxwood mentioned, and occasionally a sale of slaves. He had several transactions with the municipality of Pompeii, having been employed by them to let and draw, the rent of certain pasture lands and of a dyework. In these cases he takes a receipt for the money, which he hands over to the town, from the public slave ; but as a slave’s signature alone would not be valid, the receipts are signed also by the duoviri, or two chief magistrates for the year. He was employed also to sell the fanning of the public taxes for the town. He does not appear to have given the buyers long credit, the longest period stated on the tablets being from 15th October to Ist or 13th February, while the shortest was from 27th February to 13th December. It is much regretted that only the receipts of Jucundus have been preserved, since the documents referring to the earlier. stages of the several transactions would doubtless have been of much greater value to us. .It is not improbable that he had succeeded in saving these documents and left tile receipts, as less valuable to himself, to he buried under the lava from which they have now been extracted.