THE GROWTH OF TRADE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 726, 12 June 1953, Page 12

THE GROWTH OF TRADE

THE CAMBRIDGE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF EUROPE, VOL. Il: Trade and Industry in the Middle Ages, edited by M. M. Postan and E. E. Rich; Cambridge University Press, English price, 45/-.

(Reviewed by

W. B.

Sutch

| EARLY 2000 years ago the | Spaniards had a profitable trade with Rome in fishsauce, particularly garum, a juice distilled from the blood and entrails of the mackerel, and subsequently allowed to ferment in the sun for several months. Yet, by the time of Diocletian (A.D. 300) a wagon-load of hemp was doubled in price after it had been transported 240 miles. For many centuries land transport of cheap and heavy articles was so costly that the nations with a sea coast or, better, navigable rivers, became the wealthy areas. Those with colonies under their military control grew so rich that they could cultivate the arts and become centres of learning. After the colony of Britain was absorbed into the Roman Empire 1900 years ago, Rome took wheat, cattle, iron, hides, slaves, hunting dogs, oysters and (for a short time in the second century) brooches. The Roman legions set up British potteries to supply their armies, and managed gold, lead, copper and tin mines, probably with slave labour. Again transport was the key to the type and stage of d& velopment-in this case, of Britain. In the 7th Century the population of Constantinople was 800,000-the result of the city’s being on two great trade routes. Accordingly commercial law was emphasised by the Byzantines. And so we find that insurance, compensation and shipping practices were minutely regulated by the Rhodian Law (which also wisely forbade passengers to fry fish on. board). All this is the stuff of economic his-tory-what route was taken to bring faience beads to Britain in 1400 B.C.,, why in 1500 B.C. it was easy to distinguish a British, a Bohemian and a North Italian axe, why the import of wood ashes from Europe was so important to Britain in the 13th Century. In the last 30 years the number of known facts of economic history has rapidly increased, but the knowledge has been mainly with the -research scholars. Now, with the publication of the second volume of The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, there 1s the chance to hand on a further part of this knowledge to the teacher and the taught-and to their textbooks. It is a valuable work, essential for the historian’s library. Its authority is restricted, however, by its being limited (unavoidably) to English speaking writers, and, perhaps for the same reason, the book is incomplete in its coverage of medieval European industries.