every branch of art and science to such a high degree of perfection, we naturally look for a corresponding improvement in maritime jurisprudence and legislation; and, although neither the Athenians nor the Corinthians the two chief commercial states of Greece-have transmitted to us any digest or collection of maritime laws, it is certain that they must have had regulations for their multifarious internal and foreign traffic, as well as for the conveyance of, and succession to, their land estates. Dr Adam Smith's observation, that law was never cultivated in Greece as a science, is unquestionably too general and unqualified. From the speeches of their orators, independently of their historians and philosophic writers, it appears they had made great progress in various branches of commercial jurisprudence; and, although the trading states of continental Greece have left us no code of sea laws for our study, it may be worth while, before investigating at greater length the celebrated nautical laws of the Rhodians, briefly to inquire what were the usages of trade, and the practical rules of maritime commerce, observed and enforced at Athens, the most civilized state of that civilized nation.

CHAPTER III.

MARITIME AND COMMERCIAL LAW OF THE ATHENIANS.

THE inquiry here proposed is greatly facilitated, not only by the "Themis Attica" of Meursius, and by the collection of Samuel Petitus, in 1635, entitled, "Leges Attica commentario illustratæ," but still more by the recent historical and more philosophic labours of Barthelemy and Pardessus. To these authors, and par

ticularly to the latter, we are indebted for well-arranged accounts, not only of the maritime commerce of the Athenians, but likewise of the laws by which that commerce was regulated; extracted, with great skill and discernment, from the works which have reached us of the orators, historians, and philosophers of Greece.* And, in the present sketch, we cannot do better than present an abridged view of the result of the erudite researches of these authors.

The Athenians combined the characters of a commercial and of a manufacturing people. The increase of their population compelled them to look abroad for subsistence; and a great part of their import trade consisted of grain, brought from Egypt and Sicily, but chiefly from the Tauric Chersonesus, or Crimea. From the coasts of the Euxine they imported wood for the building of vessels, salt, wax, coarse wool, and hides; from the coasts of Thrace and Macedonia, salted fish ; from Phrygia, fine wools for the manufacture of cloths; and from the islands of the Ægean Sea, wines and fruits.

In exchange for such a variety of commodities, the Athenians exported oil-the only vegetable product which Solon allowed to be carried out of the country; the silver produced from the valuable mines of Attica, either coined or in a rude state; and their different manufactures, such as arms, fine cloths, and articles of furniture; for which, owing to the superior skill and taste displayed in the workmanship, there was everywhere a demand. And when they could not effect a direct traffic, they adopted a circuitous mode, and gave the wines which, with the produce of their silver mines, they purchased in the isles of the Ægean Sea, or on the coasts of Thrace,

* Chiefly from Demosthenes, in his various speeches; but also from Thucydides and Xenophon; from Lysias, Isæus, and Isocrates; from Æschines and Aristophanes; from Theophrastus, Plutarch, Diogenes Laertius, Athenæus Deipnosophist, and Pollux Onomasticon.

in exchange for the commodities which the nations round the Euxine had to furnish.

Among the Athenians, the merchant and manufacturer were not only protected by the laws-they were respected and held in considerable estimation. The state gave encouragement to all the different branches of industry, as the sources of its power. Great facility was afforded to the settlement of strangers and to intercourse with foreigners. The number of merchant ships which traded to and from the port of Athens was great: in the flourishing times of the Republic, the naval force of the Athenians amounted to about four hundred vessels. Their ships of war, however, were very small, not being equal in size to our sloops, and were navigated chiefly with oars. Their merchant ships, also, were not only very small, when compared with those of modern times, but were likewise inferior in dimensions to those of the Phoenicians; and the value of the cargo embarked in one bottom was, of course, comparatively small.

From the extent of their foreign commerce, and the variety of their exports and imports, it is manifest the Athenians must have practised and been well acquainted with the different transactions by which the exchange of commodities is effected. And, accordingly, we find that the Grecian merchants were not only in the habit of undertaking distant journeys and voyages, for the purpose of disposing of their commodities and of procuring others in demand at home, but, where the trade was constant, had permanent establishments of factors and clerks in foreign countries, for the purpose of collecting and preparing, during winter, the cargoes which were sent home in summer; and likewise came, in the natural progress of commerce, to have regular correspondents in all the places to which the hope of gain attracted them. Their mines of silver

supplied them, from an early period, with an excellent medium of exchange; and silver continued long their principal coin, as copper was despised for that purpose, and gold was scarce in Greece till the days of Philip of Macedon.

At Athens, as formerly in this country, almost all retail trade appears to have been carried on in public sheds or booths allotted to the different kinds of merchandise, and to have been much encouraged by the government. And, as already noticed, the greatest part of the internal commerce of the different Grecian states, both wholesale and retail, appears to have been transacted at the fairs, which were held at stated times, under the protecting auspices of religion. Indeed, the earliest bankers of Greece appear to have been the priests of Olympus and Delos, who, it is alleged, found means to give currency to a part, at least, of the metallic offerings consecrated to Jupiter and Apollo.

As commerce flourishes, laws are necessarily multiplied. The questions and disputes to which the multifarious transactions of an extensive traffic give rise, are an almost inexhaustible source of litigation. The Athenians, accordingly, appear to have had a variety of regulations applicable to maritime commerce; and we shall notice them in the order in which we have placed the general doctrines of that branch of jurisprudence.*

The voyages of the Athenians, we have seen, were chiefly, if not entirely, confined to the Mediterranean and the Euxine; and, comparatively, the art of navigation had made little progress. The owner of the vessel was, in many cases, likewise the master or captain, the same expression being frequently used to designate both. The same word, too, (ETIßaτns,) was used to denote, in

* See Pardessus Collection de Lois Maritimes, tome i., chap. vi., and the ancient authorities there quoted or referred to.

discriminately, the mere passengers, and the proprietors of the goods with which the vessel was loaded, who frequently themselves accompanied and took charge of these goods. The reach or capacity of vessels was expressed by the quantity or numbers of bales which they could carry.

The agreements of affreightment, for the conveyance of merchandise by sea, were subjected to the common rule, which prescribes that every contract shall be faithfully fulfilled; and penalties were enacted against those who, having engaged to sail for a particular port of destination, did not exactly repair thither. The state deemed it its duty, likewise, to take precautions, by a public enactment, against the consequences of the unskilfulness of those who offered themselves for the command or pilotage of vessels. The law against the mariners of Salamis, which Eschines mentions in one of his orations,* ordered that he who lost the vessel under his command or direction, though without any fault on his part, should be no longer employed. Measures were also adopted for the protection of seafaring people, by the state maintaining a naval force, to defend them against enemies and pirates.

The desertion of mariners engaged for the service of vessels appears to have been punished with great severity; but the excessive punishments of which some authors speak, were probably only directed against deserters from vessels employed in the public service. On the other hand, the owners, or fitters-out, or charterers, and the masters of vessels, were held bound, on their part, faithfully to fulfil towards the mariners the agreements into which they had entered for the payment of

wages.

The rules which fixed the reciprocal obligations of

Eschines in Ctesiphon, iii., 545.