The emperor Pertinax, whose father was a manufacturer and seller
of charcoal, and who, himself, for some time pursued the same occupation,
at that period an extensive and profitable one, preserved and exercised,
during his reign, that sense of the value of commerce which he had thus
acquired. He abolished all the taxes laid by Commodus on the ports,
harbours, and public roads, and gave up his privileges as emperor,
especially in all those points where they were prejudicial to the freedom
and extension of commerce. It may indeed be remarked, that the very few
good or tolerable princes who, at this period, filled the government of
Rome, displayed their wisdom as well as their goodness by encouraging
trade. Alexander Severus granted peculiar privileges and immunities to
foreign merchants who settled in Rome: he lowered the duties on
merchandises; and divided all who followed trade, either on a large or
small scale, into different companies, each of which seems to have
preserved the liberty of choosing their own governor, and over each of whom
persons were appointed, conversant in each particular branch of trade,
whose duty it was to settle all disputes that might arise.
Soon after this period the commerce of Rome in one particular direction,
and that a most important one, received a severe blow. The Goths, who had
emigrated from the north of Germany to the banks of the Euxine, were
allured to the "soft and wealthy provinces of Asia Minor, which produced
all that could attract, and nothing that could resist a barbarian
conqueror.
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