The Spirit of Laws (1751)Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu Of Laws in relation to Commerce, considered in the Revolutions it has met with in the World1.   Some general Considerations.2.   Of the People of Africa.3.   That the Wants of the People in the South are different from those of the North.4.   The principal Difference between the Commerce of the Ancients and the Moderns.5.   Other Differences.6.   Of the Commerce of the Ancients.7.   Of the Commerce of the Greeks.8.   Of Alexander: his Conquests.9.   Of the Commerce of the Grecian Kings after the Death of Alexander.10.   Of the Circuit of Africa.11.   Of Carthage and Marseilles.12.   The Isle of Delos.13.   Of the Genius of the Romans as to Maritime Affairs.14.   Of the Genius of the Romans with respect to Commerce.15.   Of the Commerce of the Romans with the Barbarians.16.   Of the Commerce of the Romans with Arabia and the Indies.17.   Of Commerce after the Destruction of the Western Empire.18.   A particular Regulation.19.   Of Commerce after the Decay of the Roman Power in the East.20.   How Commerce broke through the Barbarism of Europe.21.   The Discovery of two new Worlds, and in what Manner Europe is affected by it.22.   Of the Riches which Spain drew from America.23.   A Problem, it is not for me to decide the question whether, if Spain be not herself able to carry on the trade of the Indies, it would not be better to leave it open to strangers.
FOOTNOTES

     1.    Pliny, vi. 23.
     2.    See Pliny, vi. 19, and Strabo, xv.
     3.    Book vi. 4, 5.
     4.    Book xi.
     5.    Diodorus, ii.
     6.    Ibid., 7, 8, 9.
     7.    Pliny, vi. 16, and Strabo, xi.
     8.    Strabo, xi.
     9.    Ibid.
   10.    The authority of Patroclus is of great weight, as appears from a passage in Strabo, ii.
   11.    Pliny, vi. 17. See also Strabo, xi, upon the passage by which the merchandise was conveyed from the Phasis to the Cyrus.
   12.    There must have been very great changes in that country since the time of Ptolemy, who gives us an account of so many rivers that empty themselves into the east side of the Caspian Sea. In the Czar's chart we find only the river of Astrabat: in that of M. Bathaisi there is none at all.
   13.    See Jenkinson's account of this, in the Collection of Voyages to the North, iv.
   14.    I am disposed to think that hence Lake Aral was formed.
   15.    Claudius Cæsar, in Pliny, vi. 11.
   16.    He was slain by Ptolemy Ceraunus.
   17.    See Strabo, xi.
   18.    They founded Tartessus, and made a settlement at Cadiz.
   19.    I Kings, 9. 26; II Chron., 8. 17.
   20.    Against Appian.
   21.    Chapter 1 of this book.
   22.    The proportion between gold and silver, as settled in Europe, may sometimes render it profitable to take gold instead of silver into the East Indies; but the advantage is very trifling.
   23.    See Pliny, vi. 22, and Strabo, xv.
   24.    They are mostly shallow; but Sicily has excellent ports.
   25.    I say the province of Holland; for the ports of Zealand are deep enough.
   26.    That is, to compare magnitudes of the same kind, the action or pressure of the fluid upon the ship will be to the resistance of the same ship as, &c.
   27.    The King of Persia.
   28.    On the Athenian Republic, 2.
   29.    See Strabo, viii.
   30.    Iliad, ii. 668.
   31.    Ibid., 570.
   32.    Strabo, ix, p. 414.
   33.    Strabo, xv.
   34.    Herodotus, Melpomene, iv. 44.
   35.    Strabo, xv.
   36.    Ibid., xv.
   37.    Pliny, vi. 33, Strabo, xv.
   38.    They sailed not upon the rivers, lest they should defile the elements -- Hyde, Religion of the Persians. Even to this day they have no maritime commerce. Those who take to the sea are treated by them as Atheists.
   39.    Strabo, xv.
   40.    Herodotus, Melpomene, iv. 44, says that Darius conquered the Indies; this must be understood only to mean Ariana; and even this was only an ideal conquest.
   41.    Strabo, xv.
   42.    This cannot be understood of all the Ichthyophagi, who inhabited a coast of ten thousand furlongs in extent. How was it possible for Alexander to have maintained them? How could he command their submission? This can be only understood of some particular tribes. Nearchus, in his book Rerum Indicarum, says that at the extremity of this coast, on the side of Persia, he had found some people who were less Ichthyophagi than the others. I should think that Alexander's prohibition related to these people, or to some other tribe still more bordering on Persia.
   43.    Alexandria was founded on a flat shore, called Rhacotis, where, in ancient times, the kings had kept a garrison to prevent all strangers, and more particularly the Greeks, from entering the country. -- Pliny, vi. 10; Strabo, xviii.
   44.    Arrian, De Expedit. Alex. vii.
   45.    Ibid.
   46.    Strabo, vi, towards the end.
   47.    Seeing Babylon overflowed, he looked upon the neighbouring country of Arabia as an island. -- Aristobulus, in Strabo, xvi.
   48.    See Rerum Indicarum.
   49.    Strabo, xvi.
   50.    Strabo, xvi.
   51.    These gave them an aversion to strangers.
   52.    Pliny, ii. 67, vi. 9, 13; Strabo, xi., p. 507; Arrian, De Expedit. Alex., iii, p 74, v, p. 104.
   53.    Arrian, De Expedit. Alex., vii.
   54.    Pliny, ii. 67.
   55.    See the Czar's Chart.
   56.    Pliny, vi. 17.
   57.    Book xv.
   58.    Apollonius Adrumatinus in Strabo, xi.
   59.    The Macedonians of Bactria, India, and Ariana, having separated themselves from Syria, formed a great state.
   60.    Book vi. 23.
   61.    Ibid.
   62.    Sigertidis regnum, xi.
   63.    The monsoons blow part of the year from one quarter, and part from another; the trade winds blow the whole year round from the same quarter.
   64.    Book vi. 23.
   65.    Herodotus, Melpomene, iv. 44.
   66.    Pliny, vi. 23.
   67.    Ibid.
   68.    Book xv.
   69.    Pliny, vi. 23.
   70.    Book xv.
   71.    He was desirous of conquering it. -- Herodotus, iv. 42.
   72.    Pliny, ii. 67; Pomponius Mela, iii. 9.
   73.    Herodotus, Melpomene, iv. 43.
   74.    Add to this what I shall say in chapter 11 of this book on the navigation of Hanno.
   75.    In the months of October, November, December, and January the wind in the Atlantic Ocean is found to blow north-east; our ships therefore either cross the line, and to avoid the wind, which is there generally east, they direct their course to the south: or else they enter into the torrid zone, in those places where the wind is west.
   76.    The sea to which we give this name was called by the ancients the Gulf of Arabia; the name of Red Sea they gave to that part of the ocean which borders on this gulf.
   77.    Strabo, xvi.
   78.    Ibid. Artemidorus settled the borders of the known coast at the place called Austricornu; and Eratosthenes, Cinnamomiferam.
   79.    Strabo, i. 7; iv. 9; table 4 of Africa.
   80.    This Periplus is attributed to Arrian.
   81.    Ptolemy, iv. 9.
   82.    Book iv. 7, 8.
   83.    See what exact descriptions Strabo and Ptolemy have given us of the different parts of Africa. Their knowledge was owing to the several wars which the two most powerful nations in the world had waged with the people of Africa, to the alliances they had contracted, and to the trade they had carried on with those countries.
   84.    Book vii. 3.
   85.    See his Periplus, under the article on Carthage.
   86.    See Herodotus, Melpomene, iv. 43, on the obstacles which Sataspes encountered.
   87.    See the charts and relations in the first volume of Collection of Voyages that Contributed to the Establishment of the East India Company, part i, p. 201. This weed covers the surface of the water in such a manner as to be scarcely perceived, and ships can only pass through it with a stiff gale.
   88.    Pliny, v. i, tells us the same thing, speaking of Mount Atlas: Noctibus micare crebris ignibus, tibiarum cantu timpanorumque sonitu strepere, neminem interdiu cerni.
   89.    Mr. Dodwell. See his Dissertation on Hanno's Periplus.
   90.    Of Wonderful Things.
   91.    Book vi.
   92.    Book iii.
   93.    Mons argentarius.
   94.    He had some share in their management.
   95.    See Festus Avienus.
   96.    Strabo, iii, towards the end.
   97.    He was rewarded by the senate of Carthage.
   98.    Freinshemius, Supplement to Livy, dec. 2, vi.
   99.    In the parts subject to the Carthaginians.
 100.    Justin, xliii. 5.
 101.    See Strabo, x.
 102.    He confirmed the liberty of the city of Amisus, an Athenian colony which had enjoyed a popular government, even under the kings of Persia. Lucullus having taken Sinone and Amisus, restored them to their liberty, and recalled the inhabitants, who had fled on board their ships.
 103.    See what Appian writes concerning the Phanagoreans, the Amisians, and the Synopians, in his treatise Of the War against Mithridates.
 104.    See Appian, in regard to the immense treasures which Mithridates employed in his wars, those which he had buried, those which he frequently lost by the treachery of his own people, and those which were found after his death.
 105.    See Appian Of the War against Mithridates.
 106.    Ibid.
 107.    He lost at one time 170,000 men, yet he soon recruited his armies.
 108.    In the Considerations on the Causes of the Rise and Declension of the Roman Grandeur.
 109.    As Plato has observed. Laws, iv.
 110.    Polybius, v.
 111.    See the Considerations on the Causes of the Rise and Declension of the Roman Grandeur.
 112.    Ibid.
 113.    Leg. 5, ° 2, ff. De Captivis.
 114.    Quæ mercimoniis publice præfuit -- Leg. 1, Cod. de natural. liberis.
 115.    Leg. ad barbaricum. Cod. quæ res exportari non debeant.
 116.    Leg. 2, Cod. de commerc. et mercator.
 117.    Procopius, War of the Persians, i.
 118.    See the Considerations on the Causes of the Rise and Declension of the Roman Grandeur.
 119.    Pliny, vi. 28, and Strabo, xvi.
 120.    Ibid.
 121.    The caravans of Aleppo and Suez carry thither annually to the value of about two millions of livres, and as much more clandestinely; the royal vessel of Suez carries thither also two millions.
 122.    Book ii, p. 181, ed. 1587.
 123.    Book vi. 23.
 124.    He says, book ii, that the Romans employed a hundred and twenty ships in that trade; and, in book xvii, that the Grecian kings scarcely employed twenty.
 125.    Book i, 2.
 126.    Book i, 13.
 127.    Our best maps place Peter's tower in the hundredth degree of longitude, and about the fortieth of latitude.
 128.    Suetonius, Life of Claudius, 18; Leg. 7. Cod. Theodos. de naviculariis.
 129.    Book viii, tit. 4, ° 9.
 130.    Toto titulo, ff. de incend, ruin. et naufrag.; Cod. de naufragiis; Leg. 3, ff. ad leg. Cornel, de sicariis.
 131.    Leg. 1, Cod. de naufragiis.
 132.    Book xi, tit. 3, ° 2.
 133.    See Aristotle, Politics, i. 9, 10.
 134.    See in Marca Hispanica, the constitutions of Aragon, in the years 1228 and 1231; and in Brussel, the agreement, in the year 1206, between the King, the Countess of Champagne, and Guy of Dampierre.
 135.    Stow, Survey of London, iii, p. 54.
 136.    The edict passed at Baville, 4th of April, 1392.
 137.    In France the Jews were slaves in mortmain, and the lords their successors. Mr. Brussel mentions an agreement made in the year 1206, between the King and Thibaut, Count of Champagne, by which it was agreed that the Jews of the one should not lend in the lands of the other.
 138.    It is known that under Philip Augustus and Philip the Long, the Jews who were chased from France took refuge in Lombardy, and that there they gave to foreign merchants and travellers secret letters, drawn upon those to whom they had entrusted their effects in France, which were accepted.
 139.    See Nov. 83 of the Emperor Leo, which revokes the law of Basil his father. This law of Basil is in Hermenopulus, under the name of Leo, iii, tit. 7, ° 27.
 140.    See the account of Pirard, part II, 15.
 141.    This, in the language of the ancients, is the state which founded the colony.
 142.    Except the Carthaginians, as we see by the treaty which put an end to the first Punic war.
 143.    Polybius, iii.
 144.    The King of Persia obliged himself by treaty not to sail with any vessel of war beyond the Cyanean rocks and the Chelidonean isles. -- Plutarch, Cimon.
 145.    Aristotle, Of Wonderful Things; Livy, dec. 2, vii.
 146.    Book ii, p. 170.
 147.    This has been already shown in a small treatise written by the author about twenty years ago; which has been almost entirely incorporated in the present work.
 148.    See Frezier, Voyages.
 149.    According to Lord Anson, Europe receives every year from Brazil two millions sterling in gold, which is found in sand at the foot of the mountains, or in the beds of rivers. When I wrote the little treatise mentioned in the first note of this chapter, the returns from Brazil were far from being so considerable an item as they are at present.