COMMERCIAL RELATIONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST 3
she (...........)* out (...........)* walls” [1] . Though Rome had some industries, her productive capacity was miserably low; her consumption overran her production which necessiated continual drain of specie. The Latefundia destroyed her agriculture and (drove)* the farmers to beggary and made Rome entirely dependent for her food on Sicily and Egypt. Owing to the great concentration of landed property the land had ceased to be productive, and there was practically no Italian harvest. She received everything mostly from the East and nothing or little to give in return.
“It is in the orient, especially in these countries of old civilization that we must look for industry and riches for technical ability and artistic productions as well as for intelligence and science, even before Constantine made it
[Rome] the centre of political power”. [2] Nay “all branches of learning were affected by the spirit of the orient” [3] which “was her superior in extent and precision of its technical knowledge as well as in the inventive genius and ability of its workman”. [4] Descending from the productions of industrial arts to those of industry itself, one might also trace the growing influence of the Orient: one might show how the action of the great manufacturing centres of the East gradually transformed the material civilization of Europe ; one might point out how the introduction in Gaul of Exotic patterns and processes changed the old native industry and gave (their)* products a perfection and a popularity hitherto unknown.” [5] From time immemorial upto the Industrial Revolution, the East enjoyed (the)* pre-eminence of being the workshop of the world and it is significant to (note that)* she was busy in producing the wonderful and massive iron columns that attest to the mechanics and technique of the time when chipping a stone and making a hatchet was a superhuman task with the Western neolith.
- Portions in brackets shown by asterisk are eaten by termites. Words supplied—ed.
1 W. R. Patterson, “ The Nemesis of Nations”, p. 334.
2 Franz Cumont, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism, p. 2.
3 Ibid, p. 6.
4 Ibid, p. 8.
5 Ibid, p.9.