=The Bankers.=--The Romans had heaped up at home the silver of the
conquered countries. And so silver was very abundant in Rome and
scarce in the provinces. At Rome one could borrow at four or five per
cent.; in the provinces not less than twelve per cent. was charged.
The bankers borrowed money in Rome and loaned it in the provinces,
especially to kings or to cities. When the exhausted peoples could not
return the principal and the interest, the bankers imitated the
procedure of the publicans. In 84 the cities of Asia made a loan to
pay an enormous war-levy; fourteen years later, the interest alone had
made the debt amount to six times the original amount. The bankers
compelled the cities to sell even their objects of art; parents sold
even their children. Some years later one of the most highly esteemed
Romans of his time, Brutus, the Stoic, loaned to the city of Salamis
in Cyprus a sum of money at forty-eight per cent. interest (four per
cent. a month). Scaptius, his business manager, demanded the sum with
interest; the city could not pay; Scaptius then went in search of the
proconsul Appius, secured a squadron of cavalry and came to Salamis to
blockade the senate in its hall of assembly; five senators died of
famine.
Pages:
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351