siderable amount of Italian or Grecian fabrics. Thus, by far the
greatest part of the price of the imported grain was paid in gold and
silver, for which there is a constant demand in all countries, savage or
civilized. A nation which imports foreign grain largely, _must_ in all
ages export the precious metals as largely; because the corn, of course,
is brought from those countries where it is raised the cheapest--and the
countries where this is the case, are those where labour is cheap, money
scarce, and artificial wants unknown. Money is what these countries
want, and money is what their surplus produce is nearly all exchanged
for. And this explains how it happened, that in the decline of the
empire, Spain, Africa, and Egypt, alone retained their flourishing
aspect, and were the only provinces from which money and soldiers could
be obtained, while they required none. The whole commerce between them
and Italy, or Greece, was one in which grain was exchanged for the
precious metals; and when they once got these, great part was hoarded,
as it now is in the East, and very little ever returned.

In addition to this, the mines which supplied the Roman world failed to
a considerable extent under the emperors. "The poverty of Greece, as of
the whole empire," says Finlay, "was further increased _by the gradual
rise in the value of the precious metals_; an evil which began to be
generally felt about the time of Nero, and affected Greece with great
severity, from the altered distribution of wealth in the country with
which it was attended. Greece had once been rich in mines, which had
been a source of wealth and prosperity to Siphnos and Atticus, and had
laid the foundation of the power of Philip of Macedon. The fiscal
measures of the Romans soon rendered it a _ruinous speculation for
individuals to attempt working mines of the precious metals_; and, in
the hands of the state, they soon proved unprofitable. Many mines were
exhausted; and even _though the value of the precious metals was
enhanced_, some mines beyond the sphere of the Roman power _were
abandoned_ from those causes which, after the second century of the
Christian era, produced a sensible diminution in the commercial
transactions of the Old Hemisphere.[62] Greece shared in the general
decay: her commerce and manufactures, being confined to supplying the
consumption of a diminished and impoverished population, sunk into
insignificancy. _An accumulation of debts became