2i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



self-cnsliivcd, his laws added largely to tlie enfranchised class as dis- 

 tinguished from the slave-class. In another aspect this change, leav- 

 ing equitable contracts untouched, prevented those inequitable contracts 

 under which, by a lien on himself, a man gave more than an equivalent 

 for the sum he borrowed. And, with a decreasing number of cases in 

 which there existed the relation of master and slave, went an increas- 

 ing number of cases in which benefits w^ere exchanged by agreement* 

 The odium attaching to that lending at interest which ended in slavery 

 of the debtor having disappeared, legitimate lending became general 

 and unopposed, the rate of interest w^as free, and accumulated capi- 

 tal was made available. Then, as cooperating cause, and as ever- 

 increasing consequence, came the growth of a population favorably 

 circumstanced for acting in concert. Urban people, who, daily in con- 

 tact, can gather one another's ideas and feelings, and who, by quickly- 

 diffused intelligence, can be rapidly assembled, can cooperate far more 

 readily than those who are scattered through rural districts. With all 

 which direct and indirect results of industrial development must be 

 joined the ultimate result upon character, produced by daily fulfilling 

 and enforcing contracts a discipline which, while requiring each man 

 to recognize the claims of others, also requires him to maintain his 

 own. In Solon himself this attitude which joins assertion of personal 

 rights with respect for the rights of others was well exemplified ; 

 since, when his influence was great he refused to become a despot, 

 though pressed to do so, and in his latter days he resisted at the risk 

 of death the establishment of a despotism. In various ways, then, 

 increasing industrial activity tended to w^den the original oligarchic 

 form, and initiate a more popular form. And though these effects of 

 industrialism, joined with subsequently-accumulated effects, were for 

 a long time held in check by the usurping Peisistratidse, yet, being 

 ready to show themselves when, some time after the expulsion of these 

 tyrants, there came the Kleisthenian revolution, they were doubtless 

 instrumental in then initiating the popular form of government. 



Though not in so great a degree, yet in some degree, the same 

 causes operated in liberalizing and widening the Roman oligarchy. 

 Rome "was indebted for the commencement of its importance to inter- 

 national commerce " ; and, as Mommsen points out, " the distinction 

 between Rome and the mass of the other Latin towns must certainly 

 be traced back to its commercial position, and to the type of character 

 produced by that position. . . . Rome was the emporium of the Latin 

 districts." Moreover, as in Athens, though doubtless to a smaller 

 extent, trade brought an increasing settlement of strangers, to whom 

 rights were given, and who, joined w^ith emancipated slaves and with 

 clients, less bound to their patrons, formed an industrial population, 

 the eventual inclusion of which in tlie burgess-body caused that widen- 

 ing of the constitution effected by Servius Tullius. 



The Italian republics of later days again show us, in numerous 



