222 HISTORY OF ECONOMIC INSTITUTIONS 



armies wealthy by plunder, but this burden ori the conquered races 

 helped their decline, which in turn further weakened the Roman 

 State. 



It was the long, steady pressure of decaying resources that crushed 

 Rome, as it has crushed other nations similarly situated. Immoral- 

 ity and extravagance hurt to-day, but they have little permanent 

 influence if the creation of wealth has gone on unimpeded. Each 

 age brings up new men under the discipline of work, and their 

 descendants give tone to the succeeding age. Should they drop out 

 through wrong-doing, their places are filled by a new generation 

 of workers, as new blades of grass come in the place of those cut. 

 Give rain and we have grass; give work and we have men. 



We need not go beyond the domain of geography to seek the 

 error in the social and historical lore that is made the basis of current 

 prediction. The region occupied by the Western civilizations of 

 the Old World is divided into two parts, by the Alps and the chains 

 of mountains that extend eastward. Asia Minor, North Africa, and 

 the south slope of Europe are thus one geographical unit. The 

 north of Europe forms a similar geographic unit.- The Gulf Stream 

 gives up its moisture to the northern plain. The westerly winds 

 in the central basin are dry, bringing little moisture from the ocean 

 beyond. Droughts are common and the source of great misery. 

 The vast northern plain suffers from an excess of rain and from 

 a lack of sun. Its crops, like the cereals, can stand plenty of rain, 

 while root crops prevail in the central basin where heat and sun are 

 abundant though rain is deficient. I need not go into details to show 

 that these two regions stand in marked contrast, and that scarcely 

 a physical feature which is important in the one prevails in the 

 other. If economic forces count, these two regions should produce 

 radically different civilizations, institutions, and social traditions. 



The German differed essentially from the Roman when the two 

 civilizations came in contact. But as the southern civilization 

 proved superior, the traditions, institutions, and culture of the south 

 were impressed on the north, and so thoroughly has this work been 

 done that the imposed institutions and social traditions now seem 

 a second nature. We have so completely exchanged ancestors 

 that we think in the terms of the Roman, Greek, and Semite rather 

 than in terms of the German. We accept as precedents the traditions 

 developed to meet the conditions of the dry, hot south and forget 

 to test them by a comparison of the two environments. Roman 

 precedents are good in North Europe only in so far as their physical 

 characteristics are the same. 



Viewed in this way it will be seen how completely predictions 

 based on the conditions of the south fail when applied to the north. 

 The history of the southern regions shows a succession of races and 



