loaded with wine in a storm managed to borrow enough capital to replace
the ships and cargo and went on to make a fortune. By the Late Republican
period, large commercial houses represented politically influential senatorial
families who owned latifundias, huge plantation estates worked by gangs of
slaves. These produced mass quantities of agricultural products that were
transported aboard ships owned by the family and protected by Roman
military power. The products were distributed through a network of agents,
often family members or slaves, working in conjunction with government
officials. It was a very cozy system. On its fringes were small, independent
traders who had no political clout and could hope at best to connect up with
a greatfirm through patronage. Small traders tended to form partnerships for
indefinite periods not just for specific ventures as was common earlier among
the Greeks. Such partners did not need to be from the same place or ethnic
group, and often behind them were more prominent people providing capital
as silent partners.
Peddler trade became less important with the increase in permanent mar-
kets where traders could sell their imports wholesale and pick up exports. In
the Late Imperial period a class of middlemen emerged whose activities were
not specific to any single product but who sought out opportunities to
dabble in whatever might turn a profit in a particular venture. Their inter-
ests could vary from luxury to general consumption goods and from caravan
to sea trade, and they operated through agents, associates, and partners,
whatever worked so long as careful books were kept. Whereas suchflexibility
appears to be a positive development, it may actually reflect a general decline
in business opportunities.
The products traded long distance under the Roman Empire expanded in
range and quantity within the basic Mediterranean patterns developed by the
Phoenicians and Greeks. The commerce in luxury goods increased in
response to demands by the Roman upper classes with Chinese silk and
Indian spices the most important new commodities. Trade in cheap mass-
produced goods for general consumption such as foodstuffs, pottery, metal
products, and textiles had been a major characteristic of the Greek period,
and this continued under the Romans. Chief among bulk goods was grain to
feed Rome, other cities, and the armies. Imports of grain from outside Italy
had become necessary by the second centuryBCEwith thefirst supplier being
Sicily, subsequently joined by North Africa, Spain, Egypt, and occasionally
the Black Sea region, and later Gaul. Rome bought grain from conquered
peoples atfixed low prices and then provided it free to the urban populace,
and there was also private trade controlled by the oligarchy. By the Late
Imperial period, the grain trade had movedfirmly under the state. Grain
ships, particularly those crossing to Egypt, attained enormous sizes capable
of carrying hundreds of tons of cargo. Other cheap foodstuffs included
garum, meat pastes, preservedfish, and cheese. The range of delicacies was
impressive. A small sampling might include bird dainties such as peacock
Shifting cores and peripheries in the Imperial West 77