FORGING LINKS BETwEEN REGIONS 83
wrong was done to any merchant. However, the defining aspect of these cases
was the speed and frequency with which they were adjudicated. Although, as
has been seen, legal infrastructures for adjudicating commercial disputes had
existed in the fifth century, the procedures were too slow to adequately meet
the needs of interregional traders (Xen. Vect. 2.3). Thus, in 346 BCE, we find
the first reference to ‘mercantile’ suits (Dem. 21.176). The precise meaning of
the term ‘monthly’ is still debated, but what is certain is that this new system
was intended to ensure swift legal action thereby preventing locals from drag-
ging out proceedings to the disadvantage of short-term visitors.^73 The pro-
tection to person and property offered by symbola agreements and the dikai
emporikai reassured foreign merchants that if disputes did occur they would
receive fair treatment and, in the case of the latter, not sustain undue transac-
tion costs caused by delays in the judicial process. The Athenians also issued a
law protecting merchants against spurious legal cases. Demosthenes (58.10-11)
notes that it was specifically introduced in order to deter vexatious prose-
cutions brought against merchants and shippers, thereby ensuring that those
who broke the law faced justice whilst the innocent were not annoyed by
unfounded accusations.^74 Although, as with so many of the statutes referenced
by the orators, the exact details of this law are lost, it is possible to ascertain that
baseless charges brought against emporoi and naukleroi were punished with fines,
arrests, and ‘other penalties’.^75 Later in the same speech (53–54), the speaker
reminds the judges of Athenian dependence on foreign merchants – men who
often faced many dangers and hardships to bring their wares to Athens – stress-
ing the need to ensure they were dealt with fairly. Already mindful of this fact,
Athens employed a series of officials charged with the dual responsibility of
regulating mercantile transactions and guaranteeing the fair treatment of for-
eign merchants at the hands of citizens. These included agoranomoi, metronomoi,
sitophylakes, epimeletai tou emporiou, and dokimastai.^76
The Standardization of Weights, Measures, and Coinage
Another way in which the Athenians provided legal protection to the mercan-
tile community was through the standardization of weights and measures. As
Harris notes, ‘In a small-scale economy where most transactions occur among
relatives, friends and neighbors, there is often little need for legal regulation;
social pressure and the ties of friendship (philia) suffice to create the necessary
amount of trust needed to exchange goods and services. By contrast, in large
markets – such as the agora in the fifth and fourth centuries – where most
exchange took the form of impersonal exchange between strangers, it was
necessary to provide merchants and their customers with the assurance that all
transactions would be fair and that all contracts would be enforced.’^77 To ensure