Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/152

136 HIST01IY OF GKEECE. bition in conjunction with other objects said to have been contem- plated by Solon, especially the encouragement of artisans and manufacturers at Athens. Observing, we are told, that many new emigrants were just then flocking into Attica to seek an establishment, in consequence of its greater security, he was anxious to turn them rather to manufacturing industry than to Hie cultivation of a soil naturally poor. 1 He forbade the grant- ing of citizenship to any emigrants, except such as had quitted irrevocably their former abodes, and come to Athens for the pur- pose of carrying on some industrious profession ; and in order to prevent idleness, he directed the senate of areopagus to keep watch over the lives of the citizens generally, and punish every r^ne who had no course of regular labor to support him. If a father had not taught his son some art or profession, Solon relieved the son from all obligation to maintain him in his old age. And it was to encourage the multiplication of these artisans, that he insured, or sought to insure, to the residents in Attica a monop- oly of all its landed produce except olive-oil, which was raised in abundance more than sufficient for their wants. It was his wish that the trade with foreigners should be carried on by exporting the produce of artisan labor, instead of the produce of land. 2 This commercial prohibition is founded on principles substan- tially similar to those which were acted upon in the early history of England, with reference both to corn and to wool, and in other European countries also. In so far as it was at all operative, it tended to lessen the total quantity of produce raised upon tho soil of Attica, and thus to keep the price of it from rising, a purpose less objectionable if we assume that the legislator is 1 Plutarch, Solon, 22. raif Te%vaif u^'na 2 Plutarch, Solon, 22-24 According to Herodotus, Solon had enacted that the authorities should punish every man with death who could not show a regular mode of industrious life (Herod, ii, 177 ; Diodor. i, 77). So severe a rnnishment is not credible ; nor is it likely that Solon bor- CWP.J *.i iaea from Egypt. According to Pollux (viii, 6) idleness was punished by atimy (civil dis franchisemcnt) under Drako : under Solon, this prmishment only took effect against the person who had been convicted of it on three successive occa- sions. See Meursius, Solon, c. 17; and the "Areopagus" of the sain* author, c. 8 and 9; and Taylor, Lectt. Lyslac. cap. 10.