What causes great societies to rise and then fall?
What causes them to rise is legal recognition of the sanctity of private property and free and open trade. Doubt me? Let’s look at Rome. Roman law was chiseled into marble and granite everywhere. It was written and not arbitrary. When there is fair and equal administration of the law and this law does not impede upon property, the creation of wealth is inevitable. Moreover, so is the concept of happiness. What makes a society happy? Being secure in property and having domain over property is the first step. One is master and ruler over their own property and as such, can improve it, sell it, hypothecate it or simply stare at it and admire it. Such person is motivated to be a kind steward and to improve its value. No one is a better ruler or administrator than the owner. Happiness is destroyed when the powers of government interfere with the natural union of property and its owner. The Founders understood this.
The Bill of Rights was modeled after the Virginia Declaration of Rights, written by George Mason and adopted by the Virginia legislature in 1776. Right out the gate, in the very first section, the sanctity of private property and it being free from government interference is addressed. It was declared a right….
“That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.”
George Mason understood that there cannot be happiness without the protection of private property, indeed the concept of liberty cannot exist without this protection being a fundamental right.
What is property? The right to contract is a property right. So is your work product. So is your labor. Property is “real,” and it is “personal.” It’s visible and invisible. There are a million different forms of private property, but in all cases, it is owned by humans, who have an inherent right to oversee, manage and rule over it.
What is trade? Trade is doing what YOU want to do with YOUR property. Our political intelligentsia has a very myopic view of trade, especially the always lingering tariff and protectionism crowd. This crowd is interested in protecting themselves and having the government infringe on your property for their benefit. The best way to understand the benefits of free and open trade is to imagine the small town of Goodacre. Let’s place it in Indiana. It has 1,000 people. If Goodacre could only trade with itself, its citizens would be third world poor, naked and starving. It might be able to produce some food and maybe some wool, but no cotton. There would be no fruit. Likely no timber. There would be no division of labor and Goodacre-ites would be toiling all day simply to eat and keep warm.
Widen the trading sphere to the whole state of Indiana, and the folks in Goodacre would be a bit better off, but not by much. However, they would not even be able to own a pencil as the ingredients needed to complete the manufacture need to come from outside of Indiana. Now I could widen the sphere to the United States, then North America, the Western Hemisphere and so on, and the principle would still be the same. Things gets better the wider and more populous the trading area. People in other countries that produce goods and services at cheaper prices than can be produced in the United States are not villains. Trade is a series of trillions of voluntary transactions of people trading their property (which they lord over) with one another. This system creates incredible wealth, lifts people out of poverty and spreads human happiness around the globe. Using the exercise above, reducing a concept to an elementary form, how much labor do you think it would cost to buy a simple and very itchy wool shirt in Goodacre if it only traded with itself? Every item would be so prohibitively expensive that there would only be a few items produced. But the greater the free trade over the greatest area, smashes prices and creates astonishing wealth. That wealth, private capital, then goes on to be the supply mechanism to advance civilization to new and expanded heights. Nothing would exist without wealth.
Back to Rome. It lasted 1,000 years. I have read historians who state that Rome was rich because of its plundering and the spoils of war. That’s nonsense. Gold and jewels plundered from Carthage and Corinth have no real value unless there is a system of people voluntarily trading their property amongst each other. What is the gold going to buy if nothing is being produced? Using the examples above, if early Rome had been locked solely in a trading zone with the nearby Etruscans, the Palatine Hill would have never had anything atop it but straw huts.
Rome opened up a huge trading zone of tens of millions or people from and through Mesopotamia, Egypt, Spain, Britain, all of Gaul, north to the Danube and beyond. North Africa was the bread basket for Roman cities. There were large mining operations in Spain. Tin came from the Cornish coast. There were olive oil factories, indeed factories of all kinds. Roman roads and Mediterranean shipping moved foodstuffs (e.g. olives, fish, meat, cereals, salt, prepared foods such as fish sauce, olive oil, wine and beer), animal products (e.g. leather and hides), objects made from wood, glass, metals, textiles, pottery, and materials for manufacturing and construction such as glass, marble, wood, wool, bricks, gold, silver and copper. There were millions of middlemen, tradesmen and small merchants. There were dozens of trade associations for artisans proud of their work. Trade was so extensive, that luxury items from India have been found in the very remote Hebrides Islands off the northern coast of Scotland.
Rome was rich because of trade and established Roman law which established fair, equitable and predictable rules for commerce, all of which recognized the sanctity of property. And there it is, right in front of our faces, the glory of Rome, its edifices still standing after 2,000 years and all possible because of extended trade and the protection of property rights. Why then do we let politicians restrict trade and hamper capital?
The popular imagery some have of Rome’s demise is fur wearing NASCAR fans, waving Confederates flag, scratching and burping themselves down the Appian Way to sack Rome. Yet the Goths were invited south of the Danube in 376 to participate in Roman civilization. Just like all the immigrants yearning to come to America to be a part of the “dream,” so did the Goths and many other “barbarians.” Many had leadership roles within the Empire. Pontius Pilate’s mother was a Scot (supposedly). Rome was teaming with diversity and commerce. Roman coins were used for exchange for Roman goods hundreds of miles into barbarian lands.
In the later stages of the Empire, the permanent bureaucracy grew enormously and predictably, so did government corruption. Provincial governors and legion commanders used their positions to enrich themselves through excessive taxation and out right bribery. These practices trickled down to lower “publicans” and other officials. It factionalized the empire and caused great divisions and animosity. Indeed, the Goths who sacked Rome in 410 were double crossed by corrupt Roman authorities, leading them to rebel against the state. By the middle of the 4th century, an enormous DEEP STATE was running Rome. Power is an aphrodisiac and there were multiple aspirants vying to be emperor in open warfare with one another.
What are we to make of all this? The more power politicians have, the more corrupt they become. Self-interest prevails over the public good. They ruin a good thing, and the good thing that propels civilization forward is the protection of private property and free and open trade. When these are fostered, we produce enormous wealth. We soar with Jupiter. When these things are hindered and attacked, we are mired in a miserable existence with Orcus.