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The Law of Civilization and Decay
The Law of Civilization and Decay is a book written by
Brooks Adams in 1895. His intention was to prove that the rise and fall of civilizations follows a definite cycle of centralization and decay. Adams outlined this theory by sketching the patterns of major periods in western history, concentrating on economic and social factors.
==Rome==
Adams starts with ancient Rome. In the Roman Republic the wielders of government power were landowning farmers and husbandmen. The landowners, however, spent time away from home, and "…were ill-fitted to endure the strain of the unrestricted economic competition of a centralized society. Consequently their conquests had hardly consolidated before decay set in".〔Adams, ''The Law of Civilization and Decay'' 2nd edition (1975) Gordon Press ISBN 0-87968-235-3〕 This "decay" is characterized as the rise of slavery within the Republic and, later, the Empire. The landowners originally hired free men to work their land. These free men were the generally very poor, so their debts to the landowners increased dramatically throughout the years. Sons would take on their father’s debts, which became so large that perpetual bondage to a landowner (called "usurers" by Adams) was the result. The entire system, judicial and fiscal, was structured around creating and maintaining debt. Usurers, through the courts, could buy, sell, and execute the debtors. This system had the result of slowly decreasing capital and undermining the ability of the landowner to pay taxes, thus ruining the primary source of revenue for the Republic. Another source of income was needed, and this was found in conquest. But military expansion could only delay, never alleviate, the decline. Adams then states that increasing centralization, through conquest and the rise of the Emperors, exacerbated the rift between plebeian and publican, slave and free. As more territory was added, so too did the number of foreigners reduced to slavery in Italy increase, forming a hierarchy that had not existed under the Republic. Ironically, this source of cheap labor doomed, rather than saved the economy. Capital was increased in the hands of a few, and landowners had barely enough to subsist, even in good times. At the slightest disaster, bankruptcy and debt resulted. As Adams states: "The Roman husbandman and soldier was doomed, for nature had turned against him; the task of history is but to ascertain his fate, and trace the fortunes of his country after he had gone".〔Adams, page 22〕 Another factor in the decline of Rome was the devaluation and centralization of the currency. Under the Emperors, coins were minted without any real value behind them, causing inflation and devaluation. This, combined with a refusal to have mints in places other than Rome, helped speed the economic decay. The killing blow, as it were, for Roman power and influence occurred in AD 325 when Constantine moving his capitol to
Constantinople, the “New Rome”. From then on, the Empire would be dependent on its far holdings for money, supplies, food, workers, slaves, and even emperors. Bankers and the moneyed elite would replace the citizen-soldier landholder, and mercenaries would replace the once-great Roman Legions. Rome itself would decline until conquered by barbarians in the fifth century AD.
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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