Page:American Historical Review, Vol. 23.djvu/113

Rh by the papyri, inscriptions, and the codes of the Roman and Byzantine empires, roughly speaking from 300 B. C. to 900 A. D., information upon this subject is fairly abundant and easily accessible.

The comprehensive study of the weaving trade suggested above can only be undertaken by a scholar who is able to meet three requirements. He must have, or acquire, a knowledge of the technique of textile manufacturing. He must have time. He must have money available for travel and study in the great museums. The scholar best adapted for this service is, perhaps, to be found in a man of thorough classical training—the ancient languages are an absolute essential—connected with one of our best-equipped museums, in Boston, New York, or Chicago.

In the same way the lead industry of antiquity would also repay an intensive and comprehensive treatment, though not to the same degree as the weaving trade. Here, too, special studies are already available, but only as a working basis. As in the study of textile manufactures, the archaeological evidence would form the foundation of the work.

In the ancient iron industry more work has been done. The monumental work of Ludwig Beck upon the history of iron does not, however, make use of the epigraphical and papyrological evidence. Despite Waltzing's exhaustive volumes upon the industrial corporations among the Romans and other more recent studies on the Greek and Byzantine gilds, a separate study of the iron workers throughout antiquity would amply repay the time spent upon it as a dissertation. Here the ends to be sought are two: first, to determine the social classification of the laborers in the industry; second, to determine the amount of interest and control "of the governments over ore production and manufacture in the iron industry.

For the ancient building trades, the archaeologists have already done a great deal in the study of the technique. But little attention has been given to their economic and social aspects; on this side