Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/133

 especially the case with respect to silk. Justinian pretended to be indignant when a rise of price was operated by the deficient supply, and decreed that the maximum retail cost should be eight solidi (£4 10s.) the pound. Confiscation was the penalty for contravening this regulation, but the traffic was still carried on in secret. Here Theodora found an opening for the exercise of her talents, and through private channels succeeded in discovering the merchants who were implicated. Thereupon a fine of 100 lb. of gold (£4,000) was imposed on each of them. Soon the factories at Tyre and Berytus, the headquarters of the commerce, began to languish, the operatives were thrown out of work, and ultimately the Praetorian Praefect possessed himself of the whole manufacture. Exorbitant prices were then fixed which yielded an immense profit to the Imperial exchequer, but numberless persons were ruined during the process of transfer. Like results obtained in relation to the corn supply of Egypt through manœuvres at Alexandria, by which the Praefect of the City was constituted the sole purveyor of that commodity. A scarceness and dearness of bread was the natural consequence of this innovation. Another fiscal move, far-reaching in its effects, was the diversion of the separate revenues of the municipalities