ABSTRACT

T H E D I S I N T E G R A T I O N O F T H E T O L L S Y S T E M A N D

T H E E F F O R T S T O O V E R C O M E T H E C O N F U S I O N

In the Middle Ages the greatest obstacles to trade were the tolls. The main reason for this was indicated in the previous chapter, namely that the tolls, more than any other measure of economic policy, affected the most valuable part of trade, that moving along the chief rivers, which constituted almost the only longdistance natural means of communication before the invention of the compass. Consequently, medieval trade was much more restricted than was warranted by purely technical difficulties; and, as a result, the importance of the natural trade routes was rendered no greater, or even less, than that of the artificial ones, the unsatisfactory character of which depended on the existing state of technical knowledge. But in time, this obstructive policy was also applied to the artificial routes.