A GENERAL OUTLOOK ON THE ISSUE OF TRADE RESTRICTIONS IN ROMAN LAW
Abstract
The legal sources of Roman law, mainly face trade restrictions in the
context of the relationship between patron and freedman (libertus). It is no
coincidence that, the issue arose in that particular context. Before slaves were
set free, they would often acquire special knowledge and skills from working in
the masters’ businesses. If a slave was set free to administer, the estate of his
former master as procurator (a representative in terms of a general power of
attorney), his livelihood was secured. In other cases, he had to establish his own
occupation to survive after his manumission. His obvious choice would have
been the occupation he had learned under his former master and present patron.
For example, the freedman of a medical doctor could become a doctor himself
and the freedman of a slave-dealer did not begin agitate for the abolition of
slavery, but became a slave-dealer himself.