The Moral Menace of Roman Law and the Making of Commerce: Some Dutch Evidence James Q. Whitman One of the classic arguments in European legal history is the claim that the spread of Roman law broke down traditional European morality and paved the way for the rise of modern commercial society. This claim, which influenced some of the founders of classical sociology, and which was embraced by both Marxists and Nazis, is almost universally rejected by professional legal historians. Professor Whitman defends this claim on the basis of evidence from the Dutch commercial revolution of the early seventeenth century. Seventeenth-century Holland, generally regarded as the first modern commercial society, has been neglected by legal historians. Yet Dutch sources hold revealing evidence for the impact of Roman law on the making of a new commercial morality. Elsewhere in Christian Europe, merchants faced intimidating just-price restrictions. The Dutch turned to a more liberal Roman-law regime. Other parts of Christian Europe permitted a Roman-law liquidation procedure only after brutal shaming ceremonies. The Dutch permitted the Roman-law procedure without any such shame sanctions. In both cases, Roman law provided the moral authority of ancient Rome to merchants who wished to escape Christian restrictions on commercial behavior. Such neglected issues of moral authority are inescapably important for explaining the rise and spread of commercial society. Return to Issue 105-7