Note 149 — XV THE HISTORY OF LEGAL DEVELOPMENT AT ROME AND IN ENGLAND

Of course I do not mean to disparage the immense importance of economic causes always and everywhere, but in the ancient world, where communities were mostly small, they tended more quickly to engender political revolutions, and thus their action became involved with politics. In the modern world, where nations are mostly large and political change is usually more gradual, economic factors frequently tell upon society and affect the working of institutions without leading to civil strife. The more the world develops and settles down, and the further it moves away from its primitive conditions, the greater becomes the relative significance of the economic elements.