Slave-run peculium-based business in Roman law: Negotiatio per Servos Communes

The subject of our study is commonly owned slave-run peculium-based businesses. In order to understand the functional meaning of this type of business in Rome, firstly, the other institutions of Roman Law, which serve for collective trade, such as societas and societas publicanorum are examined separately. In the following, the distinguishing elements of the modern company are mentioned. In this way, it is aimed to show how the inadequacy of these two institutions is tried to be overcome with negotiatio per servos communes in the following sections. However, since negotiatio per servos communes is the main research subject that draws the framework of the study, the composing elements that give its existence to this institution also had to be examined separately. Because the slave-run peculium-based businesses in question, did not descend from the top with a lex or by the will of the emperors, on the contrary, they became a de facto product of an organic development process within the Roman mentality. In this context, in the second section, the slave, peculium, additional actions and the organizational forms of peculium businesses which the first three embody by becoming a bundle of relations, are examined separately. In the last part, it is emphasized how and to what extent the Romans met or tried to respond by developing alternatives the structural features of continuity, direct representation, limited liability and entity shielding, through negotiatio per servos communes.