(no subject)

These men complained that while they were fighting in the field to preserve their country’s liberty and to extend her power, their own fellow–citizens at home had enslaved and oppressed them; the common people, they declared, had a better chance of freedom in war than in peace; fellow Romans threatened them with worse slavery than a foreign foe.
...

Servilius then gave substance to this statement by issuing an edict, to the effect that it should be illegal, first, to fetter or imprison a Roman citizen and so prevent him from enlisting for service, and, secondly, to seize or sell the property of any soldier on active service, or interfere in any way with his children or grandchildren.”

As a result of the edict all ‘bound’ debtors who were present gave in their names on the spot, and others from every part of the city hurried from the houses where they could no longer be legally detained, into the Forum where they took the military oath.

--- Titus Livy. The Early History of Rome.

This legal solution must have had a major impact on the economy of Rome. It effectively killed consumer credit and stimulated business credit (probably through lower interest rates). It also increased incentives to substitute local free labor with foreign slave labor.