Question about subordinate clause of causation...

Latin Learning Latin
1

Salvete!

I was working through the exercises from LL, Cap. XXIX and tried to answer this question:

Quomodo mercatores lucrum faciunt?

I wrote down the following:

Mercatores lucrum faciunt ut res emptae navis ad terras alienas vehantur ac pluribus pecuniis vendant.

I’m unsure if the above is proper Latin, as the first half of the subordinate clause assumes that the act is done a mercatoribus or ab eis (without saying such). Is it necessary to specify one of those to give the subordinate clause it’s proper meaning? Does the rest of the sentence look sound? My goal is to say that merchants make a good profit by buying up things wherever their at and then transporting them to foreign lands to sell them for more money.

Any comments are most welcome. :smiley:

Chris

2

Amadeus Cdm2003 salutem plurimam dicit:

Are you sure “ut” is for cause? As I recall, “ut” is used for purpose in Lingua Latina parte I.

Let me go fetch my book, study it for a while, and I’ll get back to you… unless someone beats me to it. :laughing:

Iam volvo.

Added some minutes later:

How about this: “Mercatores lucrum faciunt emendo (?) merces in terra qua et vendendo eas maiore pretio aliena parte.”

Corrections to my correction are welcome too. :wink:

3

Gratias Amadeo!

I think you’re right about the lack of causal ut in Part I. Plus, I think I misused it anyway. I’m not so sure that I can translate the English structure “X is accomplished by means of Y” with ut + subjunctive. I much prefer your construction with the participles.

Vale!

4

Yes, the Gerund is what you want here.

5

Yeah…that too. :blush:

Thank you, :slight_smile:
Chris