The Roman Market Economy

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Temin
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Roman Economy ◽  
Pax Romana ◽  
Roman Italy ◽  
Better Than

The quality of life for ordinary Roman citizens at the height of the Roman Empire probably was better than that of any other large group of people living before the Industrial Revolution. This book uses the tools of modern economics to show how trade, markets, and the Pax Romana were critical to ancient Rome's prosperity. The book argues that markets dominated the Roman economy. It traces how the Pax Romana encouraged trade around the Mediterranean, and how Roman law promoted commerce and banking. It further shows that a reasonably vibrant market for wheat extended throughout the empire, and suggests that the Antonine Plague may have been responsible for turning the stable prices of the early empire into the persistent inflation of the late. The book vividly describes how various markets operated in Roman times, from commodities and slaves to the buying and selling of land. Applying modern methods for evaluating economic growth to data culled from historical sources, the book argues that Roman Italy in the second century was as prosperous as the Dutch Republic in its golden age of the seventeenth century. The book reveals how economics can help us understand how the Roman Empire could have ruled seventy million people and endured for centuries.

Per Capita GDP in the Early Roman Empire

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Temin
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Bond Market ◽  
Per Capita Gdp ◽  
Maximum Extent ◽  
Roman Economy ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Roman Italy

This chapter draws together the implications of the previous chapters in order to investigate the size of the Roman economy at its maximum extent. If one takes Roman Italy as being comparable to the Netherlands in 1600, then the Roman Empire as a whole is comparable to Europe as a whole. The putative advantages of the early modern Netherlands over Roman Italy are less clear than their advantages over the Roman Empire as a whole. Roman Italy was heavily urbanized, and it is probable that the proportion of the labor force in agriculture there was less than 50 percent. Rome did not have a bond market, but it had a more sophisticated financial system than the Netherlands. The comparability is enhanced by noting that neither the Netherlands nor Rome had an industrial revolution.

Monumentality and the Roman Empire

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edmund Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Full Length ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Close Link ◽  
The Public ◽  
Roman Italy

The quality of "monumentality" is attributed to the buildings of few historical epochs or cultures more frequently or consistently than to those of the Roman Empire. It is this quality that has helped to make them enduring models for builders of later periods. This extensively illustrated book, the first full-length study of the concept of monumentality in Classical Antiquity, asks what it is that the notion encompasses and how significant it was for the Romans themselves in molding their individual or collective aspirations and identities. Although no single word existed in antiquity for the qualities that modern authors regard as making up that term, its Latin derivation--from monumentum, "a monument"--attests plainly to the presence of the concept in the mentalities of ancient Romans, and the development of that notion through the Roman era laid the foundation for the classical ideal of monumentality, which reached a height in early modern Europe. This book is also the first full-length study of architecture in the Antonine Age--when it is generally agreed the Roman Empire was at its height. By exploring the public architecture of Roman Italy and both Western and Eastern provinces of the Roman Empire from the point of view of the benefactors who funded such buildings, the architects who designed them, and the public who used and experienced them, Edmund Thomas analyzes the reasons why Roman builders sought to construct monumental buildings and uncovers the close link between architectural monumentality and the identity and ideology of the Roman Empire itself.

The leges municipales as a Means of Legal and Social Romanization of the Provinces of the Roman Empire

2020 ◽  
pp. 315-331
Author(s):  
Werner Eck
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Southern Spain ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
Legal Regulations ◽  
Documentary Evidence ◽  
General Phenomenon ◽  
The West ◽  
The Law

Sections of the leges municipales from at least forty different cities in Southern Spain have survived to us. These laws, understood as a powerful instrument by which Roman legal regulations were introduced into the provinces, are usually connected with Baetica. As a result it is too easy to overlook the fact that corresponding leges were issued wherever Roman or Latin cities were founded, and continued to be issued long after the Flavian era, the time to which most of the surviving fragments date. Documentary evidence has now made clear that leges municipales are a general phenomenon which continued to play a role in the second and third centuries CE. Fragments of city laws are known not only in the province of Alpes Maritimae, but also in Noricum (Lauriacum), Moesia superior (Ratiaria), and in Troesmis (Moesia inferior). The law for Troesmis is especially important because, in contrast to the laws from Baetica, it was issued for a Roman and not a Latin municipium. This demonstrates that specific Roman legal regulations, which were issued in Augustan times exclusively for Roman citizens, were still of relevance in the second century and also must have been used in the province of Moesia inferior. This material indicates that people had to obey Roman legal regulations more or less everywhere in nearly all provinces of the West. The leges municipales were thus one of the decisive means by which Roman law spread in the provinces—more so than has previously been realized—and could even be the basis for daily life.

Parallel developments in Roman law and maritime trade during the Late Republic and Early Principate

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 53-72
Author(s):  
Peter Candy
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Domestic Animal ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
General Direction ◽  
Roman Economy ◽  
Roman Italy ◽  
Arctic Ice ◽  
Intensive Growth

Between the Second Punic War and the Early Principate several sources of evidence indicate that the Roman economy experienced some measure of (limited) growth. The case for intensive growth is founded on two complementary approaches. The first has been to construct an “argument from convergence”, which observes that several archaeological data-sets, such as Mediterranean shipwrecks, deposits of domestic animal bones at Italian sites and samples of lead and copper pollution from Arctic ice cores and lake sediments, show an increase in chronological distribution during the Late Republic and Early Empire.1 If taken as proxies for the volume and intensity of exchange, consumption and production, respectively, then, as W. Scheidel has argued, “we may reasonably assume that [these data-sets] indicate at least the general direction of economic development”.2 A second approach has attempted to quantify the GDP of the Roman economy. Although highly conjectural, where such estimates are possible they provide an insight into the trajectory of economic development by giving a rough indication of the rate at which it was probable to have grown or contracted over a given period.3 P. Kay‘s “probabilistic quantification” of the GDP of Roman Italy for the 2nd and early 1st c. B.C.4 concludes that the economy experienced extensive and probably also intensive growth because the rate of inflation remained at a relatively low level.5 His estimate that prices rose by 95% between 150 and 50 B.C. (i.e., at a compound rate of 0.67% per annum) accords with the broadly similar conclusions reached by other scholars.6 Although Kay warns that “the estimates we have produced are assumptions, not facts”, the results are both plausible and credible from a comparative perspective.7

City and Reciprocity: The Role of Cultural Beliefs in the Roman Economy

2012 ◽  
Vol 67 (04) ◽  
pp. 599-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koenraad Verboven
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Cultural Beliefs ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
New Institutional Economics ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
Roman Economy

Over the past decade, the New Institutional Economics have become a popular model for analyzing ancient economic history. However, the notion of cultural beliefs, which plays a central role in Douglass North’s recent work and Avner Greif’s analysis of institutional change, has been largely ignored. This article argues that a neo-institutional approach taking this notion into account offers a better means of understanding how ideology and moral values influenced the ancient economy than the Finleyan model. Rather than acting as a deterministic constraint on human behavior, cultural beliefs help to orient decision making and allow one to anticipate the (re)actions of others. This article explores two key sets of norms and values in Roman culture that profoundly marked the economy’s institutional framework. The first focused on reciprocity, which supported social networks beyond the confines of the familia-freedmen group and underlay the development of contract and agency law. The second was based on citizenship, which shaped political culture by creating individual rights and obligations that the political elite was given the authority to enforce in order to secure and stimulate both private and common interests. This resulted in Roman law and the distribution of justice. Ideologically, the Roman Empire presented itself as a meta-city that incorporated local communities, which were in turn gradually transformed to fit the civitas model. Both sets of beliefs lowered transaction costs without threatening the preeminent position of local and imperial aristocracies. Toward the end of the second century CE, local communities weakened as the imperial administration grew stronger, causing local and regional aristocracies to turn to the imperial court and army for status, influence, and power. The ideology of citizenship as the guiding principle of political culture gave way to that of the sacred emperor, who guaranteed divine justice and order.

Law in Graeco-Roman Egypt: Hellenization, Fusion, Romanization

2011 ◽  
pp. 540-560
Author(s):  
Uri Yiftach
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Major Elements ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Entire Population ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Legal Documents ◽  
Legal Traditions ◽  
Law Of Succession

The Ptolemaic kings of Egypt ruled a variety of ethnic groups that were diverse in language, culture, religion, and legal practices. The main themes were tolerance and even the protection of particular legal traditions. By the beginning of the Roman period, changes were under way. The autonomous courts of law had by then ceased to exist. The second century ce witnessed the abandonment of demotic script in legal documents and the emergence of a new law, “the law of the Egyptian”, which was applied by the entire population and consisted of Greek and Egyptian elements alike. In the late third century bce, agoranomeia were established in the throughout Egypt to allow the state to monitor foreclosure on assets placed as security for debts. In the Roman empire, Roman citizens in Egypt followed major elements of the Roman law of succession, family, and personal status.

Ancient Atmospheric Lead Pollution

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Varaschin
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Ice Sheets ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Lead Pollution ◽  
Roman Economy ◽  
Clear Peak ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Atmospheric Lead Pollution

In the early 90s, evidence was found in ice cores taken from Greenland of increased levels of ancient atmospheric lead, preserved by way of the annual precipitation that eventually formed into ice sheets. Since that time, similar records of atmospheric lead pollution have been uncovered in myriad other naturally forming deposits, including lake sediments and bogs. These records of lead pollution are presumed to reflect an increase in anthropogenic atmospheric lead pollution as metal became more heavily utilized by ancient peoples. This pollution confirmed for many the size and sophistication of the Roman economy. The records exhibit a clear peak around the beginning of the first millennium, roughly the midpoint of the Roman Empire and such levels were not seen again until after the industrial revolution was well underway. This peak in atmospheric lead is thought to show the climax of Roman Industry, followed by a subsequent decline and historians and scientists have sought to use this evidence as a proxy for the ancient world economy, but more specifically for the so called rise and fall of the Roman Empire. This presentation will explore the science behind linking the atmospheric lead pollution to Roman mining activities and why lead pollution is so strongly thought to reflect the roman economy. Alternative theories as to how atmospheric lead was produced in such quantities will be explored, including, increased agriculture and wood burning. Lastly, confounding factors will be considered such as volcanism and other ancient sources, including mining in Asia Minor and Han China.

Tenure of Land and Agricultural Regulation

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis P. Kehoe
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Roman Economy ◽  
Farm Tenancy ◽  
Definition Of

This chapter examines the ways in which the Roman legal authorities defined property rights over land during the Republican and Imperial periods. The focus is on how the legal definition of property rights to land affected the economic interests of key constituencies, including landowners, farm tenants and the Roman state, which derived the bulk of its revenues from taxes connected with land, and also was a significant economic actor in its own right as the pre-eminent landowner in the Roman Empire. Farm tenancy represented an institution of fundamental importance to the Roman economy. Classical Roman law defined the tenant as a short-term occupant of the land paying a cash rent. The Roman legal authorities struggled with accommodating within Roman legal norms other forms of land tenure that accorded the tenant much stronger rights than in the classical Roman farm lease. This is what this chapter sets out to survey.

Kepuasan Masyarakat Terhadap Pelayanan Kelurahan Setelah Pemekaran Di Tangerang Selatan

Liquidity ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-159
Author(s):  
Pitri Yandri
Keyword(s):  
Public Perception ◽  
Service Personnel ◽  
Urban Services ◽  
Hospitality Workers ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Cartesian Diagram ◽  
Better Than

The purpose of this study is (1) to analyze public perception on urban services before and after the expansion of the region, (2) analyze the level of people's satisfaction with urban services, and (3) analyze the determinants of the variables that determine what level of people's satisfaction urban services. This study concluded that first, after the expansion, the quality of urban services in South Tangerang City is better than before. Secondly, however, public satisfaction with the services only reached 48.53% (poor scale). Third, by using a Cartesian Diagram, the second priority that must be addressed are: (1) clarity of service personnel, (2) the discipline of service personnel, (3) responsibility for care workers; (4) the speed of service, (5) the ability of officers services, (6) obtain justice services, and (7) the courtesy and hospitality workers.

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