Unit 3 The Roman Economy Flashcards
Intro
Economic activity important?, markets, wine, roads
Economic activity created relationships between different areas and was one of the things that held the empire together
Markets had to exist and a mechanism of exchange - coins that enabled a seller to do this
large jars used in vineyards into which grape juice is channelled during pressing, then into amphoras - storage for transportation (the hill of amphoras in Rome) - most common type Dressel 20
Italy needed to be internally connected (roads) to itself to be able to exploit differential agricultural production. The empire-wide connection between production, markets and profit was the essence of the Roman economy and a fundamental aspect of imperial ecology was scale
3.1 Imperial ecology I
The Roman empire was an ‘agrarian world’ centred on the Mediterranean
Varro ‘De Re Rustica’ (‘on country matters’ also ‘on agricultures’ 37BCE - about agriculture, stock raising and farm animals, written as dramatised discussions between elite men inn Rome’ not practical handbook, more elitist attitudes towards agriculture
Concerned with environment, climate, growing appropriate crops in the appropriate place - consequences if not done - starvation and financial ruin. Also working with climate, location, technology to obtain productivity and financial profit
Piny explains one method of land management ‘sharecropping’ is a system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on their portion of land.
3.1 Imperial ecology II
Heavy use of slaves captured in military campaigns which resulted in friction Tiberus Gracchus and the agrarian law (concilium plebis for a creation of allotments/ager publicis.) farmers were thrown off their land by greedy landowners especially after death in war
Peculiar - Slaves have no legal identity but slave owners needed them to act as economic agents. Plus the lex institoria allowed slaves to act for their master
Cato - ‘Slaves were so ubiquitous they often seem invisible’
Garum - Fish sauce a popular savoury condiment used extensively in Roman cooking - guts of fish considered refuse, soaked in salt to create a liquor, most poplar = somber (Mackerel) from the fisheries of Carthago Spartaria ‘gram of the allies’ 6 pints cost 1000 sesterces very expensive. Comes from Mauritania (Hispania). Pompeii garum also famous.
3.1 Imperial ecology III
Fullers processed wooden cloth (urine, Vespasian’s tax hence Vespasian is modern Italian word for urinal), finished textiles and probably laundered clothes
Inscription on tables Lists of tax charges/law in cities e.g. Palmyra these known as Portoria, this located outside the temple of Rabaseire (a god of the underworld) detail what the tax charges are for goods e.g. each load of wheat, wine, fodder and similar produce for each camel load for each trip - 1 denarius, prostitues - 1 denarius per month
1 denarius = 4 sistertii = 16 asses
The ‘annona’ (dole) a free distribution of grain by the emperor and example of euergetism/good deeds done
3.1.1 Local economy
A city governed its surrounding territory - its ‘ager’
The organisation of a newly founded Roman city was planned in conjunction with an organisation of its territory known as ‘centuriation’ - created order and combined with the roads connecting farms made the marketing of produce more efficient and the administration of the land by government more effective
Straight roads were designed and parcels of land ‘centuries’ were measured and marked on the ground by surveyors - ‘A treatise on land surveying by Hyginus who lived during Adrian’s reign
Town planning - The main east-west road was called the ‘decumanus maximus’ and the main north-south perpendicular axis road the ‘cardo maximus’ both met in the centre at the ‘groma’ and this is where the forum was usually located or near
3.1.2 The urban economy
Cities were the fundamental unit of Roman administration and the centres of rural territories it was as much an empire of bricks and mortar as of conquest
The ancient city was also a producer of food, processed goods and manufactured items
Cities were the building blocks of Provinces
Tax was one of the mechanisms that was used directly to hold the empire together
Coins vital to economy because imperial expense (army pay) and most taxes needed to be paid in cash - preferably using high value coins. Money - a medium of exchange used to convert one thing into another.
- 2 Provinces in the economy
3. 3 Empire and the economy
Census entry and your circumstances (land owned) determined what tax you paid
Under Augustus tax farmers removed and this became the responsibility of the provincial government
Emperors always interested in taxation as it was the most significant form of income for funding the army. imperial projects and imperial popularity (the emperor’s ‘fiscus’) - taxation held the empire together
Two other main sources of the emperor’s income imperial estates and gold and silver mines (which began to run out).
Pliny complains that half of Africa owned by six landlords when the emperor Nero put them to death so that it could become imperial property and pay for his building projects
Adulteration of coinage (silver) by the emperors gradually eroded economic performance. By 3rd century denarii debased (Hadrian’s coins preferred)
3.4.1 The substantivists and the formalists debate and argument on the Roman Economy
Substantivists - led by Sir Moses Finley, seeing a relatively primitive ancient (Roman) economy as something largely determined by and embedded in social status and politics
Their opponents
Formalists - Inspired by Michael Rstovtzeff, saw the ancient (Roman) economy as an independent sphere of activity driven by supply and demand, logic, rationality and profit-seeking and so closer to a more modern economy - Formalist paid much more attention to archeological evidence since it provided substantial evidence for economic activity.
By end of 20th C stalemate, just that modern capitalism did not exist in the ancient world
