University Press Scholarship Online You are looking at 1-10 of 57 items for: keywords : roman economy Quantifying the Roman Economy: Methods and Problems Alan Bowman and Andrew Wilson (eds) Item type: book acprof:oso/9780199562596.001.0001 This book contains a number of chapters on the Roman economy which discuss methods of analysing the performance of the economy of the Mediterranean world under Roman imperial rule in the period c.100 BC to AD 350 through quantification. It focuses on the methods and problems involved in identifying and analyzing the characteristics of economic integration, growth, and decline in this period. In particular, it attempts to suggest how a complex and diverse economic world can be better understood by using quantifiable and proxy data to measure these processes in different parts of the Mediterranean world. The data are drawn from both documentary and archaeological sources, and the book emphasizes the need to draw together different kinds of written and artefactual evidence and to describe the ways in which they complement each other. This approach is pursued in a series of analyses of approaches specific economic sectors: demography, urbanization and settlement patterns, the agrarian economy, patterns of trade and commerce, mining, metal supply, and coinage. The book offers a survey of the opportunities for advancing understanding of the economic and technological development of the Roman empire by using the tools and techniques of economic history and statistical analysis. The Demand for Money in the Late Roman Republic David B. Hollander in The Monetary Systems of the Greeks and Romans Published in print: 2008 Published Online: May 2008 ISBN: 9780199233359 eisbn: 9780191716348 acprof:oso/9780199233359.003.0007 People in different professions have different monetary needs, but this fact has yet to be fully exploited with respect to the ancient economy. Page 1 of 5
Greek and Roman authors tell us at least as much about the money and assets individuals held (or sought to hold) as they do about their transactions. This chapter focuses on ancient money at rest. Examining the demand for money within the context of the demand for other assets provides a better understanding of the development of the Roman economy, particularly in the Late Republic. The chapter begins by reviewing the debate over the size of the Republican coin supply and the role Quantity Theory has played in the interpretation of those estimates. It then discusses the theory of money demand and argues that it provides a better framework with which to evaluate changes in the volume of coinage in circulation. It concludes by applying money demand theory to the Late Republican evidence. Money and Prices in the Early Roman Empire David Kessler and Peter Temin in The Monetary Systems of the Greeks and Romans Published in print: 2008 Published Online: May 2008 ISBN: 9780199233359 eisbn: 9780191716348 acprof:oso/9780199233359.003.0008 This chapter examines the role of money as a standard of value. It argues that monetization in the sense of using monetary measures was virtually universal in the early Roman Empire. This assertion verges on the obvious in view of recent compilations of Roman prices. It further argues that there was unified monetary integration across the whole Mediterranean in the early Roman Empire. This claim is made through an examination of wheat prices. The Retail Trade and the Economy Claire Holleran in Shopping in Ancient Rome: The Retail Trade in the Late Republic and the Principate Published in print: 2012 Published Online: September 2012 ISBN: 9780199698219 eisbn: 9780191741326 acprof:oso/9780199698219.003.0002 There is an intrinsic relationship between a retail trade and the wider social and economic environment in which it operates. This chapter demonstrates that fundamental relationship through a study of the history and historiography of the distributive trades in England from the medieval period to the twentieth century. It explores the potential Page 2 of 5
impact that the specific urban economy of Rome, together with the wider Roman economic environment, had on the nature of the retail trade in the city, taking into account diverse factors such as the scale, structure, and organisation of production, transport infrastructure, the role of slaves and freedmen, the labour market, the possibility of economic growth in the Roman world, and consumer demand in Rome. The implications of this analysis for the topographical organisation of trade in the city are also examined. A Comment on Andrew Wilson: Approaches to Quantifying Roman Trade William Harris in Quantifying the Roman Economy: Methods and Problems acprof:oso/9780199562596.003.0011 Building on Chapter 9, this chapter suggests various ways in which we might choose between competing models of the Roman economy. New Ways of Studying Incomes in the Roman Economy Walter Scheidel in Quantifying the Roman Economy: Methods and Problems acprof:oso/9780199562596.003.0017 This chapter explores different ways of expanding the scope of the study of Roman prices and wages by considering the determinants of real incomes, the use of proxy data for real incomes, and the potential of cross-cultural comparison. Introduction Alan Bowman and Andrew Wilson in Settlement, Urbanization, and Population Published in print: 2011 Published Online: May 2012 ISBN: 9780199602353 eisbn: 9780191731570 acprof:oso/9780199602353.003.0001 Page 3 of 5
This introductory chapter discusses settlement, population, and urbanization in the Roman economy. The book focuses on the size and relationship of settlements; the role of urbanization and urban communities in the context of wider settlement patterns; methods of estimating sizes (relative absolute) of populations or units of population (city, village, household, and so on). An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented. Public Land in the Roman Republic: A Social and Economic History of Ager Publicus in Italy, 396-89 BC Saskia T. Roselaar Published in print: 2010 Published Online: September 2010 ISBN: 9780199577231 eisbn: 9780191723414 Item type: book acprof:oso/9780199577231.001.0001 This book discusses the history of Roman state owned land from the early expansion of Rome into Italy to the Social War. Rome usually took land from its defeated enemies, which it then declared to be Roman public land or ager publicus. Such land could be distributed to Roman citizens in private ownership or remain in the hands of the state. The book discusses, first, the extent and location of this kind of land, and then the different legal conditions to which such land could be subject. It argues that from the third century BC onwards pressure on the land in Italy increased, as a result of both population growth and an increased demand for land among commercial producers, who wished to profit from growing markets. This in turn resulted in a growing demand for privatization of state owned land, as producers wished to safeguard the rights they had to use the land. This led the Roman state to create new legal possibilities for tenure of the land, and in the second and first centuries BC to complete privatization of ager publicus. The book combines new insights on population development and transformations in the Roman economy with detailed study of the legal conditions of ager publicus, using a variety of literary, archaeological, and epigraphical materials. In so doing it argues that many traditional views of late Roman Republican history, such as the occupation of ager publicus by the rich and the resulting decline in the welfare of the Roman peasantry, can no longer be sustained. Page 4 of 5
Introduction: Quantifying Roman Agriculture Alan Bowman and Andrew Wilson in The Roman Agricultural Economy: Organisation, Investment, and Production Published in print: 2013 Published Online: September 2013 ISBN: 9780199665723 eisbn: 9780191751172 acprof:oso/9780199665723.003.0001 This introductory chapter outlines the current debate over the size and nature of the agricultural economy and its importance within the Roman economy as a whole, addressing the use of models and summarising some of the possible approaches from available datasets, such as the study of patterns of large-scale investment from sites with batteries of multiple oil and wine presses which indicate elite investment in marketoriented agricultural production. It situates each of the chapters in the volume within this wider framework of study, and discusses regional variation and chronological trends, issues of land and labour, whether or not the Roman state had any conscious economic policy towards agriculture, and the articulation of agrarian production with other sectors of the economy. The State and Production in the Roman Agrarian Economy Dennis Kehoe in The Roman Agricultural Economy: Organisation, Investment, and Production Published in print: 2013 Published Online: September 2013 ISBN: 9780199665723 eisbn: 9780191751172 acprof:oso/9780199665723.003.0002 This chapter examines two main aspects of the Roman agrarian economy in relation to the state: the state as landowner and economic actor; and the various legal and administrative policies that the state developed for the rural economy. Under the first heading, it considers the effect of state taxes and of rents on imperial estates on the rural economy. Under the second, it analyses Roman legal policy in relation to private land tenure, including incentives for the exploitation of marginal land, and measures for safeguarding property rights and encouraging investment. It also examines state policy and commerce in agricultural products. The chapter argues that Roman rule developed more responsive legal institutions that provided protection not only to the wealthy and wellconnected, but also to the economically less advantaged. Page 5 of 5