Structure and Scale in the Roman Economy

This book explores central areas of the Roman economy and the ways those areas connect and interact.

Richard Duncan-Jones (Author)

9780521892896, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 2 May 2002

264 pages, 29 b/w illus. 51 tables
22.7 x 15.6 x 1.9 cm, 0.44 kg

This book by the author of The Economy of the Roman Empire: Quantitative Studies considers important interlocking themes. Did the Roman Empire have a single 'national' economy, or was its economy localised and fragmented? Can coin and pottery survivals demonstrate the importance of long-distance trade? How fast did essential news travel by sea, and what does that imply about Mediterranean sailing-patterns? Further subjects considered include taxation, commodity-prices, demography, and army pay and manpower. The book is very wide-ranging in its geographical coverage and in the evidence that it explores. By analysing specific features of the economy the contrasting discussions examine important questions about its character and limitations, and about how surviving evidence should be interpreted. The book throws new and significant light on the economic life of Europe and the Mediterranean in antiquity, and will be valuable to ancient historians and students of European economic history.

List of figures
List of tables
Preface
List of abbreviations
Introduction
Part I. Time and Distance: 1. Communication-speed and contact by sea in the Roman empire
2. Trade, taxes and money
3. Separation and cohesion in Mediterranean trade
4. Stability and change
Part II. Demography and Manpower: 5. Age-awareness in the Roman world
6. Roman life-expectancy
7. Pay and numbers in Diocletian's army
Part III. Agrarian Patterns: 8. Land and landed wealth
9. The price of wheat in Roman Egypt
Part IV. The World of Cities: 10. The social cost of urbanisation
11. Who paid for public building?
Part V. Tax-Payment and Tax-Assessment: 12. Taxation in money and taxation in kind
13. Land, taxes and labour: implications of the iugum
Appendices
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: General & world history [HBG]