SHIPPING enterprises responsible for transportation of goods, whether for government, companies or private individuals, remained predominantly in the private hands of independent shippers in the Roman Empire, but under government control.
They were usually organised into guilds.
Membership in the guilds, in time, became hereditary.
Meanwhile, the empire expended large amounts of capital to improve harbour and storage facilities at its ports; fees and internal customs duties remained low.
Grain for the empire’s great cities was grown on vast imperial estates worked by tenant farmers.
The emperor, being the largest landowner, had property routinely accruing to him from a variety of sources.
Estates were willed to him or were confiscated from those guilty of crimes or from those who died intestate with no legal heirs.
For freed men, property bequeathed to them had to pass on to descendants, or was confiscated by the State on the receiver’s death where there was no direct descendant.
But, by far, the largest and richest imperial estates were added to the government’s holdings when Augustus acquired Egypt from Cleopatra, the last Ptolemaic ruler.
Augustus regarded these lands as his personal possession.
Most of the Nile River Valley, the richest land in the entire Mediterranean basin, was under the direct control of the emperor, but maintained under the same Ptolemies’ system by him and his successors.
Although the State had become a major force in the Roman economy, private enterprise still existed; especially with respect to textiles, with a flourishing trade in all areas of manufacture.
Everyone needed clothing, from the very poor to the immensely wealthy.
The creation and distribution of numerous luxury items were likewise in the hands of private enterprise.
Jewellery, perfumes, wine, olive oil and glassware, among others, remained the provinces of independent entrepreneurs.
Banking was another area in which private enterprise flourished.
Even in Egypt, where they had inherited the Ptolemies’ State banking system, the Romans abandoned the State monopoly while private municipal bankers expanded into this void.
These banks accepted deposits, paid interest, made loans and even transferred funds from one city to another.
A decline in slavery was a major beneficial change that came with the empire.
This was not as a result of abolition or civil rights initiative, but a direct consequence of the termination of territorial expansion that had characterised the Republic.
Dwindling foreign wars led to a steady decline in the number of slaves.
Slaves now had to be imported from outside or born to slaves within the empire.
Free labour made a return in many occupations that, in the late Republic, had employed large numbers of slaves; particularly in agriculture, where tenant farmers rapidly replaced slave labour.
The empire began a steady decline in the 3rd Century that eventually led to a separation, divided at the Adriatic, into western and eastern parts, until the final collapse of the Western Empire.
Many factors caused this decline; for example, in the 2nd Century AD, large numbers of Germanic peoples to the north and north-east of the Roman world began to migrate westward, increasing pressure all along the northern frontiers.
This called for more troops and more expenditures.
Adding to these financial pressures, the empire had not created a system by which imperial power could be transferred smoothly in the absence of a clear heir — hence, civil war resulted whenever there was a disputed succession, with all the physical destruction and economic disruption associated with such conflict.
Prior to Augustus and the succeeding emperors, the Roman Government did not station troops in the provinces except in time of actual war.
The Republic reacted to invasions, but it did little to forestall them.
Augustus created a frontier system with approximately
200 000 soldiers stationed along the borders of the empire to prevent incursions.
These troops needed to be paid well, since in the final analysis, Augustus had gained power through their fighting abilities and, in part, retained power because of their loyalty.
Keeping such a large standing army, even in times of peace, represented a major drain on the empire’s resources.
What undermined the empire’s economy most was that the territorial acquisition that had characterised the Republic ceased with the new imperial régime.
Although the ancient world witnessed a number of technological innovations at the time, none was applied in a way that transformed the economy.
It is difficult nowadays to imagine a society where technology remains virtually unchanged for centuries and, in many respects, for millennia.
Today’s economy is driven by changing technology.
Without such change, or the addition of outside resources, ancient economies were slow to grow.
Thus, in the Republic, wealth was generated by the conquest of additional territories and their assets.
While the empire added a few new areas, these additions were infrequent and were seldom and were seldom suitable for economic exploitation.
Much of the capital that had created the personal fortunes of so many during the Republic now evaporated.
One indication of the change was that great wealth during the empire was found almost exclusively among landowners.
By the late empire, it is estimated that as much as 95 percent of the Roman economy was agricultural. Although trade and commerce continued, without the lucrative government contracts, immense fortunes were no longer thereto be made.
In the 4th Century AD, the greatest recorded worth of a merchant was less than 20 000 solidi (21S pounds of gold).
The annual incomes for great estate owners of the same period were between 100 000 and 300 000 solidi.
Furthermore, these estates were increasingly becoming self-contained entities, producing most of what was needed for the estate locally and even employing its own merchants to purchase those items that could only be acquired elsewhere.
This commerce was often carried out in the form of gift-giving. Many of the great estates even established their own river ports to facilitate this trade.
In the 5th Century, the Western empire began to unravel. Revenues were insufficient to meet the growing needs and demands of the army.
Conditions on the frontiers deteriorated and large numbers of Germans migrated into the empire, creating their own States.
In AD 476, the German leader in Italy set aside the titular Roman Emperor, fittingly named Romulus Augustulus. The original Romulus had been the founder of the city of Rome and Augustus, the first Emperor.
The empire in the west was no longer. The eastern empire, survived and evolved overtime into the Byzantine Empire, or Byzantium, with its capital in Constantinople. As the Byzantine Empire, this Roman legacy persisted into the 15th Century.
When the Western empire fell, it did so as a Christian empire. By the late
4th Century AD, Christianity had grown from a small and persecuted offshoot of Judaism to the official religion of the Roman world.
The towns and cities of the empire, in many cases, survived because of the activities of the Christian Church.
By the 5th Century, many communities were under the direct political authority of their resident bishop.
Beside its political authority, much like the temples in the ancient Near East, the Church had acquired immense property holdings from believers and from large donations by the Christian emperors.
By the end of the empire in the west, the Church was one of the great landowners in Europe.
Much of its surplus was used by the clergy to meet the needs of the ever-increasing ranks of the poor.
Bishop John of Alexandria even possessed a large merchant fleet with which he transported grain from Egypt to Britain in order to relieve a famine there.
As in the Near East, this religious establishment enjoyed immunities from imperial taxation.
As a consequence, the Church attracted a number of merchants who sought its protection from the growing financial exactions of government tax collectors.
By doing the Church’s business, merchants could maintain their own businesses.
But, not only merchants felt the increasing burden of taxation; by the end of the western empire, taxes had become so burdensome that whole communities fled to escape the ever-increasing demands of taxing authorities.
The Church, however, despite its public activities, was also a drain on the economy. Roughly, half of its income went to support the clergy, whose numbers surpassed even the imperial civil service.
Also, in the Church’s quest for doctrinal purity, it enlisted government forces to combat paganism and heresy; further depleting the already drained coffers of the imperial treasury!
Dr. Michelina Rudo Andreucci is a Zimbabwean-Italian researcher, industrial design consultant and a published author in her field. For comments e-mail: linamanucci@gmail.com