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The history of the Roman economy covers the period of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Recent research has led to a positive reevaluation of the size and sophistication of the Roman economy.〔Bang 2009, pp. 199–203〕 Moses Finley was the chief proponent of the primitivist view that the Roman economy was "underdeveloped and underachieving," characterized by subsistence agriculture; urban centres that consumed more than they produced in terms of trade and industry; low-status artisans; slowly developing technology; and a "lack of economic rationality."〔David Mattingly, "The Imperial Economy," in ''A Companion to the Roman Empire'' (Blackwell, 2010), p. 283.〕 Current views are more complex. Territorial conquests permitted a large-scale reorganization of land use that resulted in agricultural surplus and specialization, particularly in north Africa.〔Mattingly, "The Imperial Economy," p. 285.〕 Some cities were known for particular industries or commercial activities, and the scale of building in urban areas indicates a significant construction industry.〔 Papyri preserve complex accounting methods that suggest elements of economic rationalism,〔Mattingly, "The Imperial Economy," p. 286.〕 and the Empire was highly monetized.〔Mattingly, "The Imperial Economy," p. 292.〕 Although the means of communication and transport were limited in antiquity, transportation in the 1st and 2nd centuries expanded greatly, and trade routes connected regional economies.〔Mattingly, "The Imperial Economy," pp. 285–286, p. 296f.〕 The supply contracts for the army, which pervaded every part of the Empire, drew on local suppliers near the base ''(castrum)'', throughout the province, and across provincial borders.〔Mattingly, "The Imperial Economy," p. 296.〕 The Empire is perhaps best thought of as a network of regional economies, based on a form of "political capitalism" in which the state monitored and regulated commerce to assure its own revenues.〔Mattingly, "The Imperial Economy," pp. 286, 295.〕 Economic growth, though not comparable to modern economies, was greater than that of most other societies prior to industrialization.〔 Socially, economic dynamism opened up one of the avenues of social mobility in the Roman Empire. Social advancement was thus not dependent solely on birth, patronage, good luck, or even extraordinary ability. Although aristocratic values permeated traditional elite society, a strong tendency toward plutocracy is indicated by the wealth requirements for census rank. Prestige could be obtained through investing one's wealth in ways that advertised it appropriately: grand country estates or townhouses, durable luxury items such as jewels and silverware, public entertainments, funerary monuments for family members or coworkers, and religious dedications such as altars. Guilds ''(collegia)'' and corporations ''(corpora)'' provided support for individuals to succeed through networking, sharing sound business practices, and a willingness to work.〔Koenraad Verboven, "The Associative Order: Status and Ethos among Roman Businessmen in the Late Republic and Early Empire," ''Athenaeum'' 95 (2007), (preprint. )〕 ==Currency and banking== The early Empire was monetized to a near-universal extent, in the sense of using money as a way to express prices and debts.〔David Kessler and Peter Temin, "Money and Prices in the Early Roman Empire," in ''The Monetary Systems of the Greeks and Romans,'' in ''The Monetary Systems of the Greeks and Romans'' (Oxford University Press, 2008), n.p.〕 The ''sestertius'' (plural ''sestertii,'' English "sesterces", symbolized as ''HS'') was the basic unit of reckoning value into the 4th century,〔Kenneth W. Hart, ''Coinage in the Roman Economy, 300 B.C. to A.D. 700'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), p. 135.〕 though the silver ''denarius'', worth four sesterces, was used also for accounting beginning in the Severan dynasty.〔Mireille Corbier, "Coinage and Taxation: The State's Point of View, A.D. 193–337," in ''Cambridge Ancient History: The Crisis of Empire, A.D. 193–197'' (Cambridge University Press, 2005), vol. 12, p. 333.〕 The smallest coin commonly circulated was the bronze ''as'' (plural ''asses''), one-fourth ''sestertius''.〔Colin Wells, ''The Roman Empire'' (Harvard University Press, 1984, 1992), p. 8.〕 Bullion and ingots seem not to have counted as ''pecunia'', "money," and were used only on the frontiers for transacting business or buying property. Romans in the 1st and 2nd centuries counted coins, rather than weighing them—an indication that the coin was valued on its face, not for its metal content. This tendency toward fiat money led eventually to the debasement of Roman coinage, with consequences in the later Empire.〔W.V. Harris, "The Nature of Roman Money," in ''The Monetary Systems of the Greeks and Romans'', n.p.〕 The standardization of money throughout the Empire promoted trade and market integration.〔Kessler and Temin, "Money and Prices in the Early Roman Empire," n.p.〕 The high amount of metal coinage in circulation increased the money supply for trading or saving.〔Walter Scheidel, "The Monetary Systems of the Han and Roman Empires", in: Scheidel, Walter, ed. (2009): ''Rome and China. Comparative Perspectives on Ancient World Empires'' (Oxford University Press, 2009), New York, ISBN 978-0-19-533690-0, pp. 137–207, especially p. 205.〕 Rome has no central bank, and regulation of the banking system was minimal. Banks of classical antiquity typically kept less in reserves than the full total of customers' deposits. A typical bank had fairly limited capital, and often only one principal, though a bank might have as many as six to fifteen principals. Seneca assumes that anyone involved in commerce needs access to credit.〔Harris, "The Nature of Roman Money," n.p.〕 A professional deposit banker (''argentarius,'' ''coactor argentarius'', or later ''nummularius'') received and held deposits for a fixed or indefinite term, and lent money to third parties.〔Jean Andreau, ''Banking and Business in the Roman World'' (Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 2.〕 The senatorial elite were involved heavily in private lending, both as creditors and borrowers, making loans from their personal fortunes on the basis of social connections.〔Andreau, ''Banking and Business in the Roman World'', p. 2; Harris, "The Nature of Roman Money," n.p.〕 The holder of a debt could use it as a means of payment by transferring it to another party, without cash changing hands. Although it has sometimes been thought that ancient Rome lacked "paper" or documentary transactions, the system of banks throughout the Empire also permitted the exchange of very large sums without the physical transfer of coins, in part because of the risks of moving large amounts of cash, particularly by sea. Only one serious credit shortage is known to have occurred in the early Empire, a credit crisis in 33 AD that put a number of senators at risk; the central government rescued the market through a loan of 100 million ''HS'' made by the emperor Tiberius to the banks ''(mensae)''.〔Tacitus, ''Annales'' 6.17.3.〕 Generally, available capital exceeded the amount needed by borrowers.〔Harris, "The Nature of Roman Money," in ''The Monetary Systems of the Greeks and Romans'', n.p.〕 The central government itself did not borrow money, and without public debt had to fund deficits from cash reserves.〔Richard Duncan-Jones, ''Money and Government in the Roman Empire'' (Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 3–4.〕 Emperors of the Antonine and Severan dynasties overall debased the currency, particularly the denarius, under the pressures of meeting military payrolls.〔Hart, ''Coinage in the Roman Economy, 300 B.C. to A.D. 700'', p. 125–136.〕 Sudden inflation during the reign of Commodus damaged the credit market.〔 In the mid-200s, the supply of specie contracted sharply.〔Hart, ''Coinage in the Roman Economy, 300 B.C. to A.D. 700'', pp. 128–129.〕 Conditions during the Crisis of the Third Century—such as reductions in long-distance trade, disruption of mining operations, and the physical transfer of gold coinage outside the empire by invading enemies—greatly diminished the money supply and the banking sector by the year 300.〔Harris, "The Nature of Roman Money," in ''The Monetary Systems of the Greeks and Romans'', n.p.; Hart, ''Coinage in the Roman Economy, 300 B.C. to A.D. 700'', pp. 128–129.〕 Although Roman coinage had long been fiat money or fiduciary currency, general economic anxieties came to a head under Aurelian, and bankers lost confidence in coins legitimately issued by the central government. Despite Diocletian's introduction of the gold ''solidus'' and monetary reforms, the credit market of the Empire never recovered its former robustness.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Roman economy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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