The Roman Market Economy PUP_Temin_The Roman Market Economy_FM_v1.indd i Achorn International 06/05/2012 07:22AM The Princeton Economic History of the Western World Joel Mokyr, Series Editor A list of titles in this series appears at the back of the book. PUP_Temin_The Roman Market Economy_FM_v1.indd ii Achorn International 06/05/2012 07:22AM The Roman Market Economy Peter Temin Princeton University Press Princeton & Oxford PUP_Temin_The Roman Market Economy_FM_v1.indd iii Achorn International 06/05/2012 07:22AM Copyright © 2013 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW press.princeton.edu All Rights Reserved ISBN 978-­0-­691-­14768-­0 <~?~FULL CIP TO COME> British Library Cataloging-­in-­Publication Data is available This book has been composed in <~?~DES: Please add typeface(s)> Printed on acid-­free paper. ∞ Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 PUP_Temin_The Roman Market Economy_FM_v1.indd iv Achorn International 06/05/2012 07:22AM 1 2 3 4 5 Contents 6 7 8 9 10 Preface and Acknowledgments vii 11 12 1. Economics and Ancient History 1 13 14 Part I: Prices 15 Introduction: Data and Hypothesis Tests 27 16 2. Wheat Prices and Trade in the Early Roman Empire 29 17 3. Price Behavior in Hellenistic Babylon 53 18 Appendix to Chapter 3 66 19 4. Price Behavior in the Roman Empire 70 20 21 Part II: Markets in the Roman Empire 22 Introduction: Roman Microeconomics 95 23 5. The Grain Trade 97 24 6. The Labor Market 114 25 7. Land Ownership 139 26 8. Financial Intermediation 157 27 28 Part III: The Roman Economy 29 Introduction: Roman Macroeconomics 193 30 9. Growth Theory for Ancient Economies 195 31 10. Economic Growth in a Malthusian Empire 220 32 Appendix to Chapter 10 240 33 11. Per Capita GDP in the Early Roman Empire 243 34 35 References 263 36 Index 287 37 38 39 40 41 v PUP_Temin_The Roman Market Economy_FM_v1.indd v Achorn International 06/05/2012 07:22AM PUP_Temin_The Roman Market Economy_FM_v1.indd vi Achorn International 06/05/2012 07:22AM 1 2 3 4 5 Preface and Acknowledgments 6 7 8 9 10 11 his book presents a progress report in the process of understanding the 12 nature of ancient economies. I am an economic historian who spent most 13 ofT his academic career writing about modern and early-­modern economies 14 and teaching modern economics. Sometime before the end of the twentieth 15 century, I became interested in ancient economies. If the Romans wrote all 16 those letters and speeches and built all those roads and buildings, how did they 17 get the resources to do so? Writing takes time and an education that enables a 18 writer to express thoughts in historical perspective. Construction uses materi- 19 als and labor that have to be organized and gathered for this purpose. How 20 were people able to organize these activities and—to­ broaden our focus—­build 21 something as large and complex as the Roman Empire? 22 I read Finley’s book, The Ancient Economy, when it came out over a quarter-­ 23 century ago (Finley 1973), and more recent books over the years. I found they 24 did not provide convincing answers to the questions I had raised, and I resolved 25 to investigate further the economics of the ancient world. I published and 26 presented papers to ancient-history­ conferences over the past decade that re- 27 sulted from my curiosity. I offer the insights I gained from writing these papers 28 and rethinking them now in light of subsequent research as a progress report 29 that provides a view of the Roman economy that has become more popular—­ 30 although not without controversy—­than when I started on this quest. 31 I tried to learn a few of the languages needed by ancient historians, but I 32 speedily realized that I would never be good enough to improve on the trans- 33 lations of experts. My comparative advantage—­a term I explain more fully 34 in the first chapter of this volume—is­ in economic analysis, not archaeology 35 or text analysis. All scholars stand on the shoulders of those who have gone 36 before, and I freely acknowledge my debt to the generations of ancient histori- 37 ans whose works I utilize. Even if I disagree with their analyses, I respect and 38 envy their scholarship. I struggle also with modern languages, and my citations 39 reflect my preference for English sources. If one has to choose one language 40 for modern scholarship, it would be English, and I am fortunate to be a native 41 vii PUP_Temin_The Roman Market Economy_FM_v1.indd vii Achorn International 06/05/2012 07:22AM viii Preface 1 speaker. If I repeat analyses published in other languages, I hope that readers 2 will inform me. 3 I hope also that this book will be received better than my initial foray into 4 ancient history. I wrote a research proposal for myself before I thought seriously 5 about implementing it. I went to Oxford for a conference in 1999 and sent my 6 proposal to a few Oxford people I knew or had arranged to meet. Economists 7 laughed at my proposal at breakfast, and ancient historians laughed at it at 8 lunch. They all assured me—­for different reasons—­that my proposal was un- 9 workable. With that stimulus, I had to forge ahead! The proposal grew into 10 my most well-­known contribution to ancient economic history. It appeared as 11 Temin (2001) in the Journal of Roman Studies, then under the editorship of an 12 ancient historian who had laughed at me earlier. It set out a research agenda 13 that was fulfilled in the chapters of the middle section of this book. 14 It may be wishful thinking, but I detect a movement toward an acceptance 15 of modern economic concepts in the study of the ancient world in the past 16 few years. When I started in this field, theoretical discussions of ancient his- 17 tory all started from Karl Polanyi and M. I. Finley. This is apparent in the 18 extensive introduction to the reissue of Finley’s book on its silver anniversary 19 in 1999 (Morris 1999). Yet less than a decade later, The Cambridge Economic 20 History of the Greco-­Roman World was based more on Douglass North than 21 Moses Finley. North, a Nobel laureate in economic history, emphasized the 22 importance of economic institutions in determining economic performance. 23 His work, together with other like-­minded economists, has given rise to what 24 is now called the New Institutional Economics (NIE). Almost all the essays in 25 The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-­Roman World take their cue from 26 the NIE, and the volume itself is organized by consideration of institutions. 27 The essays on the regional development of the Roman Empire start from the 28 premise that preexisting institutions affected how Roman expansion affected 29 their economic activities (Scheidel, Morris, and Saller 2007). 30 From everything we know, prosperity in Greece and Rome extended be- 31 yond a royal family or clan into a larger group of people. I have tried to ex- 32 plore how the Roman economy functioned. I chose to focus primarily on the 33 early Roman Empire because the scale of the Roman Empire was vast and the 34 economy seemed to run amazingly well for a long time. It is one thing to run 35 a small economy drawing small amounts of resources from a broad hinterland; 36 it is much harder to involve millions of people into an integrated economic 37 system. As Wickham (2005, 10) described it, “The Roman Empire was a coher- 38 ent political and economic system, operating on a scale that has seldom since 39 been matched in Europe and the Mediterranean, and never for so long.” In 40 addition, we have a lot of information about the economy of the early Roman 41 PUP_Temin_The Roman Market Economy_FM_v1.indd viii Achorn International 06/05/2012 07:22AM Preface ix Empire when peace was more prevalent than war. The Roman information 1 was generated by indirection, and we have to tease out economic information 2 from sources designed for other concerns. This, of course, is the intellectual 3 adventure: how to make sense of the fragments we have to understand the 4 Roman economy. 5 It is a great pleasure to acknowledge the generous help I received from many 6 ancient historians as I made this intellectual journey. Far from the haughtiness 7 and clannish attitudes that I was assured typified ancient historians, I found 8 them to be marvelously welcoming to an outside adventurer who took the ef- 9 fort to talk with them. Of course, not everyone agrees with me, and I regret 10 that I have not been able to talk more widely with other ancient historians. 11 The first group is the small set of ancient historians who helped me get 12 started: Alan Bowman, Rebecca Flemming, Martin Goodman, Joshua Sosin, 13 and Dominic Rathbone. They were all happy to answer uninformed questions 14 and correct elementary mistakes. Through it all, they were supportive of my 15 quest, and Dominic coauthored a paper with me that gives chapter 8 its special 16 texture. They remain friends today; Keith Hopkins, who also welcomed me 17 and helped me, unfortunately died before I was prepared to write this book.