Roman Trade (Part I)Map: The Roman Empire in 125 ADGenerallyspeaking, as with earlier and contempora

Roman Trade (Part I)Map: The Roman Empire in 125 ADGenerallyspeaking, as with earlier and contemporary civilizations, the Romans graduallydeveloped a more sophisticated economy following the creation of anagricultural surplus, population movement and urban growth, territorialexpansion, technology innovation, taxation, the spread of coinage, and notinsignificantly, the need to feed the great city of Rome itself and supply itshuge army wherever it might be on campaign.The economyin the Roman world displayed features of both underdevelopment and highachievement. Elements of the former, some historians have argued (notablyM.I.Finley), are an over-dependence on agriculture, a slow diffusion oftechnology, the high level of local town consumption rather than regionaltrade, and a low level of investment in industry. However, there is alsoevidence that from the 2nd century BCE to the 2nd century CE there was asignificant rise in the proportion of workers involved in the production andservices industries and greater trade between regions in essential commoditiesand manufactured goods. In the later empire period, although trade in the eastincreased - stimulated by the founding of Constantinople - trade in the westernempire declined.The Romanattitude to trade was somewhat negative, at least from the higher classes. Landownership and agriculture were highly regarded as a source of wealth and status.Traded goodsWhilst thearchaeological evidence of trade can sometimes be patchy and misrepresentative,a combination of literary sources, coinage and such unique records asshipwrecks helps to create a clearer picture of just what the Romans traded, inwhat quantity, and where.Tradeinvolved foodstuffs (e.g. olives, fish, meat, cereals, salt, prepared foodssuch as fish sauce, olive oil, wine and beer), animal products (e.g. leatherand hides), objects made from wood, glass, or metals, textiles, pottery, andmaterials for manufacturing and construction such as glass, marble, wood, wool,bricks, gold, silver, copper, and tin. Finally, there was, of course, also thesubstantial trade in slaves.The factthat many goods were produced as regional specialities on often very largeestates, for example, wine from Egypt or olive oil from southern Spain, onlyincreased the inter-regional trade of goods. That such large estates couldproduce a massive surplus for trade is evidenced at archaeological sites acrossthe empire: wine producers in southern France with cellars capable of storing100,000 litres, an olive oil factory in Libya with 17 presses capable ofproducing 100,000 litres a year, or gold mines in Spain producing 9,000 kilosof gold a year. Although towns were generally centres of consumption ratherthan production, there were exceptions where workshops could produce impressivequantities of goods. Goods werenot only exchanged across the Roman world, however, as bustling ports such asGades, Ostia, Puteoli, Alexandria, and Antioch also imported goods from suchfar-flung places as Arabia, India, Southeast Asia, and China. Sometimes thesegoods followed land routes such as the well-established Silk Road or travelledby sea across the Indian Ocean.  -- source link

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