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In The Ascent of Man, Bronowski says that Jericho is one of the oldest cities in the world, because it had a supply of wheat and fresh water. Wheat and water make bread. Bread allows people to live, and thus gather and make a civilization.

Ancient Egypt





2/16/12 Humanities
 * 1) Hand in homework or upload it.
 * 2) Go over the questions and answers.
 * 3) Brainstorm locations.
 * 4) Copy in the first four Our World questions on geography.
 * 5) Color-code info by placemark/location.
 * 6) Send me an e-mail of which ones you each wish to do.

Possible Placemarks: Rome, Alps, Pont du Gard, Tiber River, Latium Plain, <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Sardinia, Sicily, Egypt, Africa, I

<span style="background-color: #ffff00; font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Italian PeninsulaAlps <span style="background-color: #ff0000; font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Med. Sea <span style="background-color: #00ff00; font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">RomeLatium Plain <span style="background-color: #00ffff; font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Tiber River <span style="background-color: #c0c0c0; font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Appian Way <span style="background-color: #800080; font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Sardinia Sicily, Egypt and Africa, SpainMediter. Region

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Rome is located on the Italian peninsula on the continent of Europe, on the Mediterranean Sea.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Location of Rome? What continent? On what body of water? (Our World)

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">The Italian peninsula has rich farmland. Down the center run the Apennine Mountains, which makes travel across the peninsula difficult. The Latium Plain is located on the west coast of the peninsula. It has rich soil, and is surrounded by inactive volcanoes.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Features of the land and of the soil of the Latium Plain? (Our World)


 * 1) <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Plants that thrive (do well there)? (Our World) Plants that do well on the Latium Plain are wheat, beans, cabbage, lettuce, and fruits, such as grapes.

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Wine is the chief cash crop of Italy.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">What was a key “cash crop” or commodity traded by the Romans? (Our World) Grapes grow especially well. Grapes are fermented to make wine.

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Name:

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;"> Additional Our World__ Questions & Questions on Peter Temin’s Article


 * 1) <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">(Our World, page 219 ) What are the Alps? How did they protect the Italian peninsula from invaders? The Alps are the mountain chain that separate the Italian peninsula from Europe. It acts as a wall to prevent invaders from entering. The dangers of crossing the Alps caused invading armies to “think twice” before invading.

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">The Tiber River was the river that flowed through Rome and the Latium Plain. It was used as a trading route.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">(Our World, page 219 ) What is the Tiber River? Besides being a source of water, how might the river had helped the Roman economy?


 * 1) <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">(Our World, page 220) In Greece, each city-state’s acropolis was used as a place to retreat to during invasions. How many hills does Rome have that were used, also, for defensive purposes? Rome is built on seven hills. They were used for defensive purposes, just like in Ancient Greece.

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">An aqueduct channels water from place to place—ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY TO EXPAND YOUR CIVILIZATION. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">SEE ANNOTATIONS ON ACTUAL ESSAY.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">(Our World, page 238) Who built Rome’s roads, and what purpose would the roads have had in trade and in military conquest? Rome’s soldiers built the roads. Roads are a key tool used by armies and by anyone trading or moving a large number of goods.
 * 2) (Our World, page 70, page 238 and 239) What is an aqueduct, and why were aqueducts important in the expansion or enlargement of the Roman Empire?

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;"> 6. What were the features of Rome in 100 A.D. that made it “more civilized” <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;"> than Europe in 1800? (Peter Temin’s “The Economy of…”) The features of Rome in 100 A.D. that made it more civilized were paved streets, a sewer system, fire protection, and a coin currency. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Roman trade spread throughout the Mediterranean Region. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;"> Economy of…”) Senators and knights had the most wealth in Rome. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Rome got its grain from Sardinia, Sicily, Egypt and Africa.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Throughout what overall region did Roman trade spread? (Peter Temin’s “The Economy of…”)
 * 1) <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Who had most of the wealth in Rome? (Peter Temin’s “The
 * 1) <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Who was in the Roman middle class? (Peter Temin’s “The Economy of…”) In the middle class were tradesmen, craftsmen, and service workers.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Who was at the bottom of the Roman “social ladder”? (Peter Temin’s “The Economy of …”) At the bottom of the “social ladder” or “social pyramid” were farm workers—both free and slave.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Where did Rome get its grain? (Peter Temin’s “The Economy of…” )

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Olive oil was exported to Rome from Spain and Africa. So, it was imported from Spain and Africa.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Where did Rome get its olive oil? (Peter Temin’s “The Economy…”)

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">In Rome, people were paid in money. The name of the coin used was called the denarius. Sometimes people were paid “in kind”—with food or products.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">How were people paid in Rome? (Peter Temin’s “The Economy of…”)

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">According to Temin, “When the army was not fighting…. soldiers often built roads and public monuments….”
 * 1) <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">What did Roman soldiers do? (Peter Temin’s “The Economy of…”)

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Technological improvements of the Romans included the Roman arch, elaborate temples and baths, aqueducts for water supply, theaters, water power to run grain mills, not to mention sewage systems, fire protection, paved streets, and a common coin currency.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Name at least five technological improvements of the Romans (Peter Temin’s “The Economy of…”)


 * 1) <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">How would Rome’s strong government have been helpful to promoting wealth and business activity? If the government can protect its large and growing civilization with laws and military presence, then it can “afford” to grow.

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">//The Economy of the Early Roman Empire// <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Peter Temin (//Elisha Gray II Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachu//setts) <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">//from Journal of Economic Perspectives—Vol. 20, No. 1—Winter 2006-// <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">[The following is an edited version of Professor Temin’s paper.] <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">6 & 15 <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Many inhabitants [residents] of ancient Rome lived well. Tourists marvel at the temples, baths, roads and aqueduct that they built. Historians write, “The Rome of 100 A. D. had better paved streets, sewage disposal, water supply, and fire protection than the capitals of civilized Europe in 1800” (Mokyr, 1990, p. 20). <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Economists also want to understand the existence of a flourishing and apparently prosperous [wealthy] economy two millennia [thousand years] ago. Market institutions [ways of buying, selling, and borrowing, etc.] and a stable government appear to have been the combination that produced this remarkable result. … This essay provides an economist’s view of the Roman economy that emphasizes the role of markets. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">…The standard of living in ancient Rome was similar to that of early modern period of seventeenth- and eighteenth century Europe, an extraordinary achievement for any economy in the ancient world. …Ancient Rome managed to achieve this high standard of living through the combined operation of moderately stable political conditions [reliable government] and markets for goods, labor and capital, which allowed specialization and efficiency… <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">…The Romans recorded most of their day-to-day transactions [business dealings] by incising [carving upon] the wax covering of wooden oblongs about the size of modern roof shingles. This… was highly perishable, and we have almost no written records of such transactions…. We … are dependent on … casual remarks about the economy, ... proclamations … chiseled into stone; archaeological evidence; and papyri from Egypt. There is a lot of information, but hardly any of what economists call data…. Direct evidence therefore is exceedingly valuable. We find the occasional surviving economic document. The Muziris papyrus, for example, records a maritime [relating to ships] loan of an amazingly large size for a voyage starting out in the Red Sea… <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Roman shipping was organized in shifting partnerships similar to those in colonial American shipping, although the seventeenth-century merchants never aspired [hoped to a partnership of anywhere close to 50 ships. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">…Amphorae [large transport vases] that held olive oil and wine… give evidence of [Roman] shipping that spread throughout the Mediterranean, and even more common oil lamps indicate that many similar lamps were produced ….The volume of Roman shipwrecks and pollution levels in Greenland ice cores dated to the Roman period provide independent evidence of economic activity in the early Roman Empire …

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">The Standard of Living in Ancient Rome
<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">A prominent ancient historian estimated that the Italian peninsula was about 30 percent urbanized [cities] in the early Roman Empire (Hopkins, 1978, pp. 68–69). GDP [Gross Domestic Product] per capita [the amount of profit produced on average per person] in Roman Italy was between that in 1700 in the Netherlands and Italy or Spain, the most advanced European economies a century before the Industrial Revolution….. Provincial incomes in the early Roman Empire …may have been in the range of European inland areas in the 1600s and 1700s.

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">8, 9, 10 <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Incomes and assets [wealth] were distributed highly unequally [unfairly] in the early Roman Empire. A very small elite group at the top of society and the economy, composed of several hundred “senators” and a several tens of thousand “knights” in a population of around 50 million, held great wealth—typically in the form of land (Goldsmith, 1984). <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">At the other end of the distribution were farmers and farm <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">laborers [workers], both free and slave. In between, closer to the bottom than the top, was a group of skilled and often literate [could read and write] tradesmen and service workers who provided varied goods and services for senators and knights. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">… Romans did not enjoy good health, and their life expectancy was only about 25 years, similar to India and China around 1900 (Frier, 2000).Not all Romans were sick, of course, but they lived in a high-disease environment. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">…Explanations for the surprisingly high standard of living in the early Roman Empire cannot rely [be explained] on any spectacular technologies [inventions] of that time…. Markets for goods, labor and capital were relatively well-developed in ancient Rome, which in turn encouraged specialization and efficiency. These markets were able to work well in the environment created by public authorities [government] who provided local public services in cities and a functional rule of law across most of the Empire. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">The city’s population in the early Roman Empire generally is estimated at about a million inhabitants. Rome therefore needed a lot of supplies—about 150,000–300,000 tons (20 to 40 million //modii//) of grain a year, plus extensive supplies of olive oil and wine. It was far cheaper to ship food over sea than over land—as it would remain until … the railroad.

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">7 & 11 & 12 <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Grain was shipped across the Mediterranean to Rome from Sardinia, Sicily, Egypt and Africa. Olive oil was exported to Rome from Spain and Africa. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">…. Some taxes from Egypt and Africa were paid in kind [traded] with grain, and these were used for free distribution in Rome (the //annona//), but only a small part of the grain imported into Rome—perhaps 15 to 30 percent—was for free distribution [to the citizens]. The bulk of grain imports was privately owned. And grain from far away, even when destined for the //annona//, was shipped in privately owned ships. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;"> 13 <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">…The monetary system of Rome was based on the silver //denarius//. This coin became the ubiquitous [seen everywhere] penny of the medieval period and survived into the twentieth century as the “d” in the abbreviation for pennies in the English pounds-shillings-pence system.

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">//Mediterranean Area in the Early Roman Empire//
<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">This wheat market was mostly private…. Wheat merchants and traders made use of agents, maritime loans, a strong legal framework [laws], and provisions [rules] designed especially for grain merchants…. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">7 <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">…Roman Italy gained greatly by being at the hub of an empire and a large trading network as Spain and Holland did much later. Rome imported food from around the Mediterranean, bringing in wheat, olive oil and wine from as far west as Iberia and as far east as Egypt and the Middle East. The Roman economy of the first and second centuries C. was integrated [woven together] … in the Mediterranean Sea.

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Labor Markets in the Early Roman Empire
<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">13 <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Some Roman rural laborers were paid by piece rates [based on what they made]; others, daily wages. There also were salaried long-term free workers in Egypt in the early Roman Empire. Workers in large organizations like mines and galleys were paid wages. Craftsmen sold their wares [goods] and also supplied them to patrons [wealthy protectors] in return for long-term economic and social support. … Building in Rome was accomplished largely by free laborers and gives evidence of a labor force that could be diverted [moved] from one activity to another. Most free workers of course were farmers, typically tenant farmers. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">14 <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">…The wages of the large Roman army stayed constant for many decades at a time, and it was staffed by a mixture of attraction [voluntary joining] and conscription [being forced to serve]. When the army was not fighting, which was most of the time in the early Roman Empire, soldiers often built roads and public monuments near where they were stationed. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Since the army was stationed at the frontiers of the empire, this construction activity did not interfere with the labor market in Rome or elsewhere in the center of the empire. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;"> In the early Roman Empire, particularly in cities, slaves were able to participate in the labor market in almost the same way as free laborers, even if their starting point often was less favorable. Frequent manumission—that is, freeing of slaves—was a distinguishing feature of Roman slavery. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Slaves in the early Roman Empire could anticipate freedom if <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">they worked hard and demonstrated skill or accumulated a //peculium//, money <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">“owned” by slaves, with which to purchase freedom. Some ambitious poor people in the early Roman Empire even sold themselves into slavery as a long-term employment contract that offered a greater chance of advancement [improvement] than the life of the free poor….

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Financial Markets in the Early Roman Empire
<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;"> Romans loaned money to each other with great frequency. Some of these loans were to finance consumption [purchases]; others were for production. Many loans were made to finance trade. Merchants …appear to have played a key role in ancient finance as well. For example, loans were used extensively [wisely] to finance maritime [sea] trade in classical Athens, and maritime loans appear to have been widespread as well in Rome….Roman merchants and shippers could purchase insurance; they were able to borrow with repayment conditional on a safe return. A common rate for loans seems to have been 1 percent a month or 12 percent per year, which was the official maximum and also the default rate. Banks were in operation in Greece before the Roman conquest and continued after the Romans came…. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">The Roman Empire did not borrow; it ran on a cash basis. For the imperial government to avoid borrowing, it needed to accumulate tax revenues for future expenditures.

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">From Markets to Growth
<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">…In the early Roman Empire, there is reason to believe that resources were used relatively efficiently. Roman technology clearly did not resemble the Industrial Revolution [in England of the 1700s]. However, <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">15 <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">by the standards of the time, the Romans did make many technological improvements. Their most impressive innovations were concrete and the Roman arch, giving rise to internal spaces like temples and baths, and extensive public works like aqueducts and theaters. Roman cities—almost all on the same pattern—are still a marvel. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">The purpose of many surviving structures, however, was not just <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">for consumption. The Pont-du-Gard [an aqueduct in the south of France]… not only a structure to bring water for the residents of Arles to bathe in, watch in fountains and drink, it also was part of an agricultural irrigation system tapped at several points… and even power for milling grain (Greene, 2000). <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">15 <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Water-power was used on a wide scale…by the first century CE, and archeologists are discovering ever more evidence of the widespread use of new technologies in the early Roman Empire. Both horizontal and vertical water wheels were used widely to power grain mills, saw mills and grain pounders. Hydraulic mining techniques using water to sluice, crush and sort ores…. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Senators and knights lived well, as a small elite can do even in poor societies, but they were not alone. The poor were helped by the free distribution of food (the //annona// mentioned earlier) and the public provision of water, public streets and even recreation. In addition to the public provisions for urban residents, the government also supported a standing army of about 250,000 men. Mostly idle, these soldiers were to dispel internal dissent more than external enemies. They were maintained and used for local construction activities by moderate taxation (Goodman, 1997, pp. 82–83). <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;"> The upper classes were educated in Rome, as were most urban slaves. Literacy appears to have been universal for any Roman in a managerial role and may have extended to skilled workers as well. Rome was a literate society, and that undoubtedly helped raise incomes. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">The city of Rome was the center of a large empire, and the Romans managed to bring a lot of the empire’s assets to Rome, whether as taxes, booty or slaves….Booty, in the form of landholdings outside Italy, and slaves were more important. Such transfers explain why Roman Italy was richer than other parts of the Roman Empire, but transfers cannot explain why the Empire was productive. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">16 <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">The early Roman Empire had political institutions that promoted economic activity. Primary among these assets was security for private individuals. When a society moves from rulers who demand money in exchange for protection …to nonviolent rulers who charge taxes in a framework of law, the stage is set for economic growth. Greek city-states had created political conditions that promoted local stability, but the Romans were the first in the West to establish a wide area within which business could be transacted relatively safely. The Roman Republic expanded what would become the //Pax Romana// as its conquests mounted, and it cleared the Mediterranean of pirates in 67 BCE. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">By the time of the Dark Ages in about the fifth century CE, there were still markets, but no longer a market economy. Roman agricultural technology and city planning were abandoned, education decreased, and long-distance trade in bulk commodities vanished. The //Pax Romana// ended, and Roman law was forgotten in Europe for close to a millennium. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">All societies organize their economic functions through a mixture of redistribution, reciprocity and market exchange. From an economic point of view, the important characteristic of the early Roman Empire was the relatively large role played by market forces, certainly as compared to the medieval [Middle Ages] economy that would follow. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Large-scale production and movements of resources in the early Roman Empire were dominated by markets. This mode of organization promoted the exploitation of comparative advantage [competitions to increase wealth], helped by political stability, personal security, and widespread education. It also promoted a modest rate of economic growth that resulted in the prosperity of the early Roman Empire, which was not to be equaled in the West for almost two millennia thereafter.

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">//Summary// <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">The Rome of 100 A. D. had better paved streets, sewage disposal, water supply, and fire protection than the capitals of civilized Europe in 1800. Market institutions [ways of buying, selling, and borrowing, etc.] and a stable government appear to have been the combination that produced this remarkable result. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Ancient Rome managed to achieve this high standard of living through the combined operation of moderately stable political conditions [reliable government] and markets for goods, labor and capital, which allowed specialization and efficiency. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Roman shipping was organized in shifting. There is evidence of Roman shipping that spread throughout the Mediterranean. Provincial incomes in the early Roman Empire may have been in the range of European inland areas in the 1600s and 1700s. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Incomes and assets were distributed highly unequally in the early Roman Empire. A very small elite group at the top of society and the economy, composed of several hundred “senators” and a several tens of thousand “knights” in a population of around 50 million, held great wealth—typically in the form of land. At the other end of the distribution were farmers and farm laborers [workers]. In between, was a group of skilled and often literate [could read and write] tradesmen and service workers. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Markets for goods, labor and capital were relatively well-developed in ancient Rome, which in turn encouraged specialization and efficiency. These markets were able to work well in the environment created by public authorities [government] who provided local public services in cities and a functional rule of law across most of the Empire. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">. Grain was shipped across the Mediterranean to Rome from Sardinia, Sicily, Egypt and Africa. Olive oil was exported to Rome from Spain and Africa. …The monetary system of Rome was based on the silver //denarius//. Wheat merchants and traders made use of agents, maritime loans, a strong legal framework [laws], and provisions [rules] designed especially for grain merchants…. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">…Roman Italy gained greatly by being at the hub of an empire Rome imported food from around the Mediterranean, bringing in wheat, olive oil and wine from as far west as Iberia and as far east as Egypt and the Middle East. The Roman economy of the first and second centuries C. was integrated [woven together] … in the Mediterranean Sea. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Some Roman rural laborers were paid by piece rates; others, daily wages.. Craftsmen sold their wares and also supplied them to patrons in return for long-term economic and social support. When the army was not fighting, soldiers often built roads and public monuments near where they were stationed. Slaves were able to participate in the labor market in almost the same way as free laborers. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;"> Romans loaned money to each other with great frequency. Some of these loans were to finance consumption; others were for production. Many loans were made to finance trade. Merchants appear to have played a key role in ancient finance as well. The Roman Empire did not borrow; it ran on a cash basis. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">In the early Roman Empire, there is reason to believe that resources were used relatively efficiently. The Romans did make many technological improvements: concrete, the Roman arch extensive public works like aqueducts and theaters. Water-power was used on a wide scale. Water wheels were used widely to power grain mills, saw mills and grain pounders. Rome was a literate society, and that undoubtedly helped raise incomes. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">The city of Rome was the center of a large empire, and the Romans managed to bring a lot of the empire’s assets to Rome, whether as taxes, booty or slavesThe early Roman Empire had political institutions that promoted economic activity. Primary among these assets was security for private individuals. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">The Romans were the first in the West to establish a wide area within which business could be transacted relatively safely. The, the important characteristic of the early Roman Empire was the relatively large role played by market forces. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 95%;">Large-scale production and movements of resources in the early Roman Empire were dominated by markets. This mode of organization promoted the exploitation of comparative advantage, helped by political stability, personal security, and widespread education. It also promoted a modest rate of economic growth that resulted in the prosperity of the early Roman Empire, which was not to be equaled in the West for almost two millennia thereafter.