Roman Conquests and the European Economy

The Roman Empire spent centuries expanding from the Mediterranean throughout Europe, incorporating Britain, Gaul (modern France), Spain, and other areas into the Empire before reaching its height in the first and second centuries C.E. Naturally, Rome's control had a number of effects on the economies of the new provinces. Technologically, Rome was not a great deal more advanced than many of the provinces' native cultures, although the tendency was for the general level of technology to fall as one moved farther from the Mediterranean. Britain, in particular, was surprisingly delayed in some ways; the potter's wheel had only been introduced at the end of the first century B.C.E., although it had been in use in Gaul for the previous four centuries, and the potter's kiln (oven) had arrived even later. Similarly, the shaft furnace used in the Roman heartland for the smelting of metals first appeared in Britain about the time of the Roman conquest. But in other crafts, such as fine metalworking, which were related to the requirements of aristocratic patrons, the native craftsmen were quite as competent as their Roman counterparts.

Nevertheless, with the incorporation of the new areas into the Empire came a series of fundamentally important changes. Technological changes were probably the least significant, and many of the more important changes operated on industry indirectly. First, there was the Pax Romana, the Roman peace, not universal and not unbroken, but sufficiently intact to convert a normal condition of war to one of peace; the consequences of this alone on the pattern of trade and growth of population and markets were profound. Similarly, what had been a series of divided tribes were now united into single provinces, a fact which over a period of time must have destroyed many of the older cultural barriers to the movement of goods and craftsmen. Although large areas of Europe had shared a basically common culture, they were divided politically into a large number of independent tribes often at war with their neighbors. Their economies were basically agricultural, and although crafts flourished, many were geared to the demands of the tribal aristocracies rather than any larger market. Most of the population lived in the countryside and such concentrations as occurred in the hill forts and towns were small by comparison with the great cities of the Mediterranean world, and the markets which they created were correspondingly small.

All of the more advanced areas, including the south of Britain, had some form of monetary economy (an economy in which coins or paper money is used as payment for goods and services), but in many areas this did not involve the widespread use of low-value copper coins, and without them the system was incapable of coping with the small transactions of everyday life. Thus the introduction of the Roman monetary system, which had a graduated coinage suitable for almost every transaction, had a revolutionary effect on the economy, the more so as it appeared together with a developed, if by our standards primitive, banking system with facilities for loans. Finally, the acceptance of all this was no doubt encouraged by the imposition of the elaborate system of Roman taxation.

The rapid development of an extensive network of roads, particularly necessary for the short distance movement of raw materials and manufactured goods, also was of great importance, and it is probable that facilities for river traffic were also improved. It should also not be forgotten that the Roman government deliberately encouraged the romanization of the tribal aristocracies. The acceptance of such a concept would have involved not only wearing the toga—the distinctive garment of the Roman citizen—and taking baths, but also an appreciation of the advantages of urban life and of the idea that it was the duty of the wealthy citizens of a city or state to contribute to the public good by spending part of their fortune on public works. Taken together, these factors totally changed the economic face of Western Europe in a remarkably short time. In particular, they led to the appearance of true cities, which provided the markets necessary for the development and growth of industry.