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listen to part of a lecture in a history class

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as we continue our study of the ancient Roman Empire.

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Let\'s talk a little about the opening up of trade between Rome and the Middle East and Asia.

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This happened in the second century BCE,

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when the Romans began importing a lot of exotic spices.

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This spice trade certainly affected the Roman economy.

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In fact, it\'s often argued that it led to a chronic trade imbalance

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causing severe economic problems that ultimately led to the fall of the Roman Empire.

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But let\'s explore that question,

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starting with how the spice trade began,

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as we established last class, there were many grains in the Roman diet,

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foods like bread and boiled barley.

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Boiling was common for many foods actually,

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vegetables were often boiled.

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Even fresh meat was soaked in water for long periods to soften the fibers and then boiled.

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This diet of grain based and boiled Foods was pretty bland.

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Now, the Romans did have some flavorings.

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They used mild tasting locally grown plants to add some flavor.

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But as the empire expanded to the east,

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the Romans came into contact

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for the first time with powerful spices.

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Pepper especially, became highly desired,

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and so Rome began importing spices

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at great expense from the Middle East and Asia.

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Traders were more than happy to sell their spices to Rome,

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but these sellers tended to be secretive about what kind of plant the spice came from.

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They\'d also invent stories of how difficult

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and often how dangerous it was to obtain the spices in order to keep prices high.

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All this further increased the value that Rome placed on spices,

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and the government spent huge amounts of money to safely store them.

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Now the question is,

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did the trade of these valuable spices really have a negative impact on the Roman economy?

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Some scholars speak of a trade imbalance.

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In other words, that Rome paid more to those Eastern countries than those countries paid to Rome for their goods.

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You see, initially, other countries were not willing to exchange their spices for Roman goods,

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even luxury goods like jewelry or bronze items.

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And historically, that\'s not uncommon.

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A country establishing trade with any new partner starts out paying money for foreign goods before a demand for its own goods develops.

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Indeed, in some areas east of Rome,

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people didn\'t have coins or the kinds of precious metals that Rome had,

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so Rome\'s trading partners preferred getting money for their spices anyway.

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So as Rome imported more goods,

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more gold began flowing out of Rome to the east.

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Documents from that time indicate that some Romans were concerned about a trade imbalance

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to try to counter that,

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Roman coins were repeatedly devalued.

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That is, their gold content was reduced

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by 337 CE, the gold content of coins was cut by almost half.

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This seems to support the idea that Romans were concerned about the amount of gold that had been flowing out of Rome through trade,

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but claims that this trade imbalance caused the economic collapse of the Roman Empire.

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Well, those claims seemed to be much exaggerated.

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You see, even though Rome was using lots of gold to buy spices,

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records indicate it was getting more gold from new mines within its territory.

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And this information about the gold mines,

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it comes to us from the writings of a man who worked in the Roman treasury so

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we know he had direct access to the actual figures.

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What\'s more, Rome\'s trade deficit was offset by customs dues,

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money that both importers and exporters had to pay to the Roman government for the right to transport goods through Egypt.

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Egypt was the main center through which imported spices passed,

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and Rome had control of it for much of this time.

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In fact, it appears that the overall effect of the spice trade was positive, both to Rome and to its trading partners.

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There\'s no real evidence that Rome\'s economy was weakened.

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There\'s actually more evidence that political instability and ineffective leadership led to the fall of Rome,

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and we\'ll look at those factors in more detail next time.

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