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Hey around 12:40 you mention Canada not having much farmland but America has the most "usable" farmland at 1.6 million Km2 of land Canada is using 700,000 km2 of their land for farmland. canada ranks 7th in this list www.worldblaze.in/countries-with-most-agricultural-land/ I want to ask what source did you use for the statement made around the 12:30-12:45 mark? thanks
Thank you Economics Explained Team for this video. I found this video very educational and entertaining with your graphics and history. I am interested to learn more about Economics. Thank you, thank you thank you Economics Explained Team, Morgan morganhoward86@gmail.com
I feel like the story was just stopped half way thru. Right when you compared Rome's crisis to us you then ended it before Rome annexed Egypt and grew almost 3 times its size in wealth. Is there a part 2 and what will by our Egypt substitute saving grace?
Five year plans are common policies for communist states (and maybe Elon Musk lol). Really he has only talked about that specific policy as one among many features of his past subjects like USSR, China, etc. So, it may be good to do an in depth video, I don't think I've seen it yet.
"All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"
actually comes up quite frequently in some circles. The history of the word franchise has it show up quite a lot and that is a favorite example of showing how a word's mean can migrate through time.
Someone else who says macdonalds! I worked there awhile ago and I would call everything mac, mac chicken, mac fries, mac burger, etc and it would annoy most people. Besides one older guy who would do the same thing everyone else hated it.
the spanish colonies were not colonies but provinces of spain, a american spaniard had the same rights as a european one paid the same taxes and where responsible for their own defence.
One correction, using the climates of modern regions can be difficult when comparing the Roman Empire to the modern day. For example the coastal plain of North Africa used to be MUCH more lush than it is now. For example you can find the ruins of Roman farming estates just swallowed by the deserts and find carvings with lush ferns and greenery in Libya.
Few know that you could walk from Carthage to Alexandria under the canopies of the forest. North Africa was one of the most important timber exporters.
A historian I read a few years (ironically, in a roman history book) ago put it best: "History does not repeat herself. Instead, she is like a jazz musician, endlessly improvising over the same basic underlaying themes"
Having the resources necessary, being capable of exercising Roman Law, and moreover, being bold enough to take the responsability of keeping an entire city happy and productive, only the right men would end up standing in such a position, so yes, that's a capitalistic way of getting a governor xd
Only up until Caesar took over. He pretty much banned tax farming in the reforms put into effect by the Lex Iulia which stayed on the books, by the way, long into the byzantine period. For at least half of the states history - if you only count the unified empire - or most of it if you also take the medieval empire into accord, taxation was a matter of the emperor and his bureaucratic apparatus which at the time of Diocletian at the latest was very much the same as the apparatus of the empire.
@@DaDunge Until Diocletian came along. To be fair, Diocletian and Tetrarchs were non-Romans (or at least Romanized Illyrians and Dacians, who got citizenship due to Caracalla) who might not be as beholden to Italian citizens.
Sounds like it. Powers that be need assets like farm property to housing properties to business properties both real-estate and productive estates producing or refining the goods to remain in the same price if not increase in price. An investment fueled system. Such investment system has no real underlying demand from most people. Rather it depends on the greatest sucker of investor (rich) class to be holding the bag when things go tits up. And the investor who kept a mountain of liquid cash or invested in the needed items to scoop up the loser investor's stuff for pennies on the dollar... one less super rich guy... rinse and repeat. Inevitably though the booms and bust oscillate in violence shaking itself apart. The juggling act of indebtedness chain can't be maintained no matter home much making money printer go burr goes burrrrrrr. And the entire house of cards falls apart. It just does it many different ways: sometimes a period of hyperinflation that results in abandoning one form of currency for another that results in hyper deflation. Not doing anything resulting in normal but sever deflation resulting in a long economic recovery for most people under such a ridiculous plutocratic system leading in the industrial era to civil war as well as wars against other nations. Or a muddling tyrannical state that normalizes the poverty of most people, especially easy to with nations who allow and endorse slavery, as well as invoking a type of tribal ethnic inferiority complex. Often using theology and some other narrative to make the oligarchy elites into some sort of deity or speaker for a deity or deities.
@@jmitterii2 You are criticizing a civilization 2000 years ago for tolerating slavery? Really? Compared to which of their peers? The best you can do is their once Persian rivals (and even some of those empires did in fact, have some - but the 'free labor' system was hardly that much better for building all the palaces, etc that they even built). The others, celts, Carthaginians, Grecians, etc? Lol; in different ways and rules for slavery, but yes. Even the distant China of their stories? Yeah, slaves. Slaves, more slaves. How about the nomads? Oh yeah...) /facepalm. I get tired of people trying to put modern morals into ancient empires; not understanding people had to fight and die, over time - and assisted (and in some cases necessitated) by technological development to even manage to get to a position where we can simply view such things as completely unwarranted evil. But the entire perspective of life and death itself was much different in such societies; very high death rates of infants, bad life expectancy in general, even in the most 'clean' cities, disease, and no medicine men that would have any real benefit to you; just hoky pokie. Your wife (if you had one) - would be spending about an entire day each week just tending to the family laundry (unlike the hour or so you can get it done today); so much people don't understand. Death was always present, even when people were trying to be honorable in life or pious. Thus, it lessened the effects when people heard someone die, etc compared to the shock more of today. Which is why in so many of those tribal societies, it was easier to draft so many people for war. Even in a village by yourself, you were stuck more in your poor conditions, even without slaves and being completely free - or you could go out and fight a war. In the end, if you die, it is for the gods or for not much better conditions for your life already. These are the sorts of mentalities you got. And much more. It is a foreign way of thinking, lifestyles, etc than today. Shaming Rome for being a backward "slave holding people" that got their people poor because of that is rather a dishonest accounting based on a purely modern viewpoint.
They also have oil, metals, minerals, gas etc. Before industrialisation, both were horribly poor and violent places, which is why we used to send convicted criminals there for punishment.
@Rick K In Roman numerals, 159 is represented as "CLIX". The C equals 100, the L 50, and the IX 9. As for the follow up comments, V is five and X is ten.
Yeah I mean this is pretty much how our system works. Pay taxes or step in the cage, our guns are bigger than yours and we have more of them. Nothing new under the sun
Not much different in any modern democratic society. As a matter of fact in modern world you don't own land. You just have the rights of the land as long as you can pay whatever the government demands of you.
@@sebastianwallin3726 Better to have to pay for security of your land title than have the government stealing your earnings every time you get off your backside to do a bit of honest work, surely?
Tiberius was notoriously pretty competent, even (seemingly) realizing that he was gonna go bonkers and stepping down to do it in privacy. Rome was weird.
Would have been interesting to talk about the hyperinflation from the 3rd century onward. Then the failed currency reforms and coin debasement of Diocletian and the more succesful reforms of Constantine and how the introduction of the solidus increased inequality. There's loads of juicy stuff there about the stability of currencies from before people understood how currency and inflation worked. Its interesting that the Romans understood market forces but failed to apply them to currency. Diocletian persecuted merchants for raising their prises. It seems crazy today but they really didn't understand.
Eve crazier is that persecuting merchants for raising the prices in response to inflation or even accusing them of conspiring against the value of the currency (despite the fact that the goverment controls the central bank) is a common thing in countries like Venezuela. Economic primitivism si still a thing.
Agreed- and in the provinces of the empire didn’t the rich avoid paying taxes by just bribing collectors and waiting for the periodic tax write offs. Not that anything like that would happen these days
It seems crazy today for you. In reality land it is quite common to put restrictions on prices - both upper and lower bounds and is even more used in response to extraordinary circumstances - from runaway rents on a local level to a global pandemic.
"Canada has limited farm land, like Australia and Saudi Arabia" Canada is one of the largest agricultural producers and exporters in the world. Your comment was way off base. Canada is more than just tundra.
To only take a comparison to total land distorts the picture for Canadian agricultural capacity. The total area of agricultural land in canada is larger that a number of country's total territory.
Fillip Jahksen “Canada doesn’t”. By what metric!? It’s a huge producer and exporter! The Netherlands only appears near the top of some export lists because of high value products like flowers. Canada produces much more food than the Dutch
@@nathanielb3510 hold up. What about our pigs, chickens, cows hurled up in mega stallen? And dont forget our indoor veggie incubators where the sun never stops shinning! Just because we dutchers dont have much land for crops doesnt mean we cant import food to feed our cattle. Efficiency goes a long way + plenty of fresh water availability
While Tiberius reign was somewhat stable, he truly was an unpleasent person. During the last years of his rule he left rome to live in his villa on his private island capri. He did that to show the senators that he did not care. Also sueton tells us that he had a nice swimming pool and also a party of children for "entertainment" who he called his fishes. He also invited his friends to partake in his hobby and when the emperor asked you could not say no. It is also said that if some of his fishes would perform rather boring he would have them flung off the cliffs of capri into the sea. This man was so hated that when finally died, the roman people always happy to form a mob would riot in the streets and shout: "Tiberius in the Tiber." To throw a corpse into a river was on of the worst things you could do in ancient rome. But in the end Caligula made him posthumously a god.
To be fair to Tiberius, Suetonius was writing in the reign of Trajan and Hadrian, nearly 60 years after Tiberius reign and was written in a sensational style based on rumors from Patricians and Equestrian point of view, it’s not like he was firsthand account for Tiberius and the villa at Capri.
Great discounts today! We have strong Marcomani lads to plow the fields, beautiful Quadi woman for serving meals and ugly Persians for guarding tending your stables.
Senator comes to collect his money. Bank: It's the senator. Lock the door and get low!!! Senator: Darn, bank is closed again. Guess I'll come back next week.😕
You keep mixing up the Roman Empire with Rome in general. The Empire was founded in 27 BC. Before that, Rome was a republic, and before that, a kingdom.
Rome had an empire before it had an emperor. Kind of confusing, but true. 27 BC was the first emperor, but the empire began when Rome was still a republic. Rome had conquered the Italian peninsula by 240 BC, Greece in 146 BC, Judaea and Syria by 60 BC, and Egypt by 30 BC, just to give a few examples.
Bosnian economy works because it is small enough to perpetuate itself. It is not a Roman empire or United States. I applause Bosnia for all that they do, but they irrelevant to the true world of commerce and population.👍
Rome's economic system is not "surprisingly modern". Rather the "modern" economic system is surprisingly ancient. These ancient systems worked well enough that we couldn't be bothered to come up with something better. But that day will soon be upon us as automation slowly put billions of people out of work.
I mean, its hiding in plain sight. The economy and our way of economic thought is a direct result of our culture, religion and values. The very word value can have a spiritual and monetary meaning. Not to mention, the Bible talks about money all over the place lol. When you consider that ancient Rome was responsible for creating and spreading Christianity, and that this religion is still practiced today in vast parts of the western world, it would be strange if our economic system didn't resemble that of the peoples of ancient Rome.
Oh and on the point of automation, I think you're not quite right. If you look at the size 'service economy', that should clue you into the fact most of our jobs aren't tied to production. It's too big a topic to get into - so if you're interested look up Graeber's book 'Bullshit jobs' - but in a nutshell, since the second world war we could've put swathes of the working population out of work through basic automation using machinery. But what we've seen is an expansion of administration at every level of the economy. Basically, we're very good at creating jobs where there don't need to be any. For example, look at all the people not able to work at the moment like corporate lawyers or marketing consultants, yet society is still chugging along fine. We're excellent at making up new service jobs which don't really serve anyone's need, except perpetuate the need for more jobs. Think for example marketing agencies which will need cleaners, security and other people to maintain the running of an office.
@@animalia5554 Oh please, don't compare the complex and (sometimes) artificially intelligent modern technologies to the industrial revolution machinery.
I've the most wonderous business enterprise in Germania, it only requires a an odd number of legions, if you are interested send a dm now! - Yours truly PQV.
No they didn't. No one ever had to move back to their town of birth to do their taxes or census. It was done for narrative reasons. The messiah is born in bethlehem.
He probably meant as a % of total land area. A lot of Canada is tundra. But Canada is very large so they no doubt still have a lot of arable farmland per person relatively speaking.
@MR merperls Which also wasn't uncommon at all during the Roman Republic and at least early on during imperial time. Wealthy/socially powerful men if I remember everything right were expected not to be the penetrated party in this activity though, that would result in shame (other way around, nope totally fine and normal). As a boy even from good standing there were periods where it was also acceptable and normal. It spans a huge time period and locations, so some local cultures may have been different but these are the general trends I remember right now. I might edit the comment later if I can remember specific sources or find them in my notes.
Yes but greece was entirely city states. Rome showed how Democracy and Republicanism can work on a larger scale. Thus the birth of large democratic republics
6:00 I want to add something. Your wealth level (and tax level) was very important in Rome because it defined your “rank” in the military as you said but perhaps more importantly your “rank” in civil society too. Indeed Roman citizens were divided in a form of cast system based (mostly) on wealth : you were of the knightly class (equites) if you owned more than 400 000 sesterces, of the senatorial class for people who had over a million sesterces, part of the plebeians if you owned less than X, etc. This mattered because your class had a big impact on political life : certain public offices were only accessible if you were part of the a certain class (one could only be part of the senate if one was of senatorial class, for an obvious example). This public “rank” also played a major role in the electoral system of the Roman Republic : indeed, during the votations over public office and laws the citizens voted in a specific order (the richer classes voted first) and more voting power was given to the richer classes. This effectively meant that the more modest Roman citizen often had very little influence in the governance of Rome. (PS : this is an over-simplified explanation of the matter, because the Roman Republic’s political system is quite weird and convoluted and it also evolved quite a lot over the 5 centuries of the Republic’s Life)
As a history major I had to take my share of classes on Rome. I am just writing to say how much I appreciate your opening comment about the many versions of what we know as the Roman Empire.
I really enjoyed this answer to a question that I didn't even know I had! As far as history goes, I think that many would agree that the French Revolution was one of the most important political and social events in modern history. Is there any insight into the economy of France before and during this intense time of uncertainty? Thanks for the great content!
Problem with the concept of being paid in salt, is that it wasn't that rare... it could be easily mined in certain areas, and along the coast manufactured from the sea by boiling sea water. And for it to do it's main function: preservation of food, you need barrels and barrels of the stuff.
Long story short. Conquest everything. Conquest brings Pax Ottomanica on war devastated lands (until 1600s). Eventually ballon goes bust. Other empires manage to colonize everything else making Ottoman empire grab on global trade insignificant in contrast to before 1600s. More bad war results. Nationalism and bad management lead to full dissolution on 1923.
@@EconomicsExplained Is there enough information available for a look into Babylonian or Assyrian economics? As far as I know the Babylonians developed one of the earliest economic systems in the world so that would be especially fascinating.
I honestly think he shouldn’t if he’s just gonna do it in one video. A lot of his videos are too short for the subject he approaches. Instead of focusing on taxation during the time of the Pax Romana or something more specific, he jumps throughout the timeline of the Roman Empire and hardly ever mentions the areas that were part of the Empire like Egypt, North Africa, Spain etc.
I think you drew a great line of scope for this video, but I wish you could have covered how the food levy system worked at the same time. Everyone talks about food levies in the ancient world, and this Roman era you discussed, but none of the details of how they worked economically. Historically, it is portrayed a bit like a UBI crossed with welfare, but I have never seen anyone discuss it economically. As food has been the root of nearly every war to some degree, it sure would be great to hear an economical perspective of how food impacts cultures :)
Correction: The 'privatized tax collection' phase actually phased out early on in the empire under the reign of the second Emperor Tiberius. The system is more associated with mid/late republic.
By far the best economics channel on youtube. Your videos make complex topics understandable to all. The true sign of a expect on the topic and a capable teacher.
6:14 you just skipped a phase called the Roman Republic. The ones who threw over the Roman Kings established this in 509 BC and this lasted till 27BC, and only then did the "Roman Empire" start.
@@terner1234 He came to power through a campaign of manipulation and intimidation that, even by late Republic standards, was corrupt as can be. He accumulated so many charges against him that the only way he could avoid prosecution at the end of his term was to return to Rome with an army at his side and start a civil war. In the manner of many dictators, he threatened his new 'allies' into granting him title upon title which he could use to further secure his hold and become dictator in all but title (and eventually in that too) - using his power as Censor to expel any senator who did not support him fully, and as Pontifex Maximus to schedule Senate meetings to his own convenience. He systematically replaced magestrates and tribunes through Rome with people he appointed based on their loyalty to him. So total was his destruction of the apparatus of government that, even after his assassination, it was impossible to restore the Senate to power. Julius Caesar was a great military commander, no doubt - be he was a traitor to everything it meant to be a citizen of Rome. The best I can say in his defense is that the Republic already had extreme issues with corruption and political manipulation - if he hadn't pushed it into dictatorship, someone else may well have done so. The circumstances were ripe for it.
11:34 - not really the case, even with the trade deficit Rome suffered, the Roman mining networks produced 200 000kg of silver per year, 10 times the Abbasid Caliphate at its height and four times as much as China, not sure about India but likely the same discrepancy and irrelevant since India was not an unified faction at the time, far from it. Heck, the Roman mines in southern Iberia alone produced 9000kg of gold annually lol. The Romans also directly took their grain from their very fertile African provinces.
@@neutralfellow9736 I think when they say Indians and Chinese were richer, he meant the whole "China" and "India" regions, not the small states that composed It. China was very wealthy indeed, and considered Rome its reflex on the other side of the World, but Índia was nothing more than squabbling kingdoms and the eventual empire who would quickly crumble out of this World.
@@seanwalsh999 uh no dude, firstly copper and tin means bronze, just call it bronze...secondly, we have Roman silver coins as old as 5th century BC, heck, after 211 BC you have standardized denarius and sestertius, which were pure silver for 500 years til they started debasing them in the 3rd century AD.
Can you do the economy of the other big boys of the time? Ancient India and Ancient China. Actually, of every ancient empire. Would be interesting to know.
@@TheCRAZYEYES1000 yep, I certainly raised an eyebrow when he said that sentence. But while the history may be questionable, the general idea is certainly plausible.
Half of the empire was Greek, half was speaking greek and most of Rome's culture and traditions as well as the pantheon were borrowed from the greeks. Rome had Greece for hundreds of years and therefore greece was roman.
@N K To be honest, we did get that from Rome and most democratic systems in the west were inspired by rome, none by the greeks. Representative democracies are similar to Rome while direct democracies are similar to athens(there are 0 direct democracy countries on earth).
Good informative video as always. I think a big part of the difficulty in comparing past economies to our modern ones is peoples use of money. Nearly every person on the planet now uses currency or money of some description but in the long story of human societies that is a very recent trend. For most of human history most people had little use for money as we know it. It is interesting that both the Romans and the Greeks used QE in response to financial crisis.
Suggestion for future video: economics of slavery. You’ve mentioned slavery a few times, including this episode. I was surprised to learn (though it probably shouldn’t have been a surprise) that there were mortgages over slaves, slave backed securities etc.
"But primarily it was a protection racket. 'Pay these taxes or we will take your land away, or, well, we're the ones with the huge army" Love how things haven't changed in over 2000 years
Here's a good suggestion. I think you should talk about the economy of the Warhammer 40k universe. It will be interesting to talk about the stagnation of the Imperium, the growth of the Tau Empire, slave economies of the Dark Eldar etc. Orks also make a surprisingly good case study because of their "Teef".
A very interesting thing in Rome was that they had basically universal free income in Augustus time. He often gave large money gifts to the populace. Could you make a video about how that stimulated the economy?
Most of school is just obedience training. Teaching finances like this would bore the 3/4 of the students that are only there because they have to be, and with the remaining 1/4 it would be as dangerous as teaching slaves to read. Henry Ford said it similarly, “It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
The average Roman citizen had much more writes, social mobility, and quality of life, at the time of Trajan, free citizens in the city of Rome had access to public baths, clean water from the aqueducts, and access to goods from Portugal to Iraq to Scotland to Egypt. Han dynasty China and Indian residents didn’t have any of the above avalible, expecaly to the average citizens
I think live in the capital of Han China at the height of its power was as prosperous as Rome during Trajans reign. The cities populations are similar atleast if that is something to go by. Han China was massive and centralized. Very comparable with Rome. If they had build their palaces with stone and marble we would have more archeological evidence of their wealth. Unfortunatly they constructed their houses out of wood.
Right? It took almost 2 millennia before another nation surpassed the per capita income of Rome. India and China did have slightly larger populations, if you counted all of the kingdoms that existed in the areas we now call India and China as a single nation for some weird reason, but their per capita income was between 1/2 and 1/3 that of Rome. There's a reason Rome lasted as long as it did.
You forgot to mention the great Menhir Crisis under Julius Cesar, caused by a sudden influx of cheap menhirs from one small village of indomitable Gauls that still held out against the invaders, close to the fortified camps of Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum and Compendium...
I think the sources here are extremely poor due to a targeted effort by the imperial government to cover up their economic and military mismanagement in that area.
IIRC Rome ruled over 1/4 or even 1/3 of the world's population, I don't think China or India were wealthier. Surely not India, which by the way was often very divided into various states. Also, some economic historians have called Rome a kind of proto-industrial society, of course you are right in saying that we are talking about mostly of an agrarian society. Finally I really don't think it makes much sense to make any analogy by citing the gdp in today $ or even the PP GDP.
It has to do with periods of sound versus unsound money - what holds value over time versus what is eroded faster forcing investments offsets that emphasize short term returns instead of longer term investment outcomes. The period of Rome success meant that investment in large public works could take many years and service countless generations like Aqueducts and Roads some of which are still operational in some capacity. In the United States we can’t even figure out repairing what we built in the 1950s onward. There is a lack of interest since our modern fiat money isn’t sound so investments shift to what can yield fastest return so it can be spent with greatest near term returns before shifting to something with greater near term growth
Ah, good 'ol Little Boots. Every time I think of Caligula it gives me hope that my lack of talent or charisma and ocassionaly bouts of insane rage won't stop me from achieving great wealth and power.
You just gave me another thing to think about when I'm learning about Roman history I appreciate the in-depth segmented by era overview. Just another thing that makes the Roman state so interesting.
Very interesting, this documentary shows how history is mostly based on images of greatness that a science such as economics must contextualize. Congratulations to the sympathetic creator.
Excellent video mate. I never knew they had divided the empire into provinces. Also, Are you ever gonna do a video about the economic history of Argentina? That would make a very interesting video (considering how Argentina is the only country that has regressed from a developed to a developing nation over the last 80-100yrs)
DSTimelapseHD trust me you'll get a head ache how many times The Roman Empire was divided. (Before they became an Empire and during and after Byzantine times)
If you didn't know about the provincial system, you might not be into history that much anyway, but don't consider this video historically accurate apart from the economic summaries, which I think are simple, but mostly valid. The rest is historically superficial at best, so if you want to learn more about the topic, better read or watch something else.
13:05 we don't know the exact conversion rate of roman currency to USD. also, did you just skip the roman republic, and go straight from kingdom to empire? other than that, great video.
This is a favorite topic of mine and I love comparing it with the Parthian, Mughal, and Han Empires that dominated the Eurasian continent and included almost three-quarters of the planet's population at the time. They were all quite sophisticated. It's really interesting.
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Last time I was this early, I woke up in a wooden horse.
Hey around 12:40 you mention Canada not having much farmland but America has the most "usable" farmland at 1.6 million Km2 of land Canada is using 700,000 km2 of their land for farmland. canada ranks 7th in this list
www.worldblaze.in/countries-with-most-agricultural-land/
I want to ask what source did you use for the statement made around the 12:30-12:45 mark? thanks
woo yeah Electrical Engineering nation 😋
Thank you Economics Explained Team for this video. I found this video very educational and entertaining with your graphics and history.
I am interested to learn more about Economics.
Thank you, thank you thank you Economics Explained Team,
Morgan
morganhoward86@gmail.com
I feel like the story was just stopped half way thru. Right when you compared Rome's crisis to us you then ended it before Rome annexed Egypt and grew almost 3 times its size in wealth. Is there a part 2 and what will by our Egypt substitute saving grace?
Every educational youtube channel on Rome: WARS.
Economics explained: let's start with the fun stuff: *TAXES*
Historia Civilis : CEASAR WAR’S AND POLITICS
Can't have wars without taxes!
Well you could try invicta. His channel explain some trivial things in antiquity era
Funnily enough wars and generals has great videos on Roman tax policy and revenue
both are bad
Suggestion for future video: communist five year plans.
There is already a Video about it...
@@just_lurking1644 he did a video on the soviet union and on north korea, but I don't recall one on the five year plans
Yea I watch all your videos and I’d be interested in seeing this too
He's done it, look up his videos on China or the USSR
Five year plans are common policies for communist states (and maybe Elon Musk lol). Really he has only talked about that specific policy as one among many features of his past subjects like USSR, China, etc. So, it may be good to do an in depth video, I don't think I've seen it yet.
"All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"
military structure and discipline is still based on the roman ways
"Brought peace?"
Is that a Life of Brian quote?😂
@@Cattnyooom yes
Are you from Judean People's Front of from People's front of Judea?
In my 41 years on earth, this must be the first time I've come across someone who drew a comparison between the Roman Empire and MacDonalds.
actually comes up quite frequently in some circles. The history of the word franchise has it show up quite a lot and that is a favorite example of showing how a word's mean can migrate through time.
You mean mcdicks
Just as i red ur comment, a mcdonalds clip picture popped up
Someone else who says macdonalds! I worked there awhile ago and I would call everything mac, mac chicken, mac fries, mac burger, etc and it would annoy most people. Besides one older guy who would do the same thing everyone else hated it.
Eating McDonald’s while watching this video
"At some point the Roman kingdom became an empire"
The Roman Republic: Am I a joke to you?
It certainly was to julius caesar
Yes
Biggest explosion establish power and end the Republic was his cancelling of debt IMO
haha
the spanish colonies were not colonies but provinces of spain, a american spaniard had the same rights as a european one paid the same taxes and where responsible for their own defence.
One correction, using the climates of modern regions can be difficult when comparing the Roman Empire to the modern day.
For example the coastal plain of North Africa used to be MUCH more lush than it is now. For example you can find the ruins of Roman farming estates just swallowed by the deserts and find carvings with lush ferns and greenery in Libya.
Few know that you could walk from Carthage to Alexandria under the canopies of the forest. North Africa was one of the most important timber exporters.
@Ben Passlow Both exist, it's just that the human one happens faster and fast change is economically harmful.
@Ben Passlow Most of it wasnt from global climate change. Deforestation causes catastrophic local climate change
@@mabamabam I'd blame it on the Early Arab invasions if anything, they kinda ruined the region
Do you know where we can find out more about this?
History doesn’t repeat it self, but it sure does rhyme.
Who's that quote from?
@@Brakvash He might have taken It from somewhere else, but i remember Blue from overly sarcastic productions used to say it
Markens Chateau what rhymes lol
Benjamin Antman Mark Twain
A historian I read a few years (ironically, in a roman history book) ago put it best:
"History does not repeat herself. Instead, she is like a jazz musician, endlessly improvising over the same basic underlaying themes"
Last time I was this early Roman Senators were allowed to use big boy knives at the dinner table.
Et tu, EE?
they used it to cut salad
@@blaze3547 Caesar salad?
Is salad for dinner by chance
Why'd they stop? They didn't murder someone. Right? :D guys?
Romans: * privatize taxes *
Libertarians: *confusion noises*
Having the resources necessary, being capable of exercising Roman Law, and moreover, being bold enough to take the responsability of keeping an entire city happy and productive, only the right men would end up standing in such a position, so yes, that's a capitalistic way of getting a governor xd
Only in the colonies, they had no taxes at all in italy, instead the Italians were expected to provide manpower for the legions.
Only up until Caesar took over.
He pretty much banned tax farming in the reforms put into effect by the Lex Iulia which stayed on the books, by the way, long into the byzantine period.
For at least half of the states history - if you only count the unified empire - or most of it if you also take the medieval empire into accord, taxation was a matter of the emperor and his bureaucratic apparatus which at the time of Diocletian at the latest was very much the same as the apparatus of the empire.
This was a joke guys I understand how the SPQR works
@@DaDunge Until Diocletian came along.
To be fair, Diocletian and Tetrarchs were non-Romans (or at least Romanized Illyrians and Dacians, who got citizenship due to Caracalla) who might not be as beholden to Italian citizens.
So Rome was literally one of the first to say "money printers go brrrrr". How interesting.
Sounds like it. Powers that be need assets like farm property to housing properties to business properties both real-estate and productive estates producing or refining the goods to remain in the same price if not increase in price. An investment fueled system.
Such investment system has no real underlying demand from most people. Rather it depends on the greatest sucker of investor (rich) class to be holding the bag when things go tits up.
And the investor who kept a mountain of liquid cash or invested in the needed items to scoop up the loser investor's stuff for pennies on the dollar... one less super rich guy... rinse and repeat. Inevitably though the booms and bust oscillate in violence shaking itself apart. The juggling act of indebtedness chain can't be maintained no matter home much making money printer go burr goes burrrrrrr. And the entire house of cards falls apart.
It just does it many different ways: sometimes a period of hyperinflation that results in abandoning one form of currency for another that results in hyper deflation. Not doing anything resulting in normal but sever deflation resulting in a long economic recovery for most people under such a ridiculous plutocratic system leading in the industrial era to civil war as well as wars against other nations.
Or a muddling tyrannical state that normalizes the poverty of most people, especially easy to with nations who allow and endorse slavery, as well as invoking a type of tribal ethnic inferiority complex. Often using theology and some other narrative to make the oligarchy elites into some sort of deity or speaker for a deity or deities.
more like "Coin Mint go plic plic plic"
@@jmitterii2 If by poverty you mean better living conditions than middle age kings. You are not entitled to success, only the pursuit of it.
@@jmitterii2 You are criticizing a civilization 2000 years ago for tolerating slavery? Really? Compared to which of their peers? The best you can do is their once Persian rivals (and even some of those empires did in fact, have some - but the 'free labor' system was hardly that much better for building all the palaces, etc that they even built). The others, celts, Carthaginians, Grecians, etc? Lol; in different ways and rules for slavery, but yes. Even the distant China of their stories? Yeah, slaves. Slaves, more slaves. How about the nomads? Oh yeah...) /facepalm.
I get tired of people trying to put modern morals into ancient empires; not understanding people had to fight and die, over time - and assisted (and in some cases necessitated) by technological development to even manage to get to a position where we can simply view such things as completely unwarranted evil. But the entire perspective of life and death itself was much different in such societies; very high death rates of infants, bad life expectancy in general, even in the most 'clean' cities, disease, and no medicine men that would have any real benefit to you; just hoky pokie. Your wife (if you had one) - would be spending about an entire day each week just tending to the family laundry (unlike the hour or so you can get it done today); so much people don't understand. Death was always present, even when people were trying to be honorable in life or pious. Thus, it lessened the effects when people heard someone die, etc compared to the shock more of today. Which is why in so many of those tribal societies, it was easier to draft so many people for war. Even in a village by yourself, you were stuck more in your poor conditions, even without slaves and being completely free - or you could go out and fight a war. In the end, if you die, it is for the gods or for not much better conditions for your life already. These are the sorts of mentalities you got.
And much more. It is a foreign way of thinking, lifestyles, etc than today. Shaming Rome for being a backward "slave holding people" that got their people poor because of that is rather a dishonest accounting based on a purely modern viewpoint.
The fact that the Western Empire pretty much died from going bancrupt should tell us something...
>Canada and Australia can be wealthy despite having limited farm land
>Canada and Australia being 6th and 7th in total cultivated land
Well. It makes sense.
They also have oil, metals, minerals, gas etc. Before industrialisation, both were horribly poor and violent places, which is why we used to send convicted criminals there for punishment.
@@lacdirk the opposite, perhaps. You made them violent places by sending convicts there. Before that it was completely different.
@@BiharyGabor didn't Australia start as a penal colony?
@@cek0792 no. You forget the millennia before.
I struggle with Roman economics until their GDP got to 159.
Then it just CLIX
You get a high V for this comment.
A X out of X
shotelco It took me waaay to long to get the joke.
@Rick K In Roman numerals, 159 is represented as "CLIX". The C equals 100, the L 50, and the IX 9. As for the follow up comments, V is five and X is ten.
Underrated comment is underrated
Normal people when they think of the fun stuff: parties , games and relaxing
Economic explained when he thinks of fun stuff: TaXeS
WEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
And Beethoven
@@EconomicsExplained Don't you mean WRYYYYYYYYYYY
@@EconomicsExplained REEEEEEEE
My idea of fun is Taxes, Climate Change and historical food and clothes. Board games and computer games next
"Pay taxes or we'll take your land away". Mafia culture was established in Italy a very long time ago, it seems.
If you don't pay your taxes, you're pretty much in the same situation, who you're paying to is what changes lol
Yeah I mean this is pretty much how our system works. Pay taxes or step in the cage, our guns are bigger than yours and we have more of them. Nothing new under the sun
It is only "your land" because the state grants you a title to it and protects the rights your title gives you. Worth paying for, surely?
Not much different in any modern democratic society.
As a matter of fact in modern world you don't own land. You just have the rights of the land as long as you can pay whatever the government demands of you.
@@sebastianwallin3726 Better to have to pay for security of your land title than have the government stealing your earnings every time you get off your backside to do a bit of honest work, surely?
Tiberius was notoriously pretty competent, even (seemingly) realizing that he was gonna go bonkers and stepping down to do it in privacy. Rome was weird.
Would have been interesting to talk about the hyperinflation from the 3rd century onward. Then the failed currency reforms and coin debasement of Diocletian and the more succesful reforms of Constantine and how the introduction of the solidus increased inequality. There's loads of juicy stuff there about the stability of currencies from before people understood how currency and inflation worked. Its interesting that the Romans understood market forces but failed to apply them to currency. Diocletian persecuted merchants for raising their prises. It seems crazy today but they really didn't understand.
Eve crazier is that persecuting merchants for raising the prices in response to inflation or even accusing them of conspiring against the value of the currency (despite the fact that the goverment controls the central bank) is a common thing in countries like Venezuela. Economic primitivism si still a thing.
As if the bureaucrats of today understand better.
Agreed- and in the provinces of the empire didn’t the rich avoid paying taxes by just bribing collectors and waiting for the periodic tax write offs. Not that anything like that would happen these days
@@Miki-fl9ez lmao, there's so much bussinesses can do until they become a monopoly
It seems crazy today for you. In reality land it is quite common to put restrictions on prices - both upper and lower bounds and is even more used in response to extraordinary circumstances - from runaway rents on a local level to a global pandemic.
“McDonald’s doesn’t expand by sending its legionaries to invade the local dirty bird.” AnCap: “ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT.”
A Fellow Traveler non aggression principle
@@supernukey419 Who would be there to enforce it?
@hshsjfbd bdjjgbbebe McNukes™️
hshsjfbd bdjjgbbebe mercenaries
@@zacharymohammadi the McNuclear Program™ is for recreational use ONLY
6:52 “At the height of the Roman Empire” *shows a picture of Canada*
Never heard of the gladius found in Nova Scotia?
maybe he knows something we don't
Love his content but this guy is such a lazy video editor 🤣
AVE IMPERATOR JVSTINIANVS TRVDO
Where is that? I thought that was like east india or something
"Canada has limited farm land, like Australia and Saudi Arabia"
Canada is one of the largest agricultural producers and exporters in the world. Your comment was way off base. Canada is more than just tundra.
Very true. And the same goes for his home country of Australia.... Unfortunately, the video is dotted with inaccuracies. A real shame.
Limited compared to its total land area.
To only take a comparison to total land distorts the picture for Canadian agricultural capacity. The total area of agricultural land in canada is larger that a number of country's total territory.
Fillip Jahksen “Canada doesn’t”. By what metric!? It’s a huge producer and exporter! The Netherlands only appears near the top of some export lists because of high value products like flowers. Canada produces much more food than the Dutch
@@nathanielb3510 hold up. What about our pigs, chickens, cows hurled up in mega stallen? And dont forget our indoor veggie incubators where the sun never stops shinning! Just because we dutchers dont have much land for crops doesnt mean we cant import food to feed our cattle. Efficiency goes a long way + plenty of fresh water availability
It's all fun and games conquering land and taxing people until Asterix and Obelix step in.
While Tiberius reign was somewhat stable, he truly was an unpleasent person. During the last years of his rule he left rome to live in his villa on his private island capri. He did that to show the senators that he did not care. Also sueton tells us that he had a nice swimming pool and also a party of children for "entertainment" who he called his fishes. He also invited his friends to partake in his hobby and when the emperor asked you could not say no. It is also said that if some of his fishes would perform rather boring he would have them flung off the cliffs of capri into the sea.
This man was so hated that when finally died, the roman people always happy to form a mob would riot in the streets and shout: "Tiberius in the Tiber." To throw a corpse into a river was on of the worst things you could do in ancient rome.
But in the end Caligula made him posthumously a god.
Well, Sejanus essentially ran the empire for the last years of his reign. He wasn't needed in Rome.
Atleast he didn't declare war on the ocean or anything.
I really like the way he is portrayed in the movie Caligula :P
To be fair to Tiberius, Suetonius was writing in the reign of Trajan and Hadrian, nearly 60 years after Tiberius reign and was written in a sensational style based on rumors from Patricians and Equestrian point of view, it’s not like he was firsthand account for Tiberius and the villa at Capri.
He was like the Bill Clinton + Jeffery Epstein of Ancient Rome.
Attention our dear costumers!
The second slaves are %45 off
A magnificent opportunity
ohboi
What if I buy 6 in 3 parts.
And by that, we mean they are missing their legs.
Great discounts today! We have strong Marcomani lads to plow the fields, beautiful Quadi woman for serving meals and ugly Persians for guarding tending your stables.
Can I get a refund if they die within the first year?
Sounds like something a bank would say about missing funds.
"Yeah, about that missing money... it was lost.... in a ship wreck, Yeah! A ship wreck!"
you are ship out of luck
Senator comes to collect his money.
Bank: It's the senator. Lock the door and get low!!!
Senator: Darn, bank is closed again. Guess I'll come back next week.😕
"I lost all my guns in a boating accident!"
You keep mixing up the Roman Empire with Rome in general. The Empire was founded in 27 BC. Before that, Rome was a republic, and before that, a kingdom.
Rome had an empire before it had an emperor. Kind of confusing, but true. 27 BC was the first emperor, but the empire began when Rome was still a republic. Rome had conquered the Italian peninsula by 240 BC, Greece in 146 BC, Judaea and Syria by 60 BC, and Egypt by 30 BC, just to give a few examples.
Reading up on rome is so confusing because you can never be sure if the source is about the city or the empire
tothboy01 well it depends on your definition of empire
Roman empire was not around for 1000 years if you cannot get the basics correct, how any other errors have you made in your piece ?
It’s just semantics
An impossible challenge: How Bosnian economy works and is it possible to actually function well once corruption is removed
Bosnian economy works because it is small enough to perpetuate itself. It is not a Roman empire or United States. I applause Bosnia for all that they do, but they irrelevant to the true world of commerce and population.👍
Rome's economic system is not "surprisingly modern". Rather the "modern" economic system is surprisingly ancient. These ancient systems worked well enough that we couldn't be bothered to come up with something better. But that day will soon be upon us as automation slowly put billions of people out of work.
It won't economy is subservient to people's well-being .
I mean, its hiding in plain sight. The economy and our way of economic thought is a direct result of our culture, religion and values. The very word value can have a spiritual and monetary meaning.
Not to mention, the Bible talks about money all over the place lol. When you consider that ancient Rome was responsible for creating and spreading Christianity, and that this religion is still practiced today in vast parts of the western world, it would be strange if our economic system didn't resemble that of the peoples of ancient Rome.
Oh and on the point of automation, I think you're not quite right. If you look at the size 'service economy', that should clue you into the fact most of our jobs aren't tied to production. It's too big a topic to get into - so if you're interested look up Graeber's book 'Bullshit jobs' - but in a nutshell, since the second world war we could've put swathes of the working population out of work through basic automation using machinery. But what we've seen is an expansion of administration at every level of the economy. Basically, we're very good at creating jobs where there don't need to be any. For example, look at all the people not able to work at the moment like corporate lawyers or marketing consultants, yet society is still chugging along fine. We're excellent at making up new service jobs which don't really serve anyone's need, except perpetuate the need for more jobs. Think for example marketing agencies which will need cleaners, security and other people to maintain the running of an office.
Didn’t people say that about the industrial revolution?
@@animalia5554
Oh please, don't compare the complex and (sometimes) artificially intelligent modern technologies to the industrial revolution machinery.
These videos are good to watch during Enhanced Community Quarantine 👌🏻 Love from the Philippines 🇵🇭❤️
Glad I can bring some joy during these trying times :)
My account was born for this
Augustus over here hoarding all the cash.
Sup homie
I've the most wonderous business enterprise in Germania, it only requires a an odd number of legions, if you are interested send a dm now! - Yours truly PQV.
Friendly reminder: Mary and Joseph had to go to Bethlehem because they had to do their taxes
Wasn’t it a census thing?
@@erikt3162 a census for taxation
You've just given me Thanos comparable power to persuade religious people to the dar.. libertarian side.
No they didn't. No one ever had to move back to their town of birth to do their taxes or census. It was done for narrative reasons. The messiah is born in bethlehem.
That's according to the gospel of Lucas. The Gospel of Matthew tells a different and incompatible story
I would double check the statement about Canada having limited farmland
So you're saying it's possible Canada has infinite farmland?
He probably meant as a % of total land area. A lot of Canada is tundra. But Canada is very large so they no doubt still have a lot of arable farmland per person relatively speaking.
@@uncreativename9936 So you are saying that the guy in the video says that it's possible that every country except Canada has infinite farmland?
Thank you for making such quality content ad-free
No worries mate, thank you for watching :)
Video suggestion: Economy of ancient Egypt and its enormous bureaucracy
"A future civilisation like the Star Wars galaxy"
*A long time ago...........*
Came here looking for this comment
democracy was first "invented" in ancient Greece, and also applied there, way before the roman republic.
Didn't they also sodomize underage boys?
@MR merperls Which also wasn't uncommon at all during the Roman Republic and at least early on during imperial time.
Wealthy/socially powerful men if I remember everything right were expected not to be the penetrated party in this activity though, that would result in shame (other way around, nope totally fine and normal). As a boy even from good standing there were periods where it was also acceptable and normal.
It spans a huge time period and locations, so some local cultures may have been different but these are the general trends I remember right now. I might edit the comment later if I can remember specific sources or find them in my notes.
Yes but greece was entirely city states. Rome showed how Democracy and Republicanism can work on a larger scale. Thus the birth of large democratic republics
@@cheezycrackers8677 powerful men haven’t changed in 2500 years apparently
That is the popular view, but some early democratic models can be found in the nomadic societies such as the Iranic Scythians.
6:00 I want to add something.
Your wealth level (and tax level) was very important in Rome because it defined your “rank” in the military as you said but perhaps more importantly your “rank” in civil society too.
Indeed Roman citizens were divided in a form of cast system based (mostly) on wealth : you were of the knightly class (equites) if you owned more than 400 000 sesterces, of the senatorial class for people who had over a million sesterces, part of the plebeians if you owned less than X, etc.
This mattered because your class had a big impact on political life : certain public offices were only accessible if you were part of the a certain class (one could only be part of the senate if one was of senatorial class, for an obvious example).
This public “rank” also played a major role in the electoral system of the Roman Republic : indeed, during the votations over public office and laws the citizens voted in a specific order (the richer classes voted first) and more voting power was given to the richer classes.
This effectively meant that the more modest Roman citizen often had very little influence in the governance of Rome.
(PS : this is an over-simplified explanation of the matter, because the Roman Republic’s political system is quite weird and convoluted and it also evolved quite a lot over the 5 centuries of the Republic’s Life)
"invade the local dirty bird" - your Strayan is showing
It is admittedly a perfect nickname for KFC.
I can imagine McDonalds invading KFC
I would love to see: Bronze Age Economy, Mongol Empire, British Empire, Bretton Woods
Another good topic regarding ancient Rome is Diocletian's failed price controls and inflation crisis.
As a history major I had to take my share of classes on Rome. I am just writing to say how much I appreciate your opening comment about the many versions of what we know as the Roman Empire.
I really enjoyed this answer to a question that I didn't even know I had! As far as history goes, I think that many would agree that the French Revolution was one of the most important political and social events in modern history. Is there any insight into the economy of France before and during this intense time of uncertainty? Thanks for the great content!
Last time I was this early I was being paid in salt
So was Carthago.
Problem with the concept of being paid in salt, is that it wasn't that rare... it could be easily mined in certain areas, and along the coast manufactured from the sea by boiling sea water. And for it to do it's main function: preservation of food, you need barrels and barrels of the stuff.
@@jmitterii2 Worked well for the romans in the early republic.
Last time i was this early, Ceasar was bleeding on the floor.
Last time you were this early your gf was disppointed
Brutus left the chat
Last time all of you were this early, were when i started this trend
Last time anyone was this early Adam forgot to pull out of Eve
Last time I was this early Carthage didn’t exist.
I have another Suggestion for a future vedio the Economics of the ottoman empire.
Probably will be done eventually :)
@@EconomicsExplained how about the economics of the modern urban housing affordability crisis? Would love to see you take on this global phenomenon
Long story short.
Conquest everything.
Conquest brings Pax Ottomanica on war devastated lands (until 1600s).
Eventually ballon goes bust.
Other empires manage to colonize everything else making Ottoman empire grab on global trade insignificant in contrast to before 1600s.
More bad war results.
Nationalism and bad management lead to full dissolution on 1923.
@@EconomicsExplained Is there enough information available for a look into Babylonian or Assyrian economics? As far as I know the Babylonians developed one of the earliest economic systems in the world so that would be especially fascinating.
Economics Explained: "The fun stuff that is central to any functioning economy: Taxes."
Libertarians: *internal pain*
Missed the opportunity to say that Goldman Sachs doesn't have to rely on gold in sacks nowadays.
You should do a video in the economy of medieval Venice!
there was no ancient venice. do you mean medieval venice?
dynadude oh, yeah that’s what I meant oops
I honestly think he shouldn’t if he’s just gonna do it in one video. A lot of his videos are too short for the subject he approaches. Instead of focusing on taxation during the time of the Pax Romana or something more specific, he jumps throughout the timeline of the Roman Empire and hardly ever mentions the areas that were part of the Empire like Egypt, North Africa, Spain etc.
Wich was... *A WEALTH TAX!*
Socialist : 👁👄👁
I'm gonna assume you watch MELKOR :)
@Joakim von Anka then you found out minorities will have no representative at government at all!
When he said privatized taxes I wondered how libertarians would react😂😂😂😂
Gabriel Lukkes lmao imagine getting a knock on the door and it’s Ronald McDonald collecting your taxes.
Rest in piece bro, this reply string is about to get quite toxic and political.
I think you drew a great line of scope for this video, but I wish you could have covered how the food levy system worked at the same time. Everyone talks about food levies in the ancient world, and this Roman era you discussed, but none of the details of how they worked economically. Historically, it is portrayed a bit like a UBI crossed with welfare, but I have never seen anyone discuss it economically. As food has been the root of nearly every war to some degree, it sure would be great to hear an economical perspective of how food impacts cultures :)
Correction: The 'privatized tax collection' phase actually phased out early on in the empire under the reign of the second Emperor Tiberius. The system is more associated with mid/late republic.
By far the best economics channel on youtube. Your videos make complex topics understandable to all. The true sign of a expect on the topic and a capable teacher.
6:14 you just skipped a phase called the Roman Republic. The ones who threw over the Roman Kings established this in 509 BC and this lasted till 27BC, and only then did the "Roman Empire" start.
Chinguun Erdenebadrakh and a certain salad being named after a guy who was stabbed!
@@madwolf0966 Stabbed many times, and he deserved it.
@@vylbird8014 that is debatable
@@terner1234 He came to power through a campaign of manipulation and intimidation that, even by late Republic standards, was corrupt as can be. He accumulated so many charges against him that the only way he could avoid prosecution at the end of his term was to return to Rome with an army at his side and start a civil war. In the manner of many dictators, he threatened his new 'allies' into granting him title upon title which he could use to further secure his hold and become dictator in all but title (and eventually in that too) - using his power as Censor to expel any senator who did not support him fully, and as Pontifex Maximus to schedule Senate meetings to his own convenience. He systematically replaced magestrates and tribunes through Rome with people he appointed based on their loyalty to him. So total was his destruction of the apparatus of government that, even after his assassination, it was impossible to restore the Senate to power. Julius Caesar was a great military commander, no doubt - be he was a traitor to everything it meant to be a citizen of Rome.
The best I can say in his defense is that the Republic already had extreme issues with corruption and political manipulation - if he hadn't pushed it into dictatorship, someone else may well have done so. The circumstances were ripe for it.
Superbus. 😬🚬
11:34 - not really the case, even with the trade deficit Rome suffered, the Roman mining networks produced 200 000kg of silver per year, 10 times the Abbasid Caliphate at its height and four times as much as China, not sure about India but likely the same discrepancy and irrelevant since India was not an unified faction at the time, far from it. Heck, the Roman mines in southern Iberia alone produced 9000kg of gold annually lol.
The Romans also directly took their grain from their very fertile African provinces.
we also don't know the conversion rate of roman currency to USD
@@terner1234 haha yes, Roman coin was based on, well, gold and silver it was made of lol, unlike our paper.
@@neutralfellow9736 I think when they say Indians and Chinese were richer, he meant the whole "China" and "India" regions, not the small states that composed It. China was very wealthy indeed, and considered Rome its reflex on the other side of the World, but Índia was nothing more than squabbling kingdoms and the eventual empire who would quickly crumble out of this World.
@@neutralfellow9736 Before ceaser the coins were copper and tin, ceaser wanted gold so he could put his head on it.
@@seanwalsh999 uh no dude, firstly copper and tin means bronze, just call it bronze...secondly, we have Roman silver coins as old as 5th century BC, heck, after 211 BC you have standardized denarius and sestertius, which were pure silver for 500 years til they started debasing them in the 3rd century AD.
I Remember Requesting for this vedio a few months ago Thanks.
haha well can't say I don't listen :)
@@EconomicsExplained
me too, love the idea of exploring past civilizations and see how they relate to our modern economy. Amazing video!
06:15 It went from Kingdom to Republic to Empire. Not immediately from Kingdom to Empire.
Do you mean autocracy? It was a republic and an empire at one point.
Can you do the economy of the other big boys of the time?
Ancient India and Ancient China.
Actually, of every ancient empire. Would be interesting to know.
The historical inaccuracies are making me cringe, but good content.
the one about the roman kingdom turning into a empire made me come down here
The_CrazyEyes Greek Settlement(Troy)-Kingdom-Dictator-Republic-Empire-Whatever.
Is my order somehow correct?
@@madwolf0966 I don't think dictatorship is considered is this list
@@TheCRAZYEYES1000 yep, I certainly raised an eyebrow when he said that sentence. But while the history may be questionable, the general idea is certainly plausible.
Kingdom-republic-empire?
Would love to see a vid on the Napoleonic Wars Economy
Very interesting!
Ooh, I wish you'd continue this series. An economic analysis of the Crisis of the Third Century and the reforms of Diocletian would be fascinating.
Last time I was this early, Romulus was killing Remus.
I love History and i love Economy so this video is a gift from a heaven for me. Hats down to the author.
14:05 Talking about rome
shows Greek: Ah yes sophistication
Half of the empire was Greek, half was speaking greek and most of Rome's culture and traditions as well as the pantheon were borrowed from the greeks.
Rome had Greece for hundreds of years and therefore greece was roman.
DGC Jake and the greeks from the egyptians and the egyptians from the berbers so...
@@dgc4059 I know but that was a painting of Athens from before Rome
@N K To be honest, we did get that from Rome and most democratic systems in the west were inspired by rome, none by the greeks.
Representative democracies are similar to Rome while direct democracies are similar to athens(there are 0 direct democracy countries on earth).
@@Whitetape I know that picture because it was the cover of my "The Elements"
Coinage smelter goes brrrrrrrrrr
As an ancient history nerd, this b-roll is so entertaining.
Ancient China and the beginnings of coinage is a topic you should cover!!
"it was basically a protection racket"- youtube describes taxation blatantly
Good informative video as always. I think a big part of the difficulty in comparing past economies to our modern ones is peoples use of money. Nearly every person on the planet now uses currency or money of some description but in the long story of human societies that is a very recent trend. For most of human history most people had little use for money as we know it. It is interesting that both the Romans and the Greeks used QE in response to financial crisis.
Also: “New Zealand, like Canada, Australia, with it’s limited farm land... uhhhhh might want to check those numbers
because they have very little land with a warm summer and good rainfall
Suggestion for future video: economics of slavery. You’ve mentioned slavery a few times, including this episode. I was surprised to learn (though it probably shouldn’t have been a surprise) that there were mortgages over slaves, slave backed securities etc.
No way, I've been on Roman history binge for a few weeks now and you make this! Perfection!
I've been reading about the fall of the Roman Republic, this video is timely.
"But primarily it was a protection racket. 'Pay these taxes or we will take your land away, or, well, we're the ones with the huge army"
Love how things haven't changed in over 2000 years
Remember...I'm watching you. Signed ...you know who.
America was built in the image of Rome after all
What have the Romans ever done for us?
The aqueducts and roads?
Ok but aside from that?
Peace?
Here's a good suggestion. I think you should talk about the economy of the Warhammer 40k universe. It will be interesting to talk about the stagnation of the Imperium, the growth of the Tau Empire, slave economies of the Dark Eldar etc. Orks also make a surprisingly good case study because of their "Teef".
Your video just made me think of Ancient Rome in a completely different way than ever before. Great work!
That comment about the clocks changing is gonna tilt historians. What a madlad hahahah
They did quantitative easing and they lived happily ever after. I don't think so. Let's just ignore the fall of the Roman Empire.
A very interesting thing in Rome was that they had basically universal free income in Augustus time. He often gave large money gifts to the populace. Could you make a video about how that stimulated the economy?
It didnt and basically was just a way for the emperor to assure their domination.
Smug Prout well it did but that was during the Republic mainly, during the Empire I’m not sure.
I find it interesting that finances dominate modern life but financial history is not taught by default. Nice to see a video with this perspective.
Most of school is just obedience training. Teaching finances like this would bore the 3/4 of the students that are only there because they have to be, and with the remaining 1/4 it would be as dangerous as teaching slaves to read.
Henry Ford said it similarly, “It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
Two of my favorite topics of all time have finally collided. Great video!
The average Roman citizen had much more writes, social mobility, and quality of life, at the time of Trajan, free citizens in the city of Rome had access to public baths, clean water from the aqueducts, and access to goods from Portugal to Iraq to Scotland to Egypt. Han dynasty China and Indian residents didn’t have any of the above avalible, expecaly to the average citizens
I think live in the capital of Han China at the height of its power was as prosperous as Rome during Trajans reign. The cities populations are similar atleast if that is something to go by. Han China was massive and centralized. Very comparable with Rome. If they had build their palaces with stone and marble we would have more archeological evidence of their wealth. Unfortunatly they constructed their houses out of wood.
Right? It took almost 2 millennia before another nation surpassed the per capita income of Rome. India and China did have slightly larger populations, if you counted all of the kingdoms that existed in the areas we now call India and China as a single nation for some weird reason, but their per capita income was between 1/2 and 1/3 that of Rome. There's a reason Rome lasted as long as it did.
@@ardd.c.8113 at its height many centuries later, yeah, it got pretty close, though China did not surpass Rome in per capita income until the 1990's.
A video about the economics of Ireland sounds pretty interesting 😁
Lower corporate taxes than your home country and our citizens speak English.
You forgot to mention the great Menhir Crisis under Julius Cesar, caused by a sudden influx of cheap menhirs from one small village of indomitable Gauls that still held out against the invaders, close to the fortified camps of Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum and Compendium...
I think the sources here are extremely poor due to a targeted effort by the imperial government to cover up their economic and military mismanagement in that area.
Learning about stuff like this makes the ancient world feel so much more real
I really enjoyed listening to you, a splash of modern in with the old brought it into perspective :)
IIRC Rome ruled over 1/4 or even 1/3 of the world's population, I don't think China or India were wealthier. Surely not India, which by the way was often very divided into various states. Also, some economic historians have called Rome a kind of proto-industrial society, of course you are right in saying that we are talking about mostly of an agrarian society. Finally I really don't think it makes much sense to make any analogy by citing the gdp in today $ or even the PP GDP.
Imagine a immortal roman waking up today and finding out about vertical farming or something
Rome wasn't poor. We're just freakin rich
That is why most of our facades are fake materials while theirs were real materials…
We were rich but we are becoming less rich even if more money is floating around.
It has to do with periods of sound versus unsound money - what holds value over time versus what is eroded faster forcing investments offsets that emphasize short term returns instead of longer term investment outcomes. The period of Rome success meant that investment in large public works could take many years and service countless generations like Aqueducts and Roads some of which are still operational in some capacity. In the United States we can’t even figure out repairing what we built in the 1950s onward. There is a lack of interest since our modern fiat money isn’t sound so investments shift to what can yield fastest return so it can be spent with greatest near term returns before shifting to something with greater near term growth
That was a video I've been waiting for for a long long time from any channel on RUclips. Thanks for that one EE!
I am so happy that you made that topic into a video. It gets glossed over so much.
*orchestral intro music stops*
"Aintchent Rome…"
13:40: Star Wars wasn't set in the future, it was set in the past. A long time ago in a galaxy far far away.
Ah, good 'ol Little Boots. Every time I think of Caligula it gives me hope that my lack of talent or charisma and ocassionaly bouts of insane rage won't stop me from achieving great wealth and power.
You just gave me another thing to think about when I'm learning about Roman history I appreciate the in-depth segmented by era overview. Just another thing that makes the Roman state so interesting.
Very interesting, this documentary shows how history is mostly based on images of greatness that a science such as economics must contextualize. Congratulations to the sympathetic creator.
Excellent video mate. I never knew they had divided the empire into provinces.
Also, Are you ever gonna do a video about the economic history of Argentina? That would make a very interesting video (considering how Argentina is the only country that has regressed from a developed to a developing nation over the last 80-100yrs)
DSTimelapseHD trust me you'll get a head ache how many times The Roman Empire was divided. (Before they became an Empire and during and after Byzantine times)
If you didn't know about the provincial system, you might not be into history that much anyway, but don't consider this video historically accurate apart from the economic summaries, which I think are simple, but mostly valid. The rest is historically superficial at best, so if you want to learn more about the topic, better read or watch something else.
13:05 we don't know the exact conversion rate of roman currency to USD.
also, did you just skip the roman republic, and go straight from kingdom to empire?
other than that, great video.
It’s easy to convert
How many Roman currencies can buy one bread
This is a favorite topic of mine and I love comparing it with the Parthian, Mughal, and Han Empires that dominated the Eurasian continent and included almost three-quarters of the planet's population at the time. They were all quite sophisticated. It's really interesting.
This channel is soooo precious. My favourite on youtube.