The physical evidence
While most types of evidence from this period have disappeared by now,
there are a few that have survived, most notably pottery, coins, and
roof tiles. Evidence from the Pax Romana shows a large quantity and
wide variety of high quality pottery made on pottery wheels. Just as
significant is the wide geographic distribution of different regions’
pottery, suggesting a highly sophisticated and specialized system of
production, transportation and distribution. Apparently, people from
one province could get and afford specialized goods from the far-flung
provinces of the empire. Similarly, coinage was plentiful in gold,
silver, and bronze. The large numbers of bronze coins suggests money
was widely used even by the poor. Especially telling is the fact that a
significant number of these coins were found lying around in a casual
manner, the sign of prosperous times, as opposed to all of them being
hidden in hoards, which was typical of hard times and economic decline.
The plentiful remains of ceramic roof tiles produced elsewhere, even in
the ruins of peasant houses, is another sign of the high standard of
living and sophisticated economy of the Pax Romana.
This changed radically starting in the fifth century. Pottery remains
and coins, especially bronze ones used by the poor become scarce. There
are virtually no surviving ceramic roof tiles from this period,
suggesting the use of thatch, which can leak and harbor insects. The
question is: how did this happen?
Conditions of prosperity
First, we need to understand the sorts of conditions that made the
highly specialized and interdependent economy of the Pax Romana
possible. Overall, it relied on a combination of five factors:
- A skilled specialized labor force able to mass-produce excellent but cheap goods;
- A sophisticated network of transportation and trade to move and distribute goods;
- An imperial government that minted enough coins and maintained the roads to sustain the economy;
- An influx of money from the central government to pay the thousands
of soldiers and bureaucrats in the less developed frontier provinces,
thus tying them into the larger empire-wide economy; and
- A large and wide-spread consumer market.
Process of decay
Rome’s highly interdependent economy and trade was similar to today’s
global economy, although on a much smaller scale. Despite that
difference, its decay and collapse hold a cautionary lesson for us
today. In each case, the high degree of inter-dependence of all the
regional economies of the empire on the other regional economies
carried the danger that, if one regional economy collapsed, that
weakened the whole economy and its individual parts needing that area’s
goods and markets. That, in turn, would lead to the collapse of one or
more other regional economies, weakening the rest of the economy, and
so on. Therefore, rather than collapsing all at once, the Mediterranean
and Northwestern European economy went in stages, the northern frontier
provinces going first by 500, the western Mediterranean economy next in
the 500s, and finally the Aegean area after 600. The first region to go
was the northern frontier, especially Britain, in the 400s. This part
of the empire was the most recently civilized region of the empire,
with less deeply rooted cities than other regions around the
Mediterranean. Two major factors wrecked its economy. First of all,
being on the frontier, it bore the brunt of the violence and
destruction wrought by the Germanic invasions. Secondly, its economy
was especially dependent on the imperial government for money to pay
the legions. Therefore, as the empire declined, the government was
increasingly unable to pay its soldiers, thus undercutting the whole
regional economy as well its ability to defend the empire, further
wrecking the economy, and so on. After the final demise of the Western
Empire (c.500 C.E.,) the Western Mediterranean went into a steady
decline. Three main factors brought this about. For one thing, there
was no longer an imperial government to maintain roads and protect
trade. Also, the markets and resources the Mediterranean economy had
depended on were gone. So were any imperial revenues that helped fuel
the economy. As personal accounts from the time indicate, trade
continued during this time, but became increasingly difficult. Most
pottery found from this period was primitive compared to the wheel
thrown pots of the Pax Romana. The small number of high quality pots
suggests they were made exclusively for the rich. Similarly, bronze and
silver coinage, the mark of a broadly based consumer economy,
disappeared, while the gold coinage was crudely made compared to its
predecessors. Clearly, money based trade had taken a nosedive. Starting
in the late 500s, invasions by Slavs and Avars in the Balkans,
Persians, and then the Arab Muslims in the Eastern provinces, and the
first outbreaks of bubonic plague combined to send the economy of the
Aegean into precipitous decline. Aggravating this were two other
factors: the loss of trade and markets in the Western Mediterranean as
its economy collapsed, and the loss of taxes and revenue from Syria,
Palestine, and Egypt when they fell to the Arabs. Cities in the Balkans
and Asia Minor either disappeared or shrank dramatically in size, not
being able to recover for 200 years or more.
Aftermath of the collapse
The economic collapse of most of
the Roman Empire had several results. For the Eastern Roman, or
Byzantine, Empire difficulties continued as it bore the brunt of
successive waves of nomadic invaders to the north and constant pressure
from the Arabs to the south. However, by 750, the Byzantines had
weathered the worst of these troubles and would begin a prolonged
period of recovery and expansion. By contrast, the economy of Syria,
Palestine, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Persia prospered, since those areas
fell rapidly to the Arabs with minimal material damage and disruption
and seem to have suffered less from the Plague than the rest of the
Mediterranean. Therefore, this area entered upon a cultural golden age
that also expanded across North Africa and into Spain. Italy and the
frontier regions of the Roman Empire (Britain, Gaul, and Germany) would
experience a brief revival under the Carolingian Franks, thanks largely
to an influx of silver and trade from the Muslims via Russia and the
Baltic. However, overspending by the Caliphs in Baghdad would bring and
end to this prosperity soon after 800, triggering new rounds of raids
and invasions by the Arabs in the Mediterranean and Vikings in the
North. Political order in Western Europe would then collapse, to be
replaced by feudal anarchy for two centuries.
