Roman Economy/Currency

Why did the Roman Economy seem to boom and bust so randomly?

Any good books on the topic?

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>Why did the Roman Economy seem to boom and bust so randomly?
They didn't worship the one, true God of Israel and his begotten son Jesus Christ

I've heard that the Government's income was based on conquest, so once they projected their influence far out enough they didn't have the strength to spread out further and protect themselves from barbarians. Sort of like how you need more and more energy to make a rocket go faster, instead of just getting an instant +1 mph per gallon of fuel.

I guess Rome couldn't get to lightspeed - world domination - on time.

>so randomly

On the contrary, the reasons were mostly more straightforward than they are in modern times, e.g. a plague, or barbarians disrupting trade.

I suppose I misspoke.
Often or just why it happened at all might have been a better way to phrase it.

And more to the point, it was a slave economy. Once they stopped conquering land and bringing in new slaves it was hard for the economy to cope with, considering that near the end of the empire the richest patrician families owned huge amounts of land and a ton of slaves in a near-feudal system. The Roman empire got fucked because of the elites, just like the United States will eventually succumb to greed.

>You will never have a gold coin from your favorite Emporer's reign

...

I want a coin from under Majorian but those are expensive too

Oy vey actually took these pics today

...

Thesee are neat. I wanna make my own coins.

Plenty of articles:

ccny-cuny.academia.edu/MorrisSilver/

"Imperial overstretch" is mostly a meme.

>imply any of this asspulling is legit

The mints were run by cunts who debased the purity of the metal, making trade very hard. No trade means less industrialization, so they'd simply mint more coins. The Romans did not know about inflation.

There's a reason the west fell and the east didn't.

The east had more shit in a much more compact area.

Inflation is a meme. It doesn't really exist. This is especially true in an economy where all cash is made of metal.

This is bait right? No one actually believes this?

I'm out.

I've always wondered how Romans managed to produce such crude coinage while being so autistic about engineering and aesthetics that many of their structures have survived outdoors for thousands of years and are widely considered to be priceless works of art to boot.

Their coinage wasn't really crude until much later...

A lebanese friend of mine found a Constantine coin on the beach, it's pretty common here apparently because the authority don't mind getting those historical treasures.

I've got an Antonianus coin from Diocletian's reign. I like to think the worthless piece of shit copper coin represents his attempts to save the Roman economy after the Third Century Crisis, even if they were horribly misguided.

Anyone know a trust worthy place to buy some Roman coins?

A lot of people scatter those about to fuck with tourists. You sure your friend didn't find him some bullshit?