Owns the entire Mediterranean

You are literally missing the point.

The Empire itself made money from taxes and treasury of providence wide collection, whether that was from loot, other taxes, capital gains or so on.

While the entire Empire had a economy across all it's borders, each area had it's own economy as well.

>Only north Africa, and that would've been themselves
And what is modern day Ethiopia/Sudan.
>No they fought with Persia
Not always.
>Only indirectly,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Roman_relations
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo–Roman_relations

Also themselves

The Empire owned all the land and extracted taxes from the people, but they didn't own all the farms and shops and shit like that, and different regions of the Empire traded more or less freely with one another.

Okay, so follow me here

The Britbongii tribe led by King Oiuthermeight live in northwestern Europe and they'd really like to decorate their bowls and swords and shit

The Drinknsquatoi tribe led by King Chyortblyat live in eastern Europe and have a bunch of emeralds

The Britbongii want emeralds

A trader representing the Britbongii purchases some emeralds from a trader representing the Drinknsquatoi, who then spends his money on local commodities as well as personal items, stimulating the economy of the Drinknsquatoi

The Britbongii trader returns home with his emeralds and sells them to local people to fashion into jewellery, who then sell those jewels to others, stimulating the economy of the Britbongii

Both parties are happy

BUT OH SHIT ROMANS

King Oiuthermeight is deposed and replaced by the Rector Nigelius Snootius Bongius, who now governs the Britbongii

And also, King Chyortblyat is deposed and replaced by Rector Servius Cheekus Breekus, who now governs the Drinknsquatoi

But, the Britbongii trader continues to make expeditions to the Drinknsquatoi, whose trader continues to sell him emeralds, and both continue to participate in their local economies, though now they pay their taxes to their governors rather than their kings

You have an actual moron's understanding of economics.

Shut up assfucks, you're wrong. YOU CAN'T FUCKING TRADE WITH YOURSELF get that through your damned heads

Christ you're a retard

>Britbongii
>Oiuthermeight
>Drinknsquatoi
>Chyortblyat
>Cheekus Breekus
gave me a chuckle user

>If I take a five dollar bill in my left hand, set it down, and pick it up with my right hand, have I made any money?

Depends, do your right hand needs some wine from Aquitane? Gold from northwestern Spain? A province on one end of the empire sometimes needed something that other provinces had, merchants went all around the frontiers selling stuff made in the more advanced provinces of the Empire, meanwhile the State got their money with taxes.

The reason why the Crisis of the Third Century nearly destroyed the Empire wasn't because of a new Emperor every 5 seconds but because trade just completely stopped, merchants couldn't travel anymore due to widespread violence, provinces couldn't get resources needed to sustain their towns, it was like removing the bottom wooden block of a jenga tower the size of the Burj Khalifa.

This is one of the more subtly retarded things I've seen on this board

>No they fought with Persia
Retard who thinks the world is a videogame

Wonder if ge too believes that it takes years to sail from Italy to Sardinia.

You don't need to trade if you have everything

What do you expect when their God Emperor spends a whole year screeching "TRADE IS EVUL".

We sell virtually everything we have to China.

Simple hypothetical to illustrate competitive advantages.

> A California farmer can grow 4 tons of grapes, or raise 2 cows on his farm. (Good weather, rich soil, enough water, but farms are small)
> A Texas farmer can grow 2 tons of grapes or raise 4 cows on his land. (Soil is poor, dry, but a big farm allows for lots room for grazing.
> Farmers want both wine and beef, because they taste good together
> The Cali Farmer can grow 2 tons of grapes and raise 1 cow
> The Texas farmer can grow 1 ton of grapes and raise 2 cows
> Instead of doing this, The Cali farmer grows 4 tons of grapes, the Texas farmer raises 4 cows.
> They trade 2 tons of grapes for 2 cows.
> Now the Cali farmer has 1 more cow, and the Texas farmer has 1 more ton of grapes compared if they went Juche.
> Trade made both farmers better off.

>Portus Cale
>Portugal
Holy shit

You are a retard. Money doesn't get shipped, it gets treaded, making both states richer in the process.

>that's your brain on civ 5

the state didn't trade you fucking moron.
It's not a fucking modern trading state.
It's intertrading between private merchants + government buying supplies

>implying they were constantly at war with persia

this is a reaching sardinia by boat tier thread

>I'll take mercantilism for $500 Alex

What is the Triangular Atlantic Trade?

What is the triangular atlantic trade?

>If I take a five dollar bill in my left hand, set it down, and pick it up with my right hand, have I made any money?
Read up on the scale of Paretto (if I'm spelling that right?). The fact that there are people who will trade with you what you produce means that you can produce more, and that you're less likely to unwittingly bring about a surplus. This means that you can have more people at work, which wouldn't have happened without the trade. Whether you trade with yourself or not, it doesn't matter, the economic thrives all the same.

>If I take a five dollar bill in my left hand, set it down, and pick it up with my right hand, have I made any money?
you're literally retarded

Here lad. Read up.

Unironically themselves.

>owns the entire Mediterranean
gets fucked in the ass.

Holy shit you get to vote? I'd rather enfranchise an illegal Mexican.

Roman coins have been found even here in Finland, guess they bought pelts and shieeeet

You are a fucking idiot.

My God how retareded do you need to be to reply to a clear bait thread like this one?
It has also been posted several times and you still waste your energy giving an informative answer
What the fuck Veeky Forums

you dont need an international economy.

With black africa

Independent actors within the Roman empire traded among themselves, creating value for themselves. Beyond that these actors also traded without actors outside the Roman empire such as the far east.

Good post but I assume you mean comparative advantages.

Why do you think you need outside-trade to be a stable empire? China lived in self-chosen isolation for almost 1000 years and that was China's most prosperous and culturally enriching phase. They did fall back technologically, however, which did come and bite them in their ass.

I've been here since before the Scientology thing, and I'm the last one here to say this, as 99% of them have fled the disaster scene already, but unless the mods get some balls then this site's IQ will be no higher than reddit's.

They were self-sufficient and relied heavily on slave labor

You dont understand how wealth is made. wealth is not coin. Money solely represents wealth.

If you, today turn your house into a small business or say start a youtube channel and get 500k subscribers, you have created wealth out of very little. If today you have the idea necessary to end cancer in the world, you have just made billions of dollars or tons of gold.

You people really suck at spotting bait

This tbqh. Some autists here still believe the Sicily ships user was serious

>exchanging value for value on voluntary terms is win-lose
this is advanced Marxism

Yes if california literally just gives money to texas, texas will become richer and california poorer.

Most successful bait I've ever done

Alright thanks for acting retarded for our entertainment.

The Romans sold everything to everyone. Trade isnt necessarily something the state has to organize, it happens on its own. That means that you can be sure that almost every tribe on the borders of the empire traded with the Romans. From nomads in North Africa to the Persians/ Parthians to the Britons.

put me in the reddit screenshot

Indeed, fucking autocorrect.

they traded with each other for better rates than they would have gotten if they were trading with a foreign power, that's mostly the point of owning that foreign power's stuff.

I know it's kind of a meme, but China's "Isolation Phase" lasted about 400 or so years, rather than 1000. Zheng He's voyages ended in 1433, and the doors to China were kicked open by the British in 1840 with the first Opium War.

>If you fight with someone that means you never trade with them
Retard

BUT WHO DID DA HUMIES TRADE WITH BEFORE INTERSTELLAR TRAVEL?
KYS RETARD.