trade, Roman
trade, RomanThe central issue for historians has long been, and remains, how to characterize properly the scale and importance of trade and commerce in the overall economy of the Roman empire. Some seek to emphasize how different, and essentially backward, the Roman economy was in comparison to the modern. They point to the Roman élite's apparent snobbish contempt for commerce (Cicero De officiis 1. 150–1). The primacy of agriculture cannot be denied, and it is noteworthy that the Roman agricultural writers, with the large landowner in mind, betray both very little interest in markets and an aversion to risk which did not inspire entrepreneurial experiments. Factories in the modern sense did not exist in the ancient world (see industry). Cities did not grow up as centres of manufacturing; far from it, they can be represented merely as...
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