The Romans

What Have the Romans Ever Done For us?

Thilo R. Huning

Historical Perspectives on Economic Growth

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The Romans

What have the Romans ever done for us?

From the movie “ Life of Brian” (1979)

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The Romans

Questions of this lecture

I Were the European lucky the Romans existed?

I Because they left us so
I Technology?
I Economic Geography (Roads, Places of cities?)
I A common language?
I Institutions (Roman Law, Customs)?
I Because they failed to build an Empire?

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The Romans

Statues: A Figure of Development?

Milo (200 BC), Cologne (980 AD), Rome (1498 AD)

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Reach of the Empire

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The Roman Inheritance

I Roman Empire reached a large
geographic reach, laws and languages we
rely on to the day
I There was relative political stability, a
large market integration, some large cities
(Rome over 1 Mio.), high state of
technology in areas
I Dark Ages after Fall of Rome (500–800
AD)
I We can track e.g. track reduction in
economic activity in polar ice
I Around 1300–1400 (Horsemen?), there is
an increase in long distance trade,
urbanization, and wages. “Renaissance” 6/ 18
The Romans

What can we learn from the Limes?

Does today’s economic development have Roman roots?

I Wahl (2017) zooms into the historical border between Roman
Empire and Germanic territory and compares only a small
corridor of land left- and right from the historical border, the
Limes
I He finds that, controlling for geography and later events,
areas which ones belonged to the Roman Empire are today
richer, measured by night time light intensity
I He argues this is driven by the Roman road and city network

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What can we learn from the Limes?

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Resetting the Urban Network

I So: Are areas that had more roman roads now better off?
I Michaels and Rauch (2018) argue this is not the case.
Compare UK and France
I The French city network is more Roman than England’s
I While French roads and cities after the Fall of Rome stayed
intact, the English abandoned their Roman settlements
I When sailing the sea became of importance, the English were
settled at the coast, the French more inland
I ⇒ The Roman road network trapped the French cities in the
wrong places

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Why should an Empire be good?

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Smithian Growth

The main argument why Rome helped the economy rests on the
idea of economic growth through division of labor
I Imagine everyone had to subsist in what they can grow in
their backyard
I You cannot specialize in anything, and you would do a lot of
tasks you are bad at
I If we can trade at no costs, then we can specialize, and hence
grow until everyone does only what they are best at

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The Romans

Smithian Growth

With this line of argument, an empire may provide

I a large territory and large mass of people
I that can trade without borders and live in peace
I with the same language and institutions
I so there will be a lot of trade, division of labor, specialization,
and hence growth!

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The Roman State in Global Context

I Many view the legacy of the Roman state and its institutions
as a prerequisite for Europe’s success
I Roman Law
I Unification of formerly independent territories into one cultural
space
I Legacy of a strong state (?)
But:
I In last lectures, I have highlighted that economists view
Europe’s fragmentation as one of the key to success!

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The Romans

The Escape from Rome

Scheidel (2019) argues that the fact that Rome failed was its real
gift to Europe
I Other world regions were dominated by an Empire that did
not allow for competing institutions
I Strong territorial fragmentation, and sharing of power within:
church vs. state, cities vs. lord
I Would the horsemen have galloped within an Empire?

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The Romans

A Counterfactual

Economic historians like thinking in counterfactuals

I What if Rome never existed?
I Europe was historically very fragmented. If Rome never
existed, this would have been even more so
I It is unlikely that another (Asian/ Middle Eastern) power
conquered the whole of Europe from the outside

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Concepts of this lecture

I Smithian Growth
I Counterfactual

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Reading for Today

Read Chapter “Epilogue” from Scheidel (2019)

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References I

Michaels, Guy and Ferdinand Rauch (2018). “Resetting the urban

network: 117–2012”. In: The Economic Journal 128.608,
pp. 378–412.
Scheidel, Walter (2019). Escape from Rome: The Failure of Empire
and the Road to Prosperity. Princeton University Press.
Wahl, Fabian (2017). “Does European development have roman
roots? Evidence from the German Limes”. In: Journal of Economic
Growth 22.3, pp. 313–349.

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