Economics of the Roman Empire

690 Words3 Pages
Ancient Rome consisted of a vast area of land, with many natural and human-built resources. Because of this, Rome's economy benefited greatly. In addition, production of a variety of items was crucial for a strong economic empire. The economy of the early Republic was largely based on paid labor. However, by the late Republic, the economy was largely dependent on slave labor. Also, Rome had a very well organized system of money. Lastly, Infrastructure was huge in the Romans’ ability to trade and move efficiently throughout the empire as well. The economics of any strong empire were based on three simple components: production, distribution, and consumption. The Romans were especially successful in building an economically sound empire. As one would think, production is the first step in the process of making a profit. The Romans had a large variety of items that they produced. Examples include iron, lead, leather, marble, olive oil, perfumes, purple dye, silk, silver, spices, timber, tin and wine. They were able to produce most of these items due to their large range of labor, from slave farmers to wealthy merchants. But also, some of their products were influenced from other cultures inside the empire, such as olives and wine from the Greeks. Romans also had the advantage of obtaining products such as milk and cheese from their domesticated animals, such as cows and goats. The saying, “all roads did lead to Rome,” is correct in the sense that Rome is located centrally in terms of trade. Having all of these brilliant items in their arsenal was crucial to Roman trade; however, it would mean nothing if they could not get them to their destinations. An astonishing component of the Roman Empire was infrastructure and ultimately their ability to distribute. The development of infrastructure set the empire apart from the others and proved to be useful in trade. The
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