Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/97475 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
Queen's Economics Department Working Paper No. 1313
Publisher: 
Queen's University, Department of Economics, Kingston (Ontario)
Abstract: 
We set out a simple four sector macro model of the economy of the Roman Empire during a period of considerable economic prosperity. Our focus is on gold coins as currency and the seignorage which the government used to fund its activities. We solve numerically for a balanced growth representation of the economy of the empire, a solution that captures the intricacies of money creation, currency expansion and seignorage. We subscribe to the view that the exhaustion of low-cost gold and silver deposits contributed significantly to the ending of the economic prosperity enjoyed by Roman Italy and its provinces during the so-called Pax Romana (31 BC to 165 CE) and we attempt to capture significant shifts in variables during the decline.
Subjects: 
Roman money supply
gold coinage
money during Pax Romana
JEL: 
E40
E10
N10
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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