[Teaser] Roman Inflation

Due to popular demand and because it's kind of relevant, I am pleased to give you all a snippet of the rough draft for our upcoming ROMAN INFLATION documentary (premiering soon). Enjoy!

Before we’re able to answer the question of how the Romans dealt with inflation, it’s important to first understand the history of Rome’s currency, how metals were sourced, and the emergence of the denarius as the most significant reform to the Roman monetary system.

The Romans entered the monetary system later than their Greek neighbors, only producing their own currency in the late 4th century BC. Like other civilizations, the Romans used their coins as both a way to trade precious metals and as a way to set a value to goods. Before coins were introduced, the Roman economy was largely based on a bartering system where folks exchanged goods and services, such as livestock.

While the early Romans did not mint coinage of their own, they did have a system of currency based on bronze weights known as the aes rude [ACE ROO-day]. These rather large chunks of raw bronze that were incredibly impractical for long-term use. That's no exaggeration either: one surviving aes rude weighs about 324 g - almost a pound of bronze. Despite their unwieldiness, they continued to be produced up to 218 BC.

As the Romans expanded over central Italy, war booty meant coins could be produced using precious metals: bronze, silver, and - rarely - gold. From the aes rude, four other coin types were introduced: cast bronze ingots known as aes signatum [ACE sig-NA-tum], coined silver and bronze, and cast heavy bronze discs known as the aes grave [ACE GRA-way].

Initially, the aes signatum replaced the aes rude. These ingots were slightly more practical and aesthetic, and were cast with the inscription "Romano." There was no base weight standard for them - they were simply stamped bars of bronze, weighing anywhere from a pound and a half to over 10 pounds. The first Roman silver coins, meanwhile, were produced in Neapolis and they closely resembled Greek coinage. These copies of the Greek didrachm [dee-DRAKM] are called the quadrigatus today, a reference to the four-horse chariot of Victory on the reverse side. It was originally struck at 93% purity. Over time, the silver purity increased until it essentially became pure silver at 98%.

Finally, the aes grave were heavy bronze disks that weighed about one Roman pound. These were a slight evolution from the aes signatum - they were vaguely coin shaped - but just as impractical. With each coin being about the size of a human palm, they were still a better measure for metal trading than for coinage. Both the aes signatum and aes grave were cast in the city of Rome itself, and both were mainstays of the Roman world. While silver coins were infinitely more practical, Rome simply did not have any silver mines. No silver mines meant that any silver had to come either from plundering or from outside trade. In theory, this could work. In practice, it was a delicately balanced system that could not withstand any real pressure.