Money, the State and crisis in the third-century Roman Empire
The political, economic and social transformations of the so-called 'Crisis of the Third Century' appear to have combined to form a watershed moment in the history of the Roman empire, if not western civilisation in general. In particular, the period's dramatic coinage debasement has been roughly, if not at times self-evidently, correlated with catastrophic economic consequences, most notably price inflation. Apart from the numismatic evidence, the dearth of empirical data has not dissuaded scholars from pursuing quantitative studies of the period. These efforts often rely heavily on positivism in general and the models and assumptions of neoclassical economics more specifically. However, positivism as a rule produces conclusions which are never proven and correlations without firm causal relationships. Thus ancient economic historians are engaged in a seemingly perpetual debate over both the causes and effects of a third-century crisis. This thesis argues that quantification is both unhelpful and impossible in this particular case. Instead, a comparative approach is employed which, rather than comparing historical periods, contrasts the factual with the counter-factual. In questioning why price inflation
Elliott, Colin Peter
Money, the State and crisis in the third-century Roman Empire. The political, economic and social transformations of the so-called 'Crisis of the Third Century' appear to have combined to form a watershed moment in the history of the Roman empire, if not western civilisation in general. In particular, the period's dramatic coinage debasement has been roughly, if not at times self-evidently, correlated with catastrophic economic consequences, most notably price inflation. Apart from the numismatic evidence, the dearth of empirical data has not dissuaded scholars from pursuing quantitative studies of the period. These efforts often rely heavily on positivism in general and the models and assumptions of neoclassical economics more specifically. However, positivism as a rule produces conclusions which are never proven and correlations without firm causal relationships. Thus ancient economic historians are engaged in a seemingly perpetual debate over both the causes and effects of a third-century crisis. This thesis argues that quantification is both unhelpful and impossible in this particular case. Instead, a comparative approach is employed which, rather than comparing historical periods, contrasts the factual with the counter-factual. In questioning why price inflation
money state crisis third_century roman_empire political_economic social_transformation so_called crisis third_century appear combine form watershed moment history roman_empire western_civilisation general particular period dramatic coinage roughly time self evidently correlate catastrophic economic consequence notably price inflation apart numismatic_evidence dearth empirical_data scholar pursue quantitative_study period effort often rely_heavily positivism general model assumption neoclassical economics specifically however positivism rule produce conclusion never prove correlation without firm causal_relationship thus ancient economic_historian engage seemingly perpetual debate cause_effect third_century crisis argues quantification unhelpful impossible particular_case instead comparative employ rather compare historical_period contrast factual counter factual question price inflation