Finding the Roman Empire’s Disappeared Deposit Bankers

Abstract

Sometime after the middle of the third century CE a flourishing and arguably effective deposit banking system simply disappeared from the Roman economy. This unfortunate trend should not be blamed on any intrinsic defect in the economy, Malthusian or otherwise. The blame should instead be placed on government monetary / fiscal policies that caused excessive inflation while simultaneously enforcing a legal maximum interest rate. Along the way the paper demonstrates the applicability of economic theory to the Roman economy, clarifies the problem of token vs. commodity money, and analyzes the relation between coinage debasement and inflation.

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