Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T08:57:29.297Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 5 - Money Quantity and Quality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2020

Colin P. Elliott
Affiliation:
Indiana University, Bloomington
Get access

Summary

The assumptions built into the quantity theory of money severely limit its usefulness for studying the Roman monetary system if not all pre-industrial monetary systems. Quantity theory fails to account for the complexity and disaggregated nature of the Roman monetary economy. This chapter, instead, disaggregates the workings of the monetary system by considering both money quantity and quality, the spatial and temporal properties of money and, finally, money’s value as a product of the subjective preferences of individuals. Instead of assuming money is neutral, Roman economic historians can and should examine the specific channels through which money entered the Roman economy. Depending upon the location of these channels in the larger political, cultural and social matrix, as well as the amount of money distributed through them, it may be possible to understand the human responses to money supply changes in the Roman world as well as the wider effects of these changes – effects which include not only price movements and the shifts in the structure of production but also realignments in social hierarchies.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Money Quantity and Quality
  • Colin P. Elliott, Indiana University, Bloomington
  • Book: Economic Theory and the Roman Monetary Economy
  • Online publication: 03 February 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108290531.006
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Money Quantity and Quality
  • Colin P. Elliott, Indiana University, Bloomington
  • Book: Economic Theory and the Roman Monetary Economy
  • Online publication: 03 February 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108290531.006
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Money Quantity and Quality
  • Colin P. Elliott, Indiana University, Bloomington
  • Book: Economic Theory and the Roman Monetary Economy
  • Online publication: 03 February 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108290531.006
Available formats
×