Coinage-Based Economy In Ancient Rome

Late Antiquity saw a fundamental shift in the economy of the Roman Empire. Throughout this period, citizens began to increasingly rely on gold rather than land to measure this wealth. While prosperity could be achieved by all classes of society, this change in the empire’s economy greatly affected the elite. As a result of the new coinage based economy, the aristocracy gained more power both publically and privately. Beginning in the third century and continuing throughout the rest of the period, the economy became increasingly centered on money. Initially, the empire saw a rise in the importance of gold coinage when its value ceased to be linked to the worth of other metals (Banaji, 599). The economy became based on the gold solidus, allowing …show more content…
Previously, land one of the most coveted forms of wealth within the empire but as citizens began paying more of their taxes with coinage, it was more beneficial for people to keep a substantial amount of their wealth in gold. In fact, some scholars believe that the aristocracy went so far as to keep the majority of their assets as coinage rather than keep it as land (Banaji, 613). The sheer amount of coins produced in large cities speaks to the importance of coinage; “Thessalonica alone would have turned out between five and six million solidi a year under Justinian” (Banaji, 600). Of course, this reliance on monetary wealth was able to be exploited by the government. Later emperors were able to undervalue the coinage made from different metals without affecting the solidus because its value was no longer determined in relation to those coins. Banaji illustrates the problematic nature of using a stable gold currency and another, fluctuating metal in a comparison to Florence in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries: while the well-off could conduct their business in the stable gold coinage of the city, workers were paid in debased silver (Banaji, 608). Though the workers were paid the same amount of coins from day