| 30 BC - 14 AD |
Reign of Augustus Caesar |
| Augustus reforms the Roman monetary and taxation systems issuing new, almost pure gold
and silver coins, and new brass and copper ones, and also introduces three new taxes: a
general sales tax, a land tax, and a flat-rate poll tax. |
| p 95 |
|
| c. 30 AD |
Christ drives the money changers out of the Temple in Jerusalem |
| Jesus overturns the money changers' tables (Matthew 21.12). To gentiles the practice
of money changers conducting their business in and around temples and other public
buildings would have seemed commonplace. The Greek bankers or trapezitai derived
their name from their tables just as the English word bank comes from the Italian banca
for bench or counter. |
| p 72 |
|
| 54- 68 AD |
Reign of Nero |
| Nero slightly debases the gold and silver coinages, a practice copied by some later
emperors, starting mild but prolonged inflation. |
| p 95 |
|
| 250 AD |
Silver content of Roman coins is down to 40% |
| After this level is reached inflation accelerates. |
| p 96 |
|
| 270 AD |
Silver content of Roman coins has fallen to only 4% |
|
|
| 260 - 268 AD |
Reign of Gallienus |
| During his reign there is a temporary breakdown of the Roman banking system after the
banks reject the flakes of copper produced by his mints. |
| p 97 |
|
| 270 - 275 AD |
Reign of Aurelian |
| Aurelian issues new, nearly pure coins, using gold from his eastern conquests, but
raises their nominal value by 2½ times hoping in this way to stay ahead of inflation.
However this "reform" sends inflation soaring. A rebellion by mint workers led
by Felicissimus costs Aurelian's army some 7,000 casualties. |
| p 97-98 |
|
| 284 - 305 |
Reign of Diocletian |
| Diocletian makes vigorous attempts to get to grips with the problem of inflation using
a variety of methods but these prove only partially effective at best. |
| p 100-105 |
|
| 295 |
Diocletian reforms the coinage |
| This fails to halt inflation, probably because the older coins remain in use and, in
accordance with Gresham's law, drive the good coins out of circulation. |
| p 100 |
|
| 301 |
Diocletian issues the Edict of Prices |
| The Edict introduces direct controls of prices and also wage rates. This, too, is
defeated by market forces. |
| p 101-102 |
|
| 305 |
Diocletian abdicates voluntarily |
| Although his currency reform and prices and incomes policy failed, his other reforms
of the Roman administration, including the world's first system of annual budgets, are
more successful. |
| p 102-105 |
|
| 306 - 337 |
Constantine secures control over the West then the whole Empire |
| Constantine issues a new gold coin, the Solidus, which continues to be produced in the
Eastern Roman Empire unchanged in weight or purity for the next 700 years. |
| p 105 |
| Constantine adopts Christianity and following his conversion, he confiscates the
enormous treasures amassed over the centuries in the pagan temples throughout the empire.
Consequently, unlike Diocletian, he has easily enough bullion to replace the earlier
debased gold coinage. However he continues to produce debased silver and copper coins.
Thus the poor, unlike the rich, are left with an inflation-ridden currency. |
| p 107,641 |
|
| 307 |
One pound of gold is worth 100,000 Denarii |
| The value of the denarius is only half that stipulated in Diocletian's edict of prices
6 years earlier. |
| p 107 |
|
| 324 |
One pound of gold is worth 300,000 Denarii |
| Later, in Egypt by the middle of the 4th century the denarius'value collapses
completely so that a pound of gold is worth 2,120,000,000 denarii: another early example
of runaway inflation. |
| p 107 |
|
| 410 |
Rome falls to the Visigoths |
| Banking is abandoned in western Europe and does not develop again until the time of
the Crusades. |
| p 107,111 |
|
| c. 435 |
Coins cease to be used in Britain as a medium of exchange |
| As a result of the Anglo-Saxon invasions Britain, uniquely among the former Roman
provinces, ceases to use coins as money for nearly 200 years. When they are re-introduced
from the Continent they are used initially for ornament. |
| p 117, 641 |
|
