Capital, Investment, And Innovation In The Roman World (oxford Studies On The Roman Economy)

"Investment in capital, both physical and financial, and innovation in its uses are often considered the linchpin of modern economic growth, while credit and credit markets now seem to determine the wealth - as well as the fate - of nations. Yet was it always thus? The Roman economy was large, complex, and sophisticated, but in terms of its structural properties did it look anything like the economies we know and are familiar with today? Through consideration of the allocation and uses of capital and credit and the role of innovation in the Roman world, the individual essays comprising this volume go straight to the heart of the matter, exploring such questions as how capital in its various forms was generated, allocated, and employed in the Roman economy; whether the Romans had markets for capital goods and credit; and whether investment in capital led to innovation and productivity growth. Their authors consider multiple aspects of capital use in agriculture, water management, trade, and urban production, and of credit provision, finance, and human capital, covering different periods of Roman history and ranging geographically across Italy and elsewhere in the Roman world. Utilizing many different types of written and archaeological evidence, and employing a range of modern theoretical perspectives and methodologies, the contributors, an expert international team of historians and archaeologists, have produced the first book-length contribution to focus exclusively on (physical and financial) capital in the Roman world; a volume that is aimed not only at specialists in the field, but also at economic historians and archaeologists specializing in other periods and places." (web del editor) Title_Pages List_of_Figures List_of_Tables List_of_Abbreviations List_of_Contributors Introduction Population_Technology_and_Economic_Growth_in_the_Roman_World Innovations_and_Uses_of_Wealth_in_Archaic_Rome_and_Latium_Late_Eighth_to_Early_Fourth_Century_BC Capital_Goods_in_the_Roman_Economy Roman_WaterPowerChronological_Trends_and_Geographical_Spread The_Archaeological_Perception_of_Capital_and_its_Transformations_in_Urban_Occupations Funding_IrrigationBetween_Individual_and_Collective_Investments Impensae_operae_and_the_pastio_villaticaThe_Evaluation_of_New_Venture_Investments_in_the_Roman_Agricultural_Treatises A_Story_of_Land_and_WaterControl_Capital_and_Investment_in_LargeScale_Fishing_and_FishSalting_Operations Invention_Tinkering_or_TransferInnovation_in_Oil_and_Wine_Presses_in_the_Roman_Empire Labouring_for_GodThe_Clergy_and_Human_Capital_in_the_Later_Roman_Empire Capital_Markets_and_Financial_Entrepreneurs_in_the_Roman_World Capital_and_Investment_in_the_Campanian_Tablets Credit_and_Financial_Capital_in_Roman_Egypt Temples_and_Traders_in_Palmyra Index Investment in capital and innovation in its uses are often considered the linchpin of modern economic growth, but has this always been so? This volume aims to shed new light on the ancient Roman economy in the first book-length contribution focusing on the allocation and uses of capital and credit and the role of innovation in the Roman world. Edited By Paul Erdkamp [and Two Others]. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Electronic Reproduction. Oxford Available Via World Wide Web.