Commentators on the present financial crisis have noted some interesting parallels to the Great Depr [...]…

It looks like we have similar ideas on this subject….

Sure there are parallels between Rome and the US. But being a bureaucratic state is not one of them.

Rome had no bureaucracy. That’s a modern invention. (See essay in Oxford History of Rome.) The Italian provinces of the Empire were not taxed. Confiscatory taxes at sword point were extracted from the foreign provinces of the Empire. Egypt, for example, paid dearly in wheat that pacified the poor of the City.

Those who complain about US taxation should opt for an American Empire with the good sense to free its citizens from taxation while imposing it on all those countries we’ve “saved” over the years.

Rome could not and did not impose direct rule on its provinces. It relied on three things:

1) an upper class of military officers who could serve as governors of provinces. (Here, it might be useful to see Pliny, the Younger’s letters to the emperor Trajan about 110 CE.)

2) the volunteer army — enlist for 20 years, survive, retire with a native wife to a spot of land outside a nice provincial town.

3) native elites who could be brought (and bought) over to Roman service — local affairs remained local unless they impeded tax flows

Economic information, except for taxes due to Rome, was not collected. There were no organized repositories for data, no system of information classification or retrieval. Yes, indeed some state records in Rome were maintained — but these were posted (and pasted) by date on numerous papyrus rolls.

There was no economic theory available by which to guide decisions. Modern economic theory is only about 80 years old. There was no technology beyond animal, human and some water powered machinery. The wind allowed sailing without a compass and not out of the sight of land. Advanced technology is barely 60 years old —

Your simple-minded analogy fails. It’s just as well. There’s no reason to believe that we’re on the trajectory of Rome.

anti-supernaturalist

This post enabled me to come out which fresh content on exchange rates history. Any similar posts like this?…

. One notable blogging tool that does not support trackback yet is Blogger. The term is used colloquially for any kind of Linkback….

Great post. Gives me what I have been looking for…

I suppose if one wanted, one could make a map of relevant events that are roughly equivalent to today, even though such an exercise might be a little bit forced, it could be informative.

If one were to analyze the fall of Rome, and the fall of other civilizations throughout history, a timeline could be created that maps the relevant events, such as:

The creation of a state currency to supplant private currencies, the beginning of a welfare type tax abuse, the rise to power of those who promise more such welfare, loss of private property, inflation etc.

It seems that such events are similar throughout the ages. And in so far as one leads predictably and inevitably to the next, it might be possible to construct a map of the state of health of any current society. If our society is then placed somewhere on that timeline, we can see how long it took for us to get to where we are now, and then extrapolate from that the amount of time remaining before total collapse is inevitable, given the current trajectory.

Today we live in incomprehensible luxury compared to the Caesars and Pharaohs. If we only think in terms of expediency, we probably never will suffer as badly as the best of times in ancient Rome. But the point is that things are getting worse, not better.

Why should we be content to scrabble for less and less in any environment? History repeats itself in the large, but individuals can and do beat the trends to do better–or worse. What we should learn from history is the the general train of events that will affect most people, but also become savvy as to what we can do to prosper in spite of the overall decline.

The fools ignore history and are doomed to repeat it. The wise observe current events in relation to past events and predict the path of success for themselves. We have seen it all before, but we still have to decide what will happen to each of us individually. Learn the right things from history and live better for it.

“How Excessive Government Killed Ancient Rome” by Bruce Bartlett, http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cjv14n2-7.html

“The Fall of Rome: Can It Be Explained?”, edited by Mortimer Chambers; published by Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1963

“The Greek and Roman World” by W. G. Hardy’ Schenkman Publishing, 1960.

“The Twelve Caesars” by Suetonius

“The Penniless Billionaires” by Max Shapiro

“Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Why Did It Collapse?” by Donald Kagan

I also recommend works by Roman historians Tacitus, Polybius and Plutarch

A very nice outlook indeed Mr. Duncan. However, if we let the government continue on its current course, we will be in for a surprise. Income redistribution will have started with the top 5% of earners. That\’s what the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act proclaims. But as Reed points out, the Roman society started to crumble from the top down as well.

Also, the advent of increased information exchange rates will shorten the time-line that the Romans experienced. Those same channels will also hopefully allow us to thwart coercive policies that redistribute wealth before it is too late.

I don\\\’t think China will be invading us through Alaska either.

Lighten up Mr. Reed!