Lecture: Inflation and the Roman Empire

[Narukami]

This link is to a transcript of lecture on Inflation and the "Fall" of the Roman Empire delivered in 1984 in Houston, Texas by Professor Joseph Peden.

Members of our Forum might find it of interest.

http://mises.org/story/3663

:wink:

Narukami

[Epictetus]

Thanks, David, that's a good one. I was recently looking for something like this to try and pin down actual inflation rates during different time periods.

In Diocletian's time, in the year 301, he fixed the price at 50,000 denarii for one pound of gold. Ten years later it had risen to 120,000. In 324, 23 years after it was 50,000, it was now 300,000. In 337, the year of Constantine's death, a pound of gold brought 20,000,000 denarii.

According to this, inflation was running at about an 18% annual rate during the first part of the fourth century. While not exactly hyperinflation, I can still understand how this could be crippling.