How did inflation effect Rome?

Answer 1

Inflation:

Especially luxurious emperors like Commodus depleted the imperial coffers. By the time of his assassination, the Empire had almost no money left.

Money could be acquired by taxation or by finding new sources of wealth, like land, but the Empire had reached its furthest limits by the time of Trajan.

Nero and other emperors debased the currency in order to supply a demand for more coins. By debasing the currency is meant that instead of a coin having its own intrinsic value, it became representative of the silver or gold it had once contained. By the time of Claudius II Gothicus (268-270 A.D.) the amount of silver in a supposedly silver denarius was only .02%.

This led to or was severe inflation, depending on how you define inflation.

Land:

Rome's wealth was originally in land, but this gave way to wealth through taxation.

The Cato Institute says that emperors deliberately overtaxed the senatorial (or ruling) class in order to render it powerless. To do this, the emperors needed a powerful set of enforcers -- the imperial guard.

Once the wealthy and powerful were no longer either rich or powerful, the poor had to pay the bills of the state. These bills included the payment of the imperial guard and the military troops at the empire's borders.

"Feudalism":

Since the military and the imperial guard were absolutely essential, taxpayers had to be compelled to produce their pay. Workers had to be tied to their land.

To escape the burden of tax, some small landowners sold themselves into slavery, since slaves didn't have to pay tax and freedom from taxes was more desirable than personal liberty. Since the Empire wasn't making money from the slaves, the Emperor Valens (368) declared it illegal to sell oneself into slavery.

The small landowner had become a feudal serf.

Answer 2

1. The disappearance of money.
2. The decline of trade.
3. The control of the government over economic welfare.
4. The decrease in value of the coin.
5. Laws that bound people to the same jobs.

Answer 3

1st) The disappearance of money

2nd) The decline of trade

3rd) The control of the government over economic welfare

4th) the decrease in value of coin

5th) And laws that bound people to the same jobs

Answer 4

The weak economy meant fewer taxes were paid. With less money coming in, the Roman government could not afford to defend its territories and had to find a way to pay its soldiers and officials.

Answer 5

The hyperinflation of the third century BC was caused by continued debasement (reduction in the precious metal content) of the Roman gold and silver coins. This devalued the coins. Several emperors had done this as a means to increase the amount of coins they could have to pay for increases in public expenditure, especially increases military expenses due to increases in the size of the army and the pay of soldiers. Eventually, the coins hardly had any precious metal content and were not worth anything. Although there were too many coins being minted, there were hardly any in circulation as people hoarded the older coins because the newer one were worth less.