ABSTRACT
Throughout the period covered by this history, most wealth in the Roman empire was held in the form of land, and it was traditional agriculture which brought an income to most of its inhabitants. Nonetheless, this period also witnessed, alongside such long-established modes of production, a marked increase in economic activity in many places, and this must be explained at least in part by the unification of the Mediterranean region with much of Europe as a trading area protected by the Roman peace. Quite how this was achieved has been much debated in recent years, with claims either that the redistribution of goods was mostly limited to gift exchange, with high-level trade restricted to luxuries, or that production and exchange were governed by a market economy driven by professionals in pursuit of profit. In fact, the economy of the empire seems to have had aspects in common with both models. Thus intensification of agriculture and manufacturing processes in many parts of the Roman world in the late Republic and early empire were fuelled by the market economy and its demand for new products, but these trends existed in tandem with the agricultural subsistence economy which was the way of life for the vast majority of the empire's inhabitants. 1
