{"title":"Capital Markets and Financial Entrepreneurs in the Roman World","authors":"Koenraad Verboven","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780198841845.003.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780198841845.003.0012","url":null,"abstract":"Modern capitalism requires institutions that provide financial capital to entrepreneurs. The need for financial capital has been inherent in capitalism since the middle ages and was equally strong for ancient commercial enterprises. The financial institutions and instruments developed in early modern Europe, however, did not exist in the Roman world. This chapter argues that we need to analyse Roman financial institutions for what they were and relate them to the levels of commerce and production they made possible. The focus is on commercial intermediaries (deposit bankers and others) who offered financial services bridging the gap between those who had money and those who needed it. Roman credit markets relied on open-access institutions. In the heartlands and hubs of the empire credit markets were thick and capital flowed easily from investors, through intermediaries, to entrepreneurs and back. But this was not true everywhere, and throughout its history, even in the areas where credit markets were thick, social networks were essential for financial transfers to be possible. Anonymous transactions through an impersonal financial market remained a marginal phenomenon because the negotiability of financial instruments did not support the development of such a market. In the absence of a central banking system with a structural lender of last resort and an interlocking network of banks, the money supply remained largely limited to the stock of metal currency. The Roman financial system was sophisticated and efficiently fulfilled the needs of estate owners, farmers, craftsmen, shippers, merchants, and retailers, but never realized a financial revolution comparable to that which gave birth to the modern banking system.","PeriodicalId":115330,"journal":{"name":"Capital, Investment, and Innovation in the Roman World","volume":"66 1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133105187","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Story of Land and Water","authors":"A. Marzano","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780198841845.003.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198841845.003.0009","url":null,"abstract":"The chapter examines the exploitation of the sea, coastal lagoons, and lakes, particularly in respect to large- and medium-scale fishing and fish processing. The first part focuses on the mechanisms by which landowners, social elites, and collective entities such as sanctuaries situated in favourable geographic locations tried to secure the exploitation of natural resources. Case studies of disputes involving a town (Histria) and a sanctuary (Artemision in Ephesus) illustrate the strategies used to protect the rights to the exploitation of nearby lagoons against claims by the publicani. The second half of the chapter turns to the question of capital availability, ownership, and organization in large- and medium-scale fishing operations. It argues that voluntary collectives (societates, collegia) offered an important solution to the problem of capital availability, since they allowed individuals to pool resources and, through patronage, to widen their social networks.","PeriodicalId":115330,"journal":{"name":"Capital, Investment, and Innovation in the Roman World","volume":"49 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128416188","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}