Les interventions du pouvoir dans les domaines économiques au ive siècle

Abstract

While historiography long described the Late Roman state as an authoritarian and dirigiste institution that suffocated a very weak private economy, it is now possible to revise this old theory. New excavations and research on papyri and epigraphical data allow us to stress the continuity and even, in some regions, a strong revival of trade and agricultural and manufacturing production in the fourth century. While it is doubtful that Roman power had any real economic policy, it is a fact that late Roman power played a major role in creating new economic frameworks. Through their public, fiscal, monetary and budgetary policies, the emperors shaped late Roman society and contributed to the transfer of wealth from certain social groups to others, thus provoking the emergence of new economic actors; we will measure the effects of administrative reforms on economic life and trade, in particular the effects of Aurelian’s reforms on the Annona and the regionalization of the praetorian prefectures on commercial circuits. Finally, we will look at the emperor and his administration as actors in economic life.

Keywords

• Public
• Fiscal
• Monetary and Budgetary Policies
• Aurelian Reforms
• State Property
• Economic Agents