Capital Goods in the Roman Economy

Abstract

Research on the Roman economy and the possibility of Roman economic growth has focused on demographic structures, on market integration, on credit facilities, on technology and modes of organization, and on institutions and mentalities. A factor that has received less attention is investment in capital goods. Economists have found, however, that among all the different variables that might play a role in economic performance, investment in production equipment (tools, machinery) stimulates economic growth particularly strongly. This chapter focuses on three case studies: (1) agricultural tools, equipment, and workspaces; (2) capital goods used in riverine and maritime transport, i.e. ships and the tools and workspaces needed for shipbuilding; and (3) workspaces and tools employed in urban production and service provision. It asks who invested in these capital goods, who owned them, who produced them, and how production was organized. Most importantly, it investigates how capital goods were allocated among those who needed them, i.e. the people producing and transporting goods and services for consumption. It is concluded that, given the levels of wealth necessary to invest in the production of the types of capital goods discussed here, ownership of such capital goods would overwhelmingly have been concentrated in the hands of social and political elites, and it is argued that the social and legal ties that connected ordinary producers and distributors of consumption goods and services to these elites played a crucial role in determining the level of access they had to these capital goods.