Innovation and Investment in the Roman Rural Economy Through the Lens of Marzuolo (Tuscany, Italy)*

Abstract

Abstract: The presence, uptake and economic impact of innovations in the Roman world have been much debated. Not subject to debate, however, is the agency behind innovation, which is assumed to be the large, elite landowner. Evidence of experimentation at the rural terra sigillata production site of Marzuolo (Tuscany, Italy) does not fit dominant models of external investment in the Roman world and challenges the directionality of innovation. Instead, this article makes the case that experimentation at Marzuolo was driven by intensification on the part of local smallholders, but was curbed by a lack of capital investment. A later, scaled-up terra sigillata production phase at the same site, linked to infrastructural investments, shows predatory investment behaviour by a landowner who appropriated a tried and tested facility. Recasting innovation as an open-ended process of trial and error that is centred on human capital development, labour and relations of production, changes the terms of study of the Roman economy and aligns it with broader conversations in economic history.