CAIO MARIO: ROME 2100 YEARS AGO

In the year 646, after the foundation of Rome, under the consulate of Cayó Mario, there was a change of criteria regarding public expenditure and the census of its citizens.

Here, we will highlight the most significant decisions:

(1) The free distribution of wheat to the poorest urban classes was decided, which initially had a laudable purpose, but soon became a source of vote buying and corruption.

(2) It was decided to change the conditions necessary to access Roman citizenship. In this way, the so-called “capite censi”, who already lived in Roman territory, became recruitable citizens for the army, who previously were contributed by landowners, now became employees of the state to which they had to return the amount of their military equipment. However, later, they received a payment, equipment, and maintenance from the State’s public money. Faced with these economic advantages, the “capite censi” abandoned agricultural and livestock production, which began to decline.

(3) As a result of the two previous measures, the population of the city of Rome and its surroundings increased and it was necessary to invest more public money in building aqueducts and ports to bring water and food to the citizens.

All these measures involved a large public expense, which was not compensated by income, and which was initially covered by the minting of gold coins from state reserves.

After a few years of expansionary monetary policy, gold reserves ran out and, far from slowing down, the state began to produce coins with other metals, giving them a false fiduciary value by coating them with a thin layer of gold.

Meanwhile, spending continued to increase, agricultural production declined, public works failed due to corruption, and, as a consequence, the need to import wheat increased.

More population, less production, more coins without gold backing and the increase in the costs of carrying grain to Rome caused what we would now call inflation since finally the real value of Roman coins was adjusted to something tangible, the availability of goods produced. Thus, the decompensation between lower production and greater quantity of coins produced their devaluation and the increase in prices. The latter was attributed, by the different governments of Cayo Mario, to external events such as the wars against Numida, Cimbri and Italics.

And once this point was reached, a chain of events began: food price raised, poor population increased, applicants for state subsidies, both poor and rich, increased, and, finally, the economic failure of Rome at the end of the first quarter of the first century AC occurred.

At Veterinaria Digital we believe that agricultural and livestock production should be respected and encouraged, avoiding the adoption of economic measures based, too often, on ideological fundamentalism or political clientelism, which end up preventing the development of the productive sector, although later the problem of inflation, the increase in the price of products, the increase in poverty… is attributed to external causes, as happened in Rome between the years 646 and 671 after its foundation.