We have arrived at our final destination on the trip. The Abruzzo region, in the town of Fontecchio, where our tour guide/ professor/ translator/ friend Alessio lives! Tucked into the side of a mountain and overlooking the valley, this rustic little town has views that make the journey their very well worth it! Many of the towns in the region developed along a transhumance path centuries before, where the people relied on sheep as the main resource of the region. Due to the variability of summer and winter grazelands, the people began to practice common property farming, and the land was essentially shared among the people and allocated for each farmer on a seasonal basis to provide food for their flock and thus for their family.

We have seen examples of this common property ownership of natural resources in many places throughout Italy. Issues have arisen in recent years, with the influence of private business practices seeking control of property to reap larger profits. While exploring the countryside we saw a farmer still herding his sheep through the transhumance path, though he implemented today's technology by following the herd in his Volkswagon...

This trip has really shown me that their are other successful possibilities for sustaining both profits and long-term environmental health of a region, as long as cooperation is at the foundation of their system. It seems like an ancient practice in the U.S., but those who value traditions and legacy here in Italy have shown that it is still possible to live simply and find joy in doing things the old fashioned way, and there are many benefits of doing so.

Going to miss this country, until next time Italy!
Ciao,
Jackson Leech

Local identity, final blog.

Unfortunately it has come to an end. Such an amazing experience. This was such an amazing opportunity that we were all given and I'm so glad we all did. Econ 215, you will be missed! Italy has by far changed my views on life and has taught me many great things along the way. From learning how to be flexible with time to also getting places on time. As well as being open to many new ideas and to completely indulge into another culture I have never experienced before. Definitely a humbling study away program. 

Getting the chance to learn about the economics of the areas we went to was like a dream come true. Growing up I had always seen the history and the travel channels show Ancient Rome and walking through the streets of Venice. But to be able to actually be in these areas and to go to other places I had never even heard of before this, put me into shock. Having learned about so many different cultures and how the economics ties into all of them was fantastic. Actually getting the chance to be up close and personal with a lot of these economic projects was a great way to learn and really helped me understand how the economics played into it. 

Throughout our entire study abroad program we saw a lot of preservation of old buildings, artifacts, roads, terraces, etc. And in the last article that we presented on, we learned how preservation vs new technology can play a large role in the Abruzzo community. We all saw the damage that had been done to this region through many earthquakes, it was quite horrifying. And what was so amazing was the fact that a lot of this region had still not bounced back from the earthquakes and buildings were still in shambles. This was when the question of why don't the people in this region rebuild a lot faster but that's because they want to preserve the art and history here. To them preserving is more important and if they rebuild and find new infrastructure who's to say another earthquake won't hit again. A great example that we saw from this was going to a house where they were restoring old fresco paintings, the question of is it worth it to find all the pieces to the paintings, and who's interested in this. But to them it didn't matter they were doing what they wanted to do. It was amazing to see the dedication that these people had. Abruzzo was just one of our beautiful stops along the way and we could not be more happy that we were blessed with these opportunities, until next time Italy!

Bailey Takacs, Jackson Leech

Shared Blog(kinda): Fishing Across the Centuries in the Venice Lagoon

Sarah:

Fishing with fyke nets is popular because of it's small demand of fishermen and time. To haul in the catch only one fisherman is needed. They can haul in two point five to five kg per fyke net per day and work six to eight hours a day. Nets are sunk, recovered, and cleaned on a daily basis.

Marsh farm fishing and fishing for fish fry for rearing is an activity related to seasonal migration of juveniles that has been practiced for seven centuries. In 1500 about sixty fish farms were ordered to be destroyed because they "hinder free movement of water" and people were afraid they would "obstruct necessary waterways for port movement." Over the last century the number of fish farms has less than halved and are now condensed in only two ports. the fishing system being used has remained mostly unchanged for twenty years and the fish yield has remained stable. Initially this practice was established to supplement seasonal migration and now marsh fish farms are used for seeding and growth. This is ecologically compatible exploitation and must be managed and controlled in order to maintain stocks.

Mussel farming in "nursery parks" started in the 1930s and production grew and stayed constant for the next sixty years. However, in the last ten years it has diminished. Most mussel farming has shifted from being done in the lagoon to now most being "off-shore" in the sea. This reduction in lagoon farming may be because the lagoon permit is much more complicated to get, or because of the reduced nutrients in the lagoon. Mussel farming is now spreading to other places in Italy, keeping the average price stable.

The Caparozzoli is an Asian clam that was introduced in 1983 as an experiment and has since been a rapidly growing species. It is liked by the fishermen because of its faster growth rate, bigger size, and greater condition tolerance than native clams. The equipment used has a significant impact on the land and water. It changes the morphology and composition of sea beds as well as releasing toxins from post-war industrial activity. The damage caused is estimated to cost ten million for materials to be collected and disposed of and twenty million per year for reconstruction.

The author says that the continuous depletion of fish resources can be possibly explained by two things: The Mortality Phenomena of 2001, or the increased pressure of fishing which has grown recently due to free access and the lack of regulation of catch limits.

This article relates to what we saw in Venice in the huge fish market we got to see. We didn't get to see the fishermen's fishing equipment but it can be assumed that they used some of the tools talked about in this paper. We also walked by the canal where many of the fishermen's boats were docked with a man that helped to run the fish market. He pointed out some illegal fishing gear that was banned but still used because of lack of policing. In our article it talked about a type of rake to dig up clams that is in a similar situation, it is illegal but is still being used.

Climatic Change and Agricultural Exhaustion as Elements in the Fall of Rome.

On the economic effects of climate change the author of the article doesn't think that the exhaustion of soil was the main cause for the problems that causes the fall of Rome. He references other countries that use the same type of farming without the repletion of the soil, meaning that farming on that land could maintain indefinitely. The primary change between the climate during the reign of Rome and now is the storminess. In the past the storms were more numerous and severe. This meant more rain in end of spring and more variable weather which was important to break up the heat of summer.

The agricultural decline was due to not enough rain in late spring. Not enough rain killed forests and the lack of forests led to the soil being washed away and swamps being formed. Farmers abandoned their fields so even when the climate improved enough for good farming, the people were already discouraged. When crops stopped being worthwhile the land switched over to be used for grazing of sheep. The sheep would eat the baby trees and trample soil, keeping the land from improving enough for farming. This decline disturbed the system of taxation because taxes didn't decrease with the decreasing of income. With the provinces suffering, their discontent was an important element in the fall of Rome. "Poverty and discouragement of the many almost inevitably favor the concentration of power into the hands of the few."

The biological effect of climate change is that leaders in Ancient Rome and Greece belonged to the fair Nordic race. The climate of Italy was too sunny for blond Nordics which induces diseases and in the long run lessens the rate of reproduction. Roman's practice of bringing in slaves from different racial countries caused a gradual change in racial type of the country. Plus malaria, known in early Rome, became widespread in the 2nd century B.C. The increasing aridity of the climate increased stagnant water in swamps and slower streams which multiplied the creation of mosquitoes.

According to the author, the most important effect of climate change is the effect it had on the people. There are two types of adaptation, the first is the adaptation to light which is easier for the body to accomplish and the second is to temperature and humidity which is much more difficult. The change in climate affected the energy and ability of Romans because their bodies couldn’t adapt fast enough to the changed temperature and humidity. This happened when the most work was needed for irrigation, to overcome malaria, prevent swamps from forming, and fight barbarians.

While traveling around Italy we saw many places that were under the rule of the Roman empire before it fell. Some of these places contained land that used to be used for agriculture before the change in climate discouraged farmers and forced them to abandon their fields. In several fields we saw what the article talked about, sheep grazing on land that used to be used for agriculture. This shows that the harm caused by the initial change in climate has not been entirely reversed yet.

The Rental Market in Early Imperial Rome.

In early imperial Rome most of the residential population lived in rented apartments. Those who didn't were the especially privileged. The rent of the time was very high and while the range of accommodation did vary, the range was limited by wealth and social characteristics. The Ostian urban rental market had primarily two types of accommodation; Cenaculum and Cauponae.

Cenaculums were a higher class apartment and was made up of two sitting rooms and three bedrooms in between them. These rooms could be rented in portions to various tenants in a similar way to subleasing today. The lease would typically conclude after a year to several with the shortest being half a year. The tenant would pay at the end of the period which suggests that an element of trust was involved and implies that a degree of social status was also involved in taking a long-term lease.

The majority of Ostia's tenant population lived in mezzanines, backrooms of shops where they worked, or small one or two room flats. The poor lived in Cauponae which were made up of long rows of crudely partitioned, poorly lit cubicles. These buildings had different uses based on if they were located in the country or the city. In the country these buildings worked as inns for travelers while in cities they were for travelers, but primarily they were for poor residents. The poor residents would have had very short-term leases due to their lack of social status and unreliability of income.

The Roman rental market was economically wasteful. Entrepreneurial middlemen drove up rent, delayed-payment leases were risky for landlords and made the rich pay more, and the poor paid more because of the shortness of their lease. Regardless of this inefficiency, there was no evidence of improvement and no concept of public housing ever established. Part of the reason for this lack of change is because there was little regulation of the renting market, regardless of any hardships. The market was left to function "freely".

In Rome we explored the city a lot. While wandering around we passed houses that may have been used as rentals in early imperial Rome. Also, the contracts used in the long-term rentals were very progressive. The contracts included a warranty of continuing habitability on the part of the landlord which included circumstances that weren't within the landlord's control. This was so progressive that in the Common Law, this general warranty wasn't implied in rental contracts until 1970.

Mountain Economies of Southern Europe

The mountain areas of Southern Europe area an area primarily devoted to the pastoral activities during the pre-modern time. The area was largely dependent on animal husbandry as the primary form of economic activity. This particular work focuses on the primarily the history of this economic system and culture. This transhumance or large scale movement of livestock is first examined through a variety of methods. One of these is the examination of cultures who practice similar techniques used in pre-industrial animal husbandry. This information allows a further exploration of the subject with a less limited focus.

With the mountain economies of Southern Europe is important to understand these societies always existed on the margin. They were in each period of history considered usually inferior to other groups which lived in the lowlands. Thus the Romans who did detailed study of these peoples found them to be unimportant though they did observe the existence of markets and bartering for goods. For these areas before the industrial revolution agriculture was difficult and tended to be subsistence farming. The largely unsuitable farm land left these populations to use animal husbandry which was significantly less efficient than agriculture as it required more land and to feed a fairly small number of people.

The most successful time for transhumance which greatly benefited the people of Southern Europe was during the rule of powerful governments which could protect these large movements of livestock. Thus the Romans and from the twelfth century to the sixteenth century were the best times for this system. During the time when transhumance was possible two distinctive types existed vertical or alpine and horizontal or Mediterranean. Vertical transhumance is the movement of livestock from the valleys to the hills in summer to allow the farming of produce which will feed these animals in the winter. Horizontal transhumance is the movement of livestock from the lowlands to the hills in summer due to a lack of pasture land in the lowland areas during this time.

An important factor which effected this transhumance system was climate. Both these two previously discussed systems could exist in the Mediterranean region. Climate was a major driver in how transhumance worked in each specific area. Other factors however also have to help explain the practice of transhumance. One of such being the week agricultural economy due to war. Another being the demand for pastoral products such as wool and cheese. This entire system exists due to the limited zone of natural grassland which allowed humans to change the landscape to create this system which had necessary resources. The author concludes using this information to find the system was unnecessary and a result of a peasant economy focused on agriculture. The system was the author found more economically damaging than helpful.

Throughout our travels in the Abruzzo region the importance of transhumance and continued existence of pastoral agriculture was evident. This economic system still exists in a certain way in this area. The raising of livestock is still an important part of the lives of many of the people in the area. It is clear that despite its limitations the idea of transhumance persists.

Sheep Herding in the Abruzzo Region

Who Needs Formal Institutions to Manage the Commons? The Rural Charters in Northern Italy.

The charters used my some rural communities in Northern Italy made it costly for single members to abandon the community by establishing a specific form of property rights on the commons and making the right to return sometimes restricted. Content of the communal ownership rights locked-in peasants in a community and ensured long-term relationships. Long term relationships of insiders was not a condition that occurred naturally, it was an intended consequence of the type of property rights arrangement they chose. There was also no individual right to succession from the community. A person could leave but no claim could be made of community common resources. Individuals had the right to use common resources according to rules and could participate in shaping rules but only the group could decide to rent or sell common land or to partition it and assign parts to individual use. To do these things however, they had to have the consent of the wide majority.

In the rural charters of the Fiemme Valley community there were provisions to stop immigration and trespassing from outsiders. This was aimed to prevent free riding by outsiders. Immigration was kept under control by request of an annual fee for using Commons and the acceptance of newcomers by the community . Trespassing was illegal and appointed guards were in charge of enforcement. If trespassers were caught they had to refund the market value of what they were attempting to steal plus an added penalty. So, while catching the trespassers gave the community a benefit, the detection and conviction of the trespasser was costly to them. This forms a type of game model in which each player must determine their payoffs and their level of involvement. This would vary for the trespasser depending on their indifference curves which is why trespassing still happened regardless of the risk. The max fine was set by a political authority, the Prince of Trento.

The preference for formal over informal regulation made by the Trentino commons may have been because of the imperfect information condition. With informal regulations there would have had to be a way for the community to keep an eye on each other and keep each other notified if someone stepped out of line and broke a rule. With the technology of the time however, that would have been difficult to achieve. It is possible that formal regulations could have performed better than informal regulations on efficiency grounds but both were sub-optimal because to implement would incur cost to the community.

 While in Cavalese we also saw a lumber yard where they process the trees in the commons that are owned and cut down by the Fiemme Valley community. It is interesting to see that even after all this time they are still operating in this way without over exploiting their resources. The valley community has a limit of how many trees they can cut down based off the growth of the forest. They cannot cut down more trees than how much the forest expands each year. This has allowed their entire economy to continue running by ensuring they do not exhaust their resources.

L'Aquila The Historical Town That Was No Match For a Mild Earthquake

Article: Myths and Realities About The Recovery of L’Aquila After The Earthquake

 

On April 6th 2009, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 Mw hit the town of L’Aquila the capital city of the province Abruzzo. The earthquake's epicenter was 3.4 km south west of L’Aquila and considered to be low magnitude compared to other earthquakes worldwide. The downtown section of L’Aquila was full of old historical buildings so when the earthquake happened many buildings fell or were damaged. The total damage was estimated to be over 16 billion euros. Of the 72,800 population of L’Aquila, the earthquake injured 1,500, seriously injured 202, killed 308, and left 67,500 homeless. With over 100,000 buildings destroyed, the government decided to build 284 housing units in 19 new settlements. L’Aquila after the earthquake has been called the “Pompeii of the 21st Century” because of the amount of damage done and the slow progress it has taken to rebuild the town. 

The article compares the amount of progress the town has made in restoring its buildings from 2009 to 2012. The article mentions that it was hard to see the changes between 2009 and 2012 and mentions how rubble was still being removed even in 2012 as it was in 2009. The slowness of the recovery has been blamed on administrative and bureaucracy issues and not the construction itself. Historical buildings can take up to ten years or more to be restored which is a possible reason why the authors did not see much change from 2009 to 2012. The town of L’Aquila faces the struggle of not having a major tourism industry to help push the reconstruction to move faster.

When we visited the town of L’Aquila I was surprised to see how many of the buildings were still under major construction. It seemed like the earthquake could have happened a year ago because of the amount of construction and the progress of the buildings. We were given a private tour of a church that was in the process of being restored and the damage the church had experienced was shocking. When trying to get coffee after lunch we had a hard time finding a store that was open which led me to believe that the town had not quite recovered. Since so much of the population has moved away it can be hard for the town to sustain many businesses. It will be interesting to see in a few more years after the construction is done how many people will live in the town and how the economy will do. So many of the current jobs are tied to reconstruction so when that is all done, people will need to find work in new industries. 

Pictures are from the tour of the town and the church we went in. You can see the amount of damage that was done and how they are restoring the buildings.

The Invention of The Purgatory Doctrine

*Crystal and Chaney read the same article so see Crystal's blog for more information on this hot topic. 

The purgatory doctrine was invented in the 12th century and has no scriptural basis of origin. The Protestants rejected the doctrine in the 16th century. According to the doctrine, purgatory is another world where people who have died go before entering into heaven. They have already been forgiven for their sins, but they still need to atone for them. They have to be cleansed of their sins before they can enter heaven. This ties into the the idea of indulgences where you could pay money to have your sins forgiven or the amount of time spent in purgatory reduced. If a family member died then the family could buy indulgences so their relative could move from purgatory to heaven faster. The medieval Catholic church needed to innovate in order to gain more market position in a time when many religious ideologies challenged christianity and purgatory was one way of doing that. With the new doctrine of purgatory the Catholic church could now increase its revenues while also increasing the satisfaction of its members.

The author of the article is writing about the Catholic church as if it was simply a firm in the market of religion. The Catholic church, with its ideology of purgatory, can be compared to the business and legal proceedings of bankruptcy. When someone files for bankruptcy in the business world they are given a second change and can start over. This is similar to purgatory because now sinners have a chance to enter heaven if they died without their sins being atoned. With the new hope for sinners that purgatory brings, the price for sin now costs less and the demand curve is downward sloping. Now a church member can commit more sin and still make it into heaven and pay a cheaper price for sin. Purgatory also lowers the transaction cost to sinners with a high opportunity cost. The Catholic church was the main supplier of ideology at the time and it had a monopolistic advantage over other ideologies. They used price discrimination because the price they put on indulgences was always the member’s maximum willingness to pay. 

During our time in Rome we toured the Vatican and the Sistine chapel. Michelangelo was commissioned to paint the Sistine chapel and in his work shows a depiction of souls in purgatory waiting for their sins to be atoned before entering heaven. Also on the Vatican tour we entered into St. Peter's Basilica which is the largest Catholic basilica in the world. The basilica is full of large statues of saints and gold paintings of scenes and people from the bible. The grand scale of church took over 100 years to complete and is big enough to have the Coloseum fit inside of it. The Catholic church built it so large in order to make its visitors feel small and to show how powerful the church was. The purgatory doctrine was a way for the church to increase its market share and retain its power in the religion market. 

Pictures are from the Vatican tour and show the basilica. 

The Saepinum Inscription and Trashumance in the Abruzzi

This article is a historical interpretation of the inscriptions found on the Saepinum and what this tells us about how transhumance was regulated in the Abruzzi region. The inscription is in three parts; the first is a report form the imperial freedman Septimianus to his superior, the second is a note to the freedman Cosmos on the alleged maltreatment by the contractors of the flocks to the Prartorian Prefects, and the third is a warning letter to the magistrates of Saepinum. This collection of writings gives us a glimpse into the management of the imperial flocks and also that there was a governance of the transhumance that was most likely related to the Prartorian Prefects. One claim made from these inscriptions is that Cosmos may have been head of the bureau and that is why he was supposed to address the problem of the maltreatment. We can also see that either the sheep were lost, or the contractors weren't willing to pay as much as they had in the past which led to a decrease in the fiscus, or the personal treasury of the emperors of Rome. Historian A. Grenier argues that based on these inscriptions the imperial sheep's transhumance was done by the same shepherds as all of the other sheep in the Abruzzi region. The days we spent in Abrusso walking the ancient transhumance path gave us a little perspective on the complexities of this industry. The castles controlled by the nobility served as watchtowers to survey the land and manage transhumance. There was also a scarcity of resources which led to the common property problem and questions of privatization. 

Natural Decline of the Greeks and Romans

When I look around Italy now, it's hard for me to grasp all of the history that the land has seen. Especially in Rome where random ruins are mixed into the city, it's crazy to imagine what life was like hundreds of years ago in this area. However, this land was not all peaches and cream as it appears to me today.

The Greeks and Romans were very unaware of the damaging effects their actions were having on the environment. Deforestation and erosion were two of the biggest pitfalls of these groups of people. Most of the Mediterranean forests were removed and this led to an eventual shortage of wood with a following increase in the price of wood. Erosion led to extreme salinization of the soil which in turn forced the Greeks and Romans to plant only crops that could grow in such salty soil. Wheat was their crop of choice, but they had to begin growing barley instead which also went for a lower price. In some cases, even being smart about which crops could be planted where was of no use because the soil was plain exhausted to the point where agriculture ceased entirely in some sections of the land.

The treatment of animals in Greek and Roman civilizations was also a factor in both of their downfalls. Animals were killed in excess and sometimes for entertainment as was the case at the Collosseum in Rome. I was able to visit the Collosseum and see where the slaughterings took place. I remember being told that on one occasion, over nine thousand animals were killed in the arena. With numbers like that, it's no surprise to me that these people greatly depleted their animal populations, sometimes almost to the point of extinction. Depletion of the animals was not only for the sake of sport, however. Certain predators were killed to save crops and other animals that they were eating, but this led to staggering numbers of animals that the predators hunted, such as mice.

Pollution was also an issue that humans were largely responsible for. In those times, there was hardly any way to treat air pollution besides chimneys that dispersed noxious smoke into the air. Many harmful chemicals went untreated because of this. Water pollution from sewage and garbage in the streets led to the spread of diseases within the population.

The carelessness with which the Greeks and Romans treated their land eventually played into the decline of their civilizations. It's easy to say that they could have prevented all of this, but they did not have the technology and knowledge that we do today about the environment.

I've probably said it a million times by now, but it's true that Italy is the best place I have ever traveled to. There's no doubt in my mind that I will be back in the future and I already can't wait for that day.

Below is a picture of the Collosseum.

The Economics of Natural Disasters

After about three weeks of exploring Italy from the big city of Rome to little Fontecchio, it is clear to me that Italy is a special place. Deciding what to take a picture of here is extremely difficult because just about everything is picture-worthy. When we visited the town of L'Aquila, however, I finally didn't have this problem.

L'Aquila was hit with a huge earthquake a few years ago and suffered devastating damages. Construction workers, piles of dirt and rubble, and abandoned homes were everywhere. It was hard to find a place to get a coffee because a lot of places were closed or had moved locations.

Our article described the economics of natural disasters. Over the years, natural disasters have increased but deaths per disaster have decreased along with the number of people affected. Research has found that geography dictates the probability of a natural disaster and the effect a natural disaster will have on a region. This means that places near fault lines are most likely to have earthquakes and areas near the coast are most likely to have windstorms or tsunamis than other natural disasters. Foreign aid programs have greatly reduced the deaths that occur due to climatic natural disasters such as drought. It has been found that the GDP of a country may decrease up to 2% after a natural disaster, but an increase in new capital may help remedy this loss.

As we saw in L'Aquila, natural disasters may also force many people and businesses to relocate. Former homes were adandoned and broken into and businesses had notices on their storefronts that they had relocated due to the earthquake. The article talked about a particularly devastating natural disaster that happened in Florida where the housing prices post-disaster decreased by 19%. The effects that natural disasters have are real and terrifying.

L'Aquila is still a beautiful place even with all of the construction and ruin. All of the time and effort being put into restoring the town to its former glory is inspiring and it'd be great to visit the town again sometime in the future when it is fully restored.

-Chaney and Crystal

Below are a few pictures of the damage in the town of L'Aquila from the earthquake.

Wildlife Depletion in the Roman Empire

Hunting has long been relied on for obtaining food and the Romans were no different. Families often hunted deer, boar, and goats for food as well as a means of support. Small scale commercial hunters also supplied markets in towns. In addition to food, animals were also hunted for other purposes such as using their skin for clothing, uniforms, and costumes. During this time there was also a large demand for fish that came from all parts of the Mediterranean. The demand was so high that a commercial fishing industry emerged to keep up with the need. Another common use for animals was during warfare. Elephants were often captured, trained, and used in battle which resulted in a strain on the wild elephant population. 

Eventually, Romans became interested in using animals for entertainment. Animals that were rare and exotic were commonly used for exhibitions and some animals were even taught tricks (bears and lions). The first mock hunt was held in Rome in 186 B.C. Augustus held a mock hunt where about 3500 animals were killed. Mock hunts were popular among Romans so emperors who wanted to gain popularity held many mock hunts. In the first 100 days after the Colosseum opened, they celebrated with many events where 9000 animals were killed in total. This obviously created a large demand for animals and supported a whole industry for the hunting and transportation of exotic animals. For the most part, people didn't really object to the killing of animals because watching gladiators get killed in the Colosseum was a common occurrence as well. These practices exhausted the hunting grounds of North Africa and the Romans were well aware of it. There are still irreversible effects from the Romans such as extinction and impoverished ecosystems. 

I was very excited to visit one of Rome’s most iconic landmarks because the Colosseum is one of the things that comes to mind when I think of the city. While it is definitely amazing to see in person in its current state, it would have been even better to see its original form when it was the center of Roman entertainment. The Colosseum used to include many large elevators that were used specifically for transporting large animals to the arena floor. Around 50,000 people could fit in the Coloseum to watch the bloody battles take place. Spectators even carved pictures of the action into the stone of the building. It is hard for us to understand watching thousands of innocent exotic animals die but in Roman times there was no better form of entertainment.

Evidence for a Market Economy in the Roman Empire

There is some debate over what the economy of the early Roman Empire looked like. Some believe the Romans relied on a system of reciprocity where they tried to give the same value of goods as the value of goods they received. Others argue the Romans had a market economy (less sophisticated than today’s market economy). One indicator of a market economy is if the prices are allowed to fluctuate. In a market, prices react to things like availability and demand. Romans commonly used coins for payment which is another possible indicator of a market economy. Tenants in Rome had to pay rent and travelers had to pay for food, drink, and feed for their animals. 

The author of this article argues for the presence of a market economy in Rome during the early Roman Empire. Some evidence of a market is the use of capital markets. Both urban and agricultural loan companies existed as well as maritime loans that were very common during this time. There are also many examples of farmers selling their produce in a market. The prices were allowed to fluctuate instead of being fixed by the government. In A.D. 33 a liquidity crisis hit the area and land prices collapsed which also indicates prices fluctuated with the market. Cities located near water were more engaged in economic activity because trade was much easier for them to participate in but evidence of a market economy still exists for inland populations. While it is true that people who are engaged in economic activity are more likely to keep records, it also shows that participating in the market was a dominant activity among Rome’s literate population. These are just a few examples of how the early Roman Empire was engaged in a market economy. 

One of the most interesting sites we visited in Rome was the Roman Forum. For many hundreds of years the Roman Forum was heart and soul of the empire. Around a million people lived in Rome during the height of the empire and the main square of the Forum was a popular gathering place. Many economic exchanges likely took place in the Forum. This place was also the political center of Rome. The senate met in the Curia and likely made decisions that influenced the economy. Visiting the Forum was fascinating because it is like stepping back in time. While pretty much only rubble remains, there is enough remaining that I could picture what it must have been like over one thousand years ago. It is truly hard to fathom how old the Roman Forum actually is. 

Fontecchio, a Charming Town Among Great Mountains

Partner Blog (Charlie Mogen and Matt Macfarlane)

The Abruzzo Region of Italy is an amazing place for travel, relaxation, history, living, eating, practically everything. Within the region people can find great mountains, such as the Gran Sasso, and the remnants of a once great Transhumance. Centuries ago shepherds marched over a million sheep through these lands, grazing their sheep and other animals, which helped to provide the meat, cheese, and wool to the Roman Empire.

These sheep herders utilized the resources they had in order to survive. The area, which can be rather arid and prone to drought forced the people to turn to animal husbandry. Consequently, this sheep herder economy proved as a way of survival for centuries. My partner and I analyzed this economy extensively in an article entitled, "Tribes, Chiefs, and Transhumance- A Comparative Institution." What we found most interesting about the entire article is that there are many other places around the world that like the Abruzzo region practice Transhumance. For example, the Tuareg of West Africa, tribes within Botswana, and the Rwala of Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Saudi. Most of these tribes utilized camels rather than sheep but proved a worthy comparison to Transhumance in Italy.

This trip has been a great adventure, there have been so many things I could have never imagined happening, so many things we've seen that are indescribable, we will be back!

Manpower Costs in Building Rome

No city in the world possesses the history Rome has contained within its walls. Perhaps most amazing about Rome are the amount of ruins that are still to be discovered, buried deep beneath the city. Several times, as a class, we were able to go underground and view such ruins, which was truly an eye opening experience. As we walked through amazing buildings full of marble and gold, statues adorning kings, tombs holding popes, it became quite clear that it took thousands and thousands of workers to make these things possible, but exactly how many remained a question.

It is with this question in mind that my partner and I read an article entitled "Manpower Needs for the Public Works Programs of the Julio-Claudian Emperor's." This article attempts to answer the questions of how much work it took to build certain structures in Rome, such as the Pantheon and aqueducts. Using a complicated formula which assigns manpower units to the buildings we are able to see which projects were most time consuming (note: all of the projects looked at in this research were from 29 BC to 68 AD). Surprisingly, it became clear to the researchers that the constant maintenance and repair of the aqueducts was the most time consuming project (costing over 8000 manpower units (most temples cost on average 100 manpower units)). Overall, the authors had to make many assumptions in order to achieve the manpower unit calculation, but they do so quite successfully and convincingly.

Rome, with all it has, is quite overwhelming, but definitely a place I will return to (in fact I'll be there in four days!).

Venice, a Grande Experience

Venice is a place unlike any other we have visited in Italy, and truly was my favorite location so far (although, I seem to feel that way about every place). Our journey to get to Venice started with a multi hour bus ride through the Alps, not so bad in itself, then continued with a quick train into the central terminal of the lagoon city. Quickly after arriving in the city we got onto a water taxi, which at night was a beautiful way to get introduced to the city we would spend the next few days in, and also a reminder of how lucky we all are to be having this experience! For someone who has never been outside the US, or experienced a grand adventure, seeing the lights of Venice at night was surreal. However, our experiences while in Venice were far unlike the typical tourists, one such experience being a visit to a naval base in the heart of the city.

The night after visiting the naval base my partner and I presented an article on Venetian ships and shipbuilders of the renaissance, which covered in detail the guilds which acted as modern day unions would act in protecting and supporters workers. These guilds protected the carpenters and other workers who built, repaired, and worked with the Venetian ships. Truly, for the first time these workers had someone to back them up and assist them if they were being mistreated by the employer, a revolution for the rights of laborers.

Going to the naval base, or so called arsenal, was an eye opening experience as we were able to see exactly where these laborers created Venetian ships, as well as see the evolution of architecture of the buildings within overtime. Overall, Venice made such a great impact on me and I will definitely be back!

Brick and Mortar: Exploring the economics of building techniques at Rome and Ostia

The economics of building structures in the Roman Empire is important as it creates a greater understanding of both the structures left behind and the society which constructed these structures. One of the key building blocks of Roman construction was the so called Roman concrete which was a mortar made of volcanic sand and high quality, was a critical part of building in both and Ostia. For this particular subject the focus was on a hypothesis proposed which stated Roman concrete was more economical than ashlar. To attempt to test such a hypothesis required a series of assumptions and the Diocletian’s Price Edict. To further work with this hypothesis three quantitative exercise were established to help answer the question. First, the factors involved in building on cubic meter of concrete wall. Second, exploration of economics of two styles of brickwork building. Third, the relative cost of ashlar and concrete. With these three things established it created the opportunity to examine economics and issues.

One of the important issues which this article covered was the problem assigning value. The Diocletian’s Price Edict was one of the few documents from the Roman time period which concerns price. But, this document was from a specific period which makes it difficult to use for the centuries of Roman rule. Furthermore, early 18^th century building technique information must be used to help understand the labor costs. This difficulty in establishing price was important because the assumptions made must be useful enough to create a larger economic model which allows an actual examination of the labor costs of building concrete.

With the labor for brickwork, it was fairly dependent on the quality of brickwork. Higher quality brickwork resulted in more expensive labor costs as the process was slower and only so many bricks could be laid per day. Thus a number of structures including the Baths of Caracalla which we visited were examined to understand the amount of brickwork required to build such a structure. A formula exists which can be used to calculate the time in hours per cubic meter of brick laid down. What this information ultimately led to the conclusion regarding brickwork and labor for concrete. The conclusions were first it provided employment to the urban poor and the larger structures were a public good which could be consumed by the citizens of the empire.

The impact of materials supply and production for concrete construction was examined as well. A number of assumptions are made regarding this in order to be able to generalize this information further. The section examined the supply issues for construction of buildings depending on the material composition and location relative to sources of material. This information is used to generate charts which show the relative labor costs for different types of building construction given skilled and unskilled labor. Transportation costs are also given which creates a total which has a high estimate and a low estimate.

The cost of ashlar is also examined relative to the cost of concrete. It was first determined savings in labor costs can be made in recycling building material. Thus labor costs are significantly higher for building using ashlar and concrete is a cheaper substitute, as ashlar is still labor intensive even when recycled. This helps conclude the piece, the author’s hypothesis was found to be valid and concrete is a substitute for ashlar. There is an acknowledgment of the potential weaknesses of some of the various assumptions made throughout the work. But, for the most part these are found to be true by the author and thus the information allows an understanding of the economics of Roman construction.

This information ties in closely with what I observed in both the Baths of Caracalla and other ancient Roman ruins. It was clear to see the style of brick work and the relative costs which would be associated with each type. It was fascinating to be able to see the work of an ancient empire in this way and see the economics which existed behind the both public and private buildings.

The Baths of Caracalla in Rome

1/20/16 

We have had the best time in Rome! I loved learning about the ancient Roman Empire, it's success and downfalls more than 2000 years ago, and it's bridge with Christianity and Catholicism! It was truly shocking to visit sites from different time period in Rome's history, such as the Pantheon, the Colosseum, St Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel, all of them so well preserved throughout many centuries.

Another site that I really enjoyed seeing was Monte Testacchio, which was essentially a 3rd and 4th century garbage dump outside of the city walls! Through an article we read, and help from our guide Valeria, Bailey and I learned about the importance of what formed this "mountain" and got to share it with the group. Olive oil played such a critical role in the livelihoods of all social classes in the Roman Empire, because of its multiple uses as a food preservative, medicinal uses and as a massage oil or fragrance. It was imported from various places in S. Europe and N. Africa in gigantic clay pots called amphoras. Once it was delivered and distributed, these pots could not be used again. That is why Romans broke them and stacked them in terraces meters high over more than 3 centuries. 

Archaeologists today can look at the stamps or markings on many of these amphoras that provide a better insight on trade routes of the time, and just how far the Roman Empire reached in its prime. 

By Jackson Leech

Labor Market of Early Roman Empire,  Econ 215 takes on Rome.

After arriving to Rome the first ruin that we saw and toured was the Baths of Caracalla. An Empire funded and slave built club (for the lack of a better word that will do it justice). The Baths of Caracalla were well-constructed bathing houses, not hard to gather from the name. The size of it was unimaginable, the remaining walls from ancient times were higher than any club I've seen. While on the tour we were told of the intricate system of how the bathhouse was used including three separate pools with differing temperatures in each, in addition to the exercise areas. We were told that admission was free. The emperor was strategic here. With free admission the citizens had full access to the amenities. The over powering walls around the facility, that served so much of the community were purposefully created to give the feeling of being small. Smaller than the emperor, that is. This was a way in which the emperor created and maintained control and power over the civilians.

After seeing the picture above you can have an idea of how huge this ruins really is. But something we all were curious of was who built this. Okay I mentioned it earlier, the slaves worked and built the Baths of Caracalla but how could slaves do this? The article Labor Market of Early Roman Empire helped explain what the labor market looked liked back in Roman times.

First of all try not to let the pre-ingrained idea of what slave means coming from the United States slave trade, affect your impression of how the Roman’s used slaves. A huge difference between the slaves in the Civil War and the slaves during Roman times was the mentality of the job. Slaves in the US experienced punishment and were hardly educated. The Roman slaves were on a reward basis. This was in order to create incentives, which was a strategic way to insure quality work. Education was a huge tool used because the slaves in Rome could move up the system and build trust and create a reputation allowing them to have more responsibilities and have more skilled labor jobs. This was an important role for their job and how it was able to work so well. All this allows for the construction of such places including many other monuments, for example the Colosseum. As you can see strategy is a big part about getting what you want during the Roman times.

Financing the Colosseum


Could not have been more excited to finally get into Rome, one of the most famous cities in Italy! Also the city I have been looking forward to the most, because of it's rich history and amazing architect. I was completely satisfied with the beautiful views in Rome, from seeing my personal favorite the Colosseum, to walking through the Vatican as well as seeing the Sistine Chapel, getting to experience the largest catholic church, St. Peters Basilica, to climbing a hill filled with large broken pots called amphora to have a great view of the entire city. It was so hard not to be completely starstruck by Rome. We were able to learn so much history about the buildings that we were able to see as well as a lot of the economic statistics behind them!
As I said before, the Colosseum was my personal favorite, not only because of it being so well known, but because of the history and economics that go into it. Only seeing the Colosseum from pictures and movies it really made me humble when approaching it for the first time. It was such a large architectural design for the time which in itself is amazing to hear about. Then we dove into the economics about the Colosseum, learning how it was affordable during such early times (72-80 A.D). I had no idea how they could afford to build such a large stone amphitheater after all the things Rome had gone through, one being the massive fire, two having the hated leader Nero, and the civil war. Soon after Rome had an emperor Vespasian, he was a great leader, and his son Titus who followed after his lead also was a great leader. Through there amazing battle tactics and overpowering forces they were able to raid villages, and take over many cities to gain control of what was stated in the article as "booty". The largest gain that Titus had received was from the siege of Jerusalem, where he had destroyed and ravaged the city, while taking all the gold and silver in his path. Although this was never actually stated as the true reasoning behind the financing of the Colosseum this gave historians a good reason to believe this was how they were able to fund for it. Overall being in Rome was the best experience I have ever encountered and from what I learned while being there has made it that much more enjoyable!

   

Sin and Redemption in Rome

Rome is a city rich in history. On one of our stops yesterday, a tour guide said that anytime a hole is dug in Rome, there's something to be found. Aside from the history that is found in the ground, much can be uncovered by looking towards one of the most defining parts of Rome: the Vatican.

We visited the Vatican yesterday and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. There were so many rooms each dedicated to something different like tapestries, maps, and animal sculptures. I was most excited to see the Sistine Chapel, and it did not disappoint. Later, we saw St. Peter's Basilica which is the Catholic church to end all Catholic churches.

Our article focused on the Catholic church and its economically driven past. During the Middle Ages, the Church was losing members and therefore the revenue that those members brought to the Church. To attract more members, the Church started to preach about a new source of hope called purgatory. Purgatory is a limbo state between heaven and hell where the dead can stay and pay for their sins in the afterlife to purify their souls of all sin so they may eventually enter heaven. Before purgatory, the Church required that sins had to be repented of and paid for by good works. Now, Catholics could use money to buy indulgences to pay for sin, even the sins of the deceased to get people out of purgatory or decrease a sentence in purgatory to enter heaven as soon as possible. This new teaching increased the "market share" of the Catholic church by bringing more people to their sect. Purgatory was a smart economic move on the part of the Church because it fulfilled the demand of relatives and friends of the deceased to see their loved ones well-off in the afterlife. Over time, the Church began to sell indulgences on a very individualized basis to capture most all consumer surplus. This is called first degree price-discrimination and it allowed for people to pay at their maximum willingness.

The Catholic church became a dominant firm and a monopolist with its sale of indulgences and quickly gathered the largest following of all religions in its time. The Catholic church grew in wealth and power centuries ago and continues to have a massive membership today.

Below is a picture of the outside of the Vatican and the inside of St. Peter's Basilica.

A theoretical model of slavery?

Over the course of this trip, we have seen many historical monuments and artifacts that would have taken many years and a large amount of man power to complete. We often look at things like this and say, "it's amazing the the Romans built that!" Well they didn't. Their slaves did. The Colosseum is no exception to this. It's size and history made it one of the most incredible places I've seen in my travels. I can only imagine the thousands of slaves it must have taken in order to create such an extravagant arena.

However, there is something important to distinguish when using the word slaves. In the US, we consider the term slave to be very different than some other cultures. Really there are two types of slavery: stick slavery and carrot slavery. In the southern US we primarily saw stick slavery; that is using physical force as the only way to get slaves to work. The Romans often used carrot slavery instead. Carrot slavery involves the use of wages as incentives in order for slaves to work harder. The ultimate goal of this being that some day they could buy their freedom. These wages, although next to nothing, provided a small incentive for slaves to continue to work towards their freedom and live normal lives. This was very interesting to me as I have always thought of alavery as a purely physical abuse type of labor.

Pictures to come when I fix my computer...

Venitian Arsenal

Venitian Arsenal

On our coldest day in Venice, we all bundled up and ventured  out of our cozy hostel in order to go visit the Venitian Arsenal. The Arsenal is their Navy base. It was heavily guarded, especially do to recent global events. Although we were shown around by a women who seemed to be high up in the system, we were also constantly followed by a guard. The Arsenal was an interesting mix of historical and current setups such as old bomb shelters and current and old Navy ships.

Our article relating to this trip was about the Italian ship makers. There we're many types of ship builders, depending on the size of the project at hand. Large ships, built further inland and less frequently, are one of the rare items that are sold directly to the consumer. This is because these ships are ver capital and labor intensive. In non war times there were typically only a few ships made per year. For this reason it was easier to work with the producer of your ship rather than through middle men or merchants. Often though, in times of war, more people were higher education by ship builders in order to DRASTICALLY speed up the speed of ship production. Throughout history, the Venitian Arsenal has often demanded large amounts of ships in such times.

Pictures to come as I attempt my recently broken laptop......

The Common Property Problem

The common property problem arises when livestock are kept under individual ownership on communally owned land. With communal land ownership each individual tries to maximize his share by increasing his own livestock holding as much as he can; this leads to overstocking and degrading of the pasture. The mainstream opinion on this matter is that the solution is to privatize the land which will hopefully prevent tragedy of the commons. The common property problem assumes utility maximization by individuals rather than long term community maximization. This leaves them in need for a formal institution to regulate the land and prevent degradation by finding the optimal level of stocking.

There are two main motives for the pastoralists to continue to grow their herds exponentially. The first is related to insurance against risk. Of course there is a certain percentage of your herd that may die during a dry season or due to any kind of disease that may occur, and the more livestock that you own the less likely you are to lose them all.  The second motivation is investment related. These animals are a capital investment that can create lasting returns and will continue to grow as long you keep breeding them. Therefore, more livestock is more profitable. This constant growth model creates several issues. If there are uneven stock holdings among individual herds there are conflicts of interest that create a hostile environment and an increased stratification of wealth in the area. Also as they continue to grow, resources run out creating the "boom and bust syndrome" among this industry.

Taking a closer look at the degradation of land it is clear that collective rationality would tell the pastoralists to stop growing their individual herds to be larger than the carrying capacity of the land. Unfortunately without regulation the situation does not play out that way. During good years the available forage increases, so the herds multiply. On the contrary, when there is a drought and the available forage decreases, the herds stay at the same level because this is the time that pastoralists need the most milk produced and also are also diversifying risk through large numbers. AS technology increases and water resources become more transportable, land degradation increases even more. Now they don't even have to migrate around but can just stay in one place to save labor costs. This articles suggests that individual and collective rationality are at odds in this scenario and are at the center of the common property problem. It proves that without institutions, there cannot be common property without serious land degradation taking place.

The Edict of Diocletian

In 301 A.D. Emperor Diocletian created maximum prices for over 900 commodities as well as limits on freight weights and wages. This involved severe punishment to anyone who attempted to create a black market. To understand why it was necessary for Diocletian to create these price ceilings, we have to study the Roman currency debasement that started back in 54 A.D. Debasement happens when an empower cannot raise funds through heavy taxation or by confiscating the wealth of rivals, but rather must lower the value of the currency declining the purity of silver or gold within the coins. This type of currency debasement took place slowly from 54 A.D until 268 A.D with the percentage of silver within coins dropped from 94% to 2%. This decrease in value led to a depression of the culture and arts during these times periods as there was a real lack of a middle class. The article explains, "The task of ruling the world had been too great for Rome."

When Diocletian became emperor, he knew that the Roman economy was in danger. He started to make coins of gold, silver, and bronze which were back to the best standards of the Early Empire. However, there was not enough gold and silver available to back this strong of a currency. This led to two options: he could deflate the currency which would most likely bring down the whole civil and military government, or he could inflate the currency which would lead to a collapse. Diocletian decided instead to create the edict on maximum prices in order to prevent more of a decline in the value of their currency.

The edict was composed of a strange list that failed to include metals, iron, bronze, copper, tin, or lead, but was very specific about obscure commodities that I wouldn't think to matter. There was also peculiarly in the wages listed. These wages help us to see what type of work was the most valuable during these times and helps to paint a picture of the economic structures. These were listed in denarii communes which are a notional currency. This means that there was a given exchange rate telling how much of the currency in circulation at that time it took to equal one denarii commune.

These price ceilings are an early example of how economic institutions facilitated the growth and stability of the Roman Empire. If it wasn't for Diocletian's reform of the currency we wouldn't see nearly as much wealth and development in this region.

The Port City and Its Population: Econ 215 takes on Venice

A city made up of islands and twisting canals barely above sea level isn’t something that one would think is of high priority when creating a city. But Venice was established for many reasons despite the hindering dilemma of high tide floods and disease. The article The Port City and Its Population discusses ancient Venice’s beginning. Although the sinking city has its cons, the location in relation to other regions and nations was prime, a perfect trading port for goods from all around the world. The article mentioned how in San Marcos square goods from all around the world would be sold to people traveling from far away lands to experience the luxury of such quality goods. Our class experienced this, we spent a lot of time in San Marcos square, and something’s have indeed stayed the same. The square is lined with merchants, selling their goods to people from far a way lands. However the merchants were not selling the finest of purple silks, or greatly desired salt, but rather magnets, shot classes, key chains, and other souvenirs.

San Marcos Square

Venice differs from other big cities of its time and now. Something Venice was recognized for was their ability to create a location where you can make a prosperous living and also live there too. We see all too often in the large cities that the lower classes get pushed out by the increase in demand for in cities limits housing. A technique that Venice was able to please both sides was through parishes all around the cities. By providing apartments between the floors of large expensive houses, and other nooks throughout the city allowed for the lower class to live within the city and avoid the creation of ghettos and lower income neighborhoods.

Through Venice’s strong urban planning the city was able to provide for the rich and the poor, stand as one of the largest trading locations of that time, but also be an example to other upcoming places around the world.