Ownership and Exploitation of Land and Natural Resources in the Roman World

Ownership and Exploitation of Land and Natural Resources in the Roman World

 

Edited by Paul Erdkamp, Koenraad Verboven, and Arjan Zuiderhoek

Oxford Studies on the Roman Economy, Oxford University Press, 2015.

 

Explanation of the success and failure of the Roman economy is one of the most important problems in economic history. As an economic system capable of sustaining high production and consumption levels, it was unparalleled until the early modern period.

This volume focuses on how the institutional structure of the Roman Empire affected economic performance both positively and negatively. An international range of contributors offers a variety of approaches that together enhance our understanding of how different ownership rights and various modes of organization and exploitation facilitated or prevented the use of land and natural resources in the production process.

Relying on a large array of resources literary, legal, epigraphic, papyrological, numismatic, and archaeological chapters address key questions regarding the foundations of the Roman Empire's economic system. Questions of growth, concentration and legal status of property (private, public, or imperial), the role of the state, content and limitations of rights of ownership, water rights and management, exploitation of indigenous populations, and many more receive new and original analyses that make this book a significant step forward to understanding what made the economic achievements of the Roman empire possible.

For more information, and to order, see the OUP Catalogue.

 

 

1: Introduction: Land and Natural Resources in the Roman World in Historiographical and Theoretical Perspective

Arjan Zuiderhoek

2: Agriculture, Division of Labour, and the Paths to Economic Growth

Paul Erdkamp

Part I: Ownership and Control
3: Landed Wealth in the Long Term: Patterns, Possibilities, Evidence

Kyle Harper

4: The Development of Imperial Property

Elio Lo Cascio

5: Imperial Wealth in Roman Egypt: The Julio-Claudian ousiai

Laurens Tacoma

6: Property Rights over Land and Economic Growth in the Roman Empire

Dennis Kehoe

7: Ownership and Control: Property Rights and Insitutional Arrangements

Éva Jakab

8: Water Use and Productivity in Roman Agriculture: Selling, Sharing, Servitudes

Christer Bruun

9: Control and Management of Water in Ostrogothic Italy

Yuri A. Marano

Part II: Organization and Modes of Exploitation
10: The Nature of the Villa Economy

Alessandro Launaro

11: The Variety of Villa Production: From Agriculture to Aquaculture

Annalisa Marzano

12: The African Boom: The Origins of Economic Growth in Roman North Africa

Matthew S. Hobson

13: The Local Economy of Palmyra: Organizing Agriculture in an Oasis Environment

Julia Hoffmann-Salz

14: Changes in Animal Husbandry as a Consequence of Changing Social and Economic Patterns: Zooarchaeological Evidence from the Roman Mediterranean Context

Michael MacKinnon

Part III: Exploitation and Processing
15: Salt in Asia Minor: An Outline of Roman Authority Interest in the Resource

Isabella Tsigarida

16: Imperial Quarries and the Emperor

Alfred M. Hirt

17: The Mining, Minting, and Obtaining of Gold in the Roman Empire

Fernando López Sánchez

 
Conclusions
 
Erdkamp et al - Ownership and Exploitation