Why the Roman Empire perished: the government issued money indiscriminately and prices soared.
I have been idle these two days, thinking about the past and looking at Edward through the history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon wrote the glory of Rome with a huge pen and deeply reflected on the decline and fall of the empire. Speaking of the decline of the Roman empire, people often attribute it to the emperor's belligerence and fighting everywhere; Noble extravagance and waste, corruption; Even businessmen drive up prices and disrupt the market. Of course, these gradually eroded the glory of ancient Rome, making its demise inevitable, but an extremely important reason for the decline of the ancient Roman empire? Inflation, but few people understand it. In fact, it was inflation that plunged the Roman Empire into the abyss of collapse. There was no paper money in ancient Rome, only gold coins and silver coins were used. In 59 BC, Caesar served as the consul of ancient Rome. In 50 BC, Caesar began to issue the gold coin "An Rales" with high purity. The stable currency made the Roman Empire prosperous and all walks of life developed greatly. From 50 BC to 50 AD, the economy and military of the Roman Empire were in full swing, and a stable currency contributed greatly. All empires want to expand abroad when they have money. Ancient Rome started with looting, and of course it is even more difficult to be an exception. Expansion means war, so huge military expenditure has become a heavy burden for the imperial government; In addition, the management of the new provinces needs administrative expenses, and the nobles have to spend a lot of money and money. In order to win the hearts of the people, the emperor often asked them to eat two free lunches. Government spending is getting bigger and bigger, and pockets are getting smaller and smaller. As a result, the imperial government naturally embarked on the road of spamming money. Without paper money, of course, the imperial government could not print paper money and distribute money indiscriminately, but it had its own way? Reduce the fineness of gold and silver coins. In AD 150, the gold content of the Roman Empire's currency was only two thousandths of that of Caesar's time, and by AD 300, it was only one thousandth of that of 60 million. The imperial government used less and less gold and silver, cast more and more money, and money naturally became less and less valuable. Almost at the same time, people's rations? The price of wheat has risen 200 times. Various currency-related speculative activities are also emerging one after another. Wages were unstable, prices soared, the commercial ties between the Roman Empire and the outside world were almost cut off, domestic commodity exchange almost returned to the state of barter, businessmen returned to their hometown in the countryside, and the city was in depression. At this point, the empire is not far from collapse.