How Did The Provinces Affect The Roman Economy

Learning Journal Task 8

Discuss how the provinces affected the general Roman economy.

Introduction

“Provincia,” in Latin words for a province, are any territories outside of Italy and subjected to Rome (The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 1979). Through conquest, Rome was expanded by the acquisition of provinces. These provinces provided food, taxes, metals, and other sources to Rome. In turn, the provinces were given peace and stability through garrisons of Roman soldiers and governed by governors. However, the governors of the provinces were motivated by greed and benefited their interests. Furthermore, the rise of the military complex were funded excessively, eventually, greed seeped in and military exploitation had led to a further decline in the Roman economy.

Provinces Affected the Roman Economy

Each province, ruled by governors, who were the former consuls and praetors and represented the military, administrative and judicial power of Rome. The governors were in charge of collecting taxes in their assigned province, where they would establish their monetary policy to benefit the governor’s interest through the exploitation of provinces, which became a standard (Kamm, 2009). Due to the division of provinces, the requirement of military soldiers to patrol the divided provinces as a result of an increase in their pay rate that led to the increased in military expenditures. The military funding supported from the continually raised taxes imposed on the Roman citizens. Consequently, Rome’s economy entered into a hyperinflation period, and Rome could no longer support a sustainable economy. Therefore, bribery was more pervasive, and the standard of living in the provinces were under