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THE HISTORY OF BANKS es and joined the mob in Rome. taxes. Because of usury there were 25 Consequently, laws were passed prohibit- _ pieces of silver owed for each piece of sil- ing men from leaving their occupations. ver in existence, To make good the short- Declining Birth Rate fall of government taxes in these condi- tions was to seek min. If the Curiales did- n't have the required tax on due date, they had to borrow the needed tax money into iu ty af ate — existence themselves. Men refused to had swept the heartland of Rome clear of Serve. Curiales had to be appointed. A Romans. Tombstones show that 90% of Commentator on this period, in a complete the population bore non-Roman names or andary over how the 10-for-11 system had names that had been ‘Romanised’. WO0rks, made the following comment: Due also to voluntary childlessness, of “Yet there was still plenty of money 400 families of senators under Nero all about, and thanks to a highly developed trace is lost a generation later.” banking system, loans were available at a rate of interest which rarely exceeded 6%. North Africa than there were in Italy, The writer obviously did not understand Lack of money caused Rome to resort to ‘hat at this time the Romans were so heav- force to collect tax levies. The imperial iy in debt that it made absolutely no dif- cities were assessed taxes and the shortfall ference whether rates were 100% or 1%. was made up by “Curiales"—officehold- The borrower would have equal difficulty ers in charge. In former days this office in qualifying for a loan or having any was much sought after. After the imperial Chance whatsoever of repaying the loan if tax quota was filled, whatever was left once obtained. over could be kept by these tax collectors. The rich bought up land to form estates. Now it was impossible to collect the need- As early as 367 BC laws had to be passed ed tax quotas, much less hope for 'surplus' limiting the acreage owned by the wealthy Next, since money was so hard to come by and expenses were so high, there was a There were more Romans in Gaul and es and joined the mob in Rome. Consequently, laws were passed prohibit- ing men from leaving their occupations. Continued from page 31 had taken over the borrowing fonction from the: native Romans. _ A bankrupt man is a debt-free man, so the bankrupt Roman mob was placed on the welfare lists—the dole. With this gov- ermment handout the recipients could buy goods on credit worth many times the amount of the ‘dole’. As long as mer- chants received payments, both debtors and creditors were happy and the money credit supply expanded—benefiting everyone. Roman Taxes The dole helped the mob to increase the money supply. This was good, but the dole money had to come from somewhere, since the central government did not bor- row. It came from increased taxes farmed out to ‘the provinces’. This made the taxes on surviving merchants and farmers heav- ier than before. At this stage a number of things started happening. First, it was so difficult to make money and pay taxes that men quit their business- The rich bought up land to form estates. As early as 367 BC laws had to be passed limiting the acreage owned by the wealthy 66¢NEXUS AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 1993