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Roman commerce was a major sector of the Roman economy during the later generations of the Roman Republic and throughout most of the Roman Empire. Fashions and trends in historiography and in popular culture have tended to neglect the economic basis of the empire in favor of the lingua franca of Latin and the exploits of the Roman legions. The language and the legions were supported by trade and were part of its backbone. The Romans were businessmen, and the longevity of their empire was caused by their commercial trade.
Whereas in theory members of the Roman Senate and their sons were restricted when engaging in trade,Livy, The History of Rome 21.63 the members of the equestrian order were involved in businesses despite their upper-class values, which laid the emphasis on military pursuits and leisure activities. Plebs and freedmen held shop or manned stalls at markets, and vast numbers of slaves did most of the hard work. The slaves were themselves also the subject of commercial transactions. Probably because of their high proportion in society compared to that in Classical Greece, the reality of runaways, and the Servile Wars and minor uprisings, they gave a distinct flavor to Roman commerce.
The intricate, complex, and extensive accounting of Roman trade was conducted with counting boards and the Roman abacus. The abacus, which used Roman numerals, was ideally suited to the counting of Roman currency and tallying of Roman measures.
The Mercatores were usually Plebs or freedmen. They were present in all the open-air markets or covered shops, manning stalls or hawking goods by the side of the road. They were also present near Roman military camps during campaigns. They sold food and clothing to the soldiers and paid cash for any booty coming from military activities.
There is some information on the economy of Roman Palestine from Jewish sources of around the 3rd century AD. Itinerant pedlars ( rochel) took spices and perfumes to the rural population. This suggests that the economic benefits of the Empire did reach, at least, the upper levels of the peasantry.
By the 1st century, the provinces of the Roman Empire were trading huge volumes of commodities to one another via sea routes. There was an increasing tendency for specialization, particularly in manufacturing, agriculture and mining. Some provinces specialized in producing certain types of goods, such as grain in Roman Egypt and North Africa and wine and olive oil in Italy, Hispania, and Greece.
Knowledge of the Roman economy is extremely patchy. The vast bulk of traded goods, being agricultural, normally leave no direct remains. Very exceptionally, as at Berenice, there is evidence of long-distance trade in black pepper, , , stone pine cones, , , and besides the more expected , and dates. The wine, olive oil and garum (fermented fish sauce) trades were exceptional in leaving behind. There is a single reference of the Syrian export of kipi stiff Quince cheese or marmalade to Rome.
Bulky, low-value commodities, like grain and construction materials, were traded only by sea routes, since the cost of sea transportation was sixty times lower than land. Staple goods and commodities like cereals for making bread and papyrus scrolls for book production were imported from Ptolemaic Egypt to Italy in a continuous fashion.
The trade over the Indian Ocean blossomed in the 1st and 2nd century AD. The sailors made use of the monsoon to cross the ocean from the ports of Berenice, Leukos LimenYoung, Gary K. - "Rome's Eastern Trade: International Commerce and Imperial Policy 31 BC - AD 305" - Ed. Routledge, (2003) , 9781134547937 p. 35-48 and Myos Hormos on the Red Sea coast of Roman Egypt to the ports of Muziris and Nelkynda in the Malabar Coast. The main trading partners in southern India were the Tamils dynasties of the Pandyas, Chola dynasty and Chera dynasty. Many Roman artifacts have been found in India; for example, at the archaeological site of Arikamedu, in Puducherry. Meticulous descriptions of the ports and items of trade around the Indian Ocean can be found in the Greek work Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (see article on Indo-Roman trade).
A fairly standard and fairly stable and abundant currency, at least up to circa 200 AD, did much to facilitate trade. (Egypt had its own currency in this period and some provincial cities also issued their own coins.)
The trade over the Indian Ocean blossomed in the 1st and 2nd century AD. The sailors made use of the monsoon to cross the ocean from the ports of Berenice, Leulos Limen and Myos Hormos on the Red Sea coast of Roman Egypt to the ports of Muziris and Nelkynda on the Malabar coast. The main trading partners in southern India were the Tamil people of the Pandyan Dynasty, Chola dynasty and Chera dynasty. Meticulous descriptions of the ports and items of trade around the Indian Ocean can be found in the Greek Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. In Latin texts, the term Indians ( Indi) designated all Asians, Indian and beyond.
The main articles imported from India were spices such as pepper, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, sandal wood and gems such as pearls, rubies, diamonds, emeralds and ivory. In exchange the Romans traded silver and gold. Hoards of Roman coins have been found in southern India during the history of Roman-India trade. Roman objects have been found in India in the seaside port city of Arikamedu, which was one of the trade centers.John Haywood (2025). 076071973X, Barnes & Noble Books. 076071973X
Pomponius Mela argued for the existence of Northeast Passage through the northward strait out of the Caspian Sea (which in Antiquity was usually thought to be open to Oceanus in the north). Book III, Chapter 5 , copied by Pliny the Elder.
Despite two other Roman embassies recorded in Chinese sources for the 3rd century and several more by the later Byzantine Empire (Chinese language: 拂菻; Pinyin: Fú lǐn), only sixteen Roman coins from the reigns of Tiberius (14–37 AD) to Aurelian (270–275 AD) have been found in China at Xi'an that pre-date the greater amount of Eastern Roman (i.e., Byzantine) coins from the 4th century onwards.Warwick Ball (2016), Rome in the East: Transformation of an Empire, 2nd edition, London & New York: Routledge, , p. 154.The following source, although printed in 2012, is outdated compared to Ball (2016: 154) in regards to the Principate-era coins found at Xi'an: Valerie Hansen (2012), The Silk Road: A New History, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp 97-98, . Yet this is also dwarfed by the amount of Roman coins found in India, which would suggest that this was the region where the Romans purchased most of their Chinese silk. For that matter, the spice trade remained more important to the Roman economy than the silk one.Warwick Ball (2016), Rome in the East: Transformation of an Empire, 2nd edition, London & New York: Routledge, , pp 154, 156.
From the 3rd century a Chinese text, the Weilüe, describes the products of the Roman Empire and the routes to it.
Senators were still allowed to own and make use of ships under the size restriction, Cato when advising where to build a farm specifically mentions to have it built near an accessible river, road or port to allow transport of goodsCato De.Agr 1.3 which is in direct conflict to Livy's assertion that all profit made through trade by a senator was dishonorable.21.63.3-4 Senators often utilized free and enslaved agents as a loophole to legal restrictions, thereby allowing themselves to diversify their sources of income.John H. D’Arms, Commerce and Social Standing in Ancient Rome, Harvard University Press, 1981, chapter 3
That is not to say that the acquisition of wealth was not to be desired, Pliny notes that a Roman man should by honorable means acquire a large fortunePliny NH 7.140 and Polybius draws a comparison between the attitudes of Carthage and Rome towards profit from trade.6.56.1-3) Thus starts the confusion in the role of the elite in trade as Terence writes that there is nothing wrong with large scale trade; it is in fact completely honorable and legitimate to import large quantities of product from around the world especially if it happens to lead to a successful trader buying land and investing in Roman agriculture; what is dishonorable is trade on a small scale.Terrence 151 Small trade is again shown as vulgar by Tacitus as he describes the involvement of Sempronius Gracchus in petty trade.Tacitus annas 4.13.2
Cato himself was involved with trade, although he himself cautioned against it as it was a risky occupation,de.Agr. Praefatio perhaps this was part of the reasoning to keep senators excluded from the trade business, as if they had a severe misfortune with trading they could fall below the financial threshold of being a senator, whereas comparatively land owning was a far safer investment. Plutarch describes Cato's involvement in trade in great detail, depicting how he would use a proxy (a freedman by the name of Quintio) to run his business through a group of fifty other men.Plutarch Cato the Elder 21.5ff
The restriction on senators trading was itself passed initially through the tribune of the plebeians, a class of people who the restrictions would not apply to. It is suspected that this reform could have been the equites and other wealthy merchants trying to muscle the senators out from the rapidly expanding trade business.
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