The Coming of the Roman Tax Collectors, by Jeff Thomas

Keep raising taxes and eventually you’ll squeeze the life out of a nation . . . or an empire. From Jeff Thomas at internationalman.com:

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire has been written about many times over the last two millennia, most notably in Edward Gibbon’s six-volume set of books of the same name.However, one significant aspect to the decline began in the fourth century that has received little attention from those who have written on the overall subject.

At that time, an exodus occurred amongst the farmers and merchants. They abandoned the “centre of all commerce” and moved to the north, to live amongst the barbarians. At first, only a relative few departed, but, over the ensuing decades, ever-larger numbers departed Rome, until much of the class of people that actually created and traded in goods had left Rome, making its economy unsustainable.

Essentially, this is the way events unfolded:First, as the central government became more wasteful, it increasingly relied upon “bread and circuses,” or entitlements and public entertainment to placate the people. As the cost for these increased, taxes had to be raised on the productive members of society to pay the bill. This amount eventually became insufficient, as the number of recipients grew. Additionally, the government debased the currency by steadily removing silver from the denarius and replacing it with copper. But this solution was ineffectual, as it only served to create inflation, so more had to be done.

Throughout this period, the government also borrowed money whenever possible. As debt increased, more tax dollars were needed to pay for the ever-increasing interest.

With each false solution, the burden for keeping the failing system going was placed on the shoulders of the merchant class and all those who produced goods for profit. Eventually, the burden became so great that unrest became prevalent.

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