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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;EWC3, post: 4194147, member: 93416&quot;]Thanks. This seems to me strong on passion and imagination, but short on detail. You cite a Peter Temin book, and Temin seems mostly interested in prices. Concerning plague and prices, I make three points:</p><p><br /></p><p>1) Fundamentally, there are less hands to work the field, but also, fewer mouths to feed, pointing towards a null effect.</p><p><br /></p><p>2) As you say there might be psychological effects, also dislocations. But set against that, there would no longer be a need to cultivate infertile marginal lands. Again these contrary consequences tend to cancel out</p><p><br /></p><p>3) rather wild fluctuations of grain prices were entirely normal in the pre-modern world, certainly due to effects of weather on the harvest, and probably exacerbated by speculation in many cases. So its not clear why a short term variation, adjusting to a new normal, would necessarily have long term monetary effects.</p><p><br /></p><p>Seems to me, like almost all the economists I read, Temin is whistling in the dark. We just do not have the facts on Ancient/Roman events to write with such confidence</p><p><br /></p><p>Rob T</p><p><br /></p><p>PS Peter Temin wrote criticising Moses Finley in December 2012. By chance, I did the same in 2013. Our approaches were very different. My own point was that Finley was clearly a propagandist for a particular 20th century ideology&nbsp; (see p. 13 ff in the below). This argument between Temin and Finley seems to me really a conflict in 20th century ideology. Historical fact was its victim.</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.academia.edu/356701/Gyges_Magic_Ring_The_Origin_of_Coinages_and_Open_Societies" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.academia.edu/356701/Gyges_Magic_Ring_The_Origin_of_Coinages_and_Open_Societies" rel="nofollow">https://www.academia.edu/356701/Gyges_Magic_Ring_The_Origin_of_Coinages_and_Open_Societies</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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