Balancing the trade : Roman cargo shipments to India

Cobb, Matthew (2015) Balancing the trade : Roman cargo shipments to India. Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 34 (2). pp. 185-203. ISSN 1468-0092

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Abstract

There has been a continuing debate about the extent to which the Roman Empire suffered an economic imbalance in its trade with India (and more broadly the East), that is to say whether in volume or value the Roman Empire imported more than it exported. This imbalance is often thought to be manifested in the export of Roman gold and silver to India and the connected notion that other goods from the Roman Empire were seen as merely items of ballast. It is the intention of this article to place this debate in a practical context by demonstrating not only the physical need for mixed cargoes on ships sailing to India, but also the negligible amount of space taken up by the gold and silver. It is argued that in terms of volume (if not value) goods in-kind were far more significant.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Rome, Trade, India
Subjects: D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D051 Ancient History
Divisions: Institutes and Academies > Institute of Education and Humanities > Academic Discipline: Humanities and Social Sciences
Depositing User: Matthew Cobb
Date Deposited: 30 Jan 2018 13:24
Last Modified: 06 Apr 2023 10:59
URI: https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/id/eprint/851

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