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Document Details :

Title: Debt Deflationary Crisis in the Late Roman Republic
Author(s): COLLINS, Andrew , WALSH, John
Journal: Ancient Society
Volume: 45    Date: 2015   
Pages: 125-170
DOI: 10.2143/AS.45.0.3110545

Abstract :
Economic crises in the late Roman Republic and the associated problem of private debt are well known to scholars. But research has neglected a fundamentally important theory in modern economics that elucidates these issues: the theory of 'debt deflation'. This paper uses the debt deflation theory to examine the major credit and debt crises of the late Republic. We provide a summary of the modern theory of debt deflation and its relevance to the Roman economy in the 1st century BC, and then reanalyse the crises of 89-86 and 49-45 BC. It is concluded that these were 'debt deflationary' phenomena and that the modern theory sheds new light on this aspect of the late Republican economy.

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