The theme of the fall of the Roman Empire yosoyhayek has treated a few times in his blog. Read his posts with a certain skepticism about the claim that the level of economic development in the Roman Empire was higher than in Europe in the late Middle Ages. I guess it's because I have no idea who they are or Rostovtzeff Mommsen.
That skepticism has moderated this weekend. My seven-year-old is preparing a paper for school about the Roman Empire and I've helped produce their first chart in Excel - shows the per capita income in 1990 dollars of Italy and the UK according to data from Angus Maddison The freshly deceased. And to convince my best to show a chart with four Maddison data to quote me a rock I do not know. Two interesting points emerge from the graph:
(1) The per capita income in Italy fell by half between the first year and the year 1,000 AD.
(2) Even at 1,500 the United Kingdom had not reached the level of income of the Roman Empire (although Italy had done so.)
The reasons given Huerta de Soto in this class to the collapse of living in Rome seem very convincing: socialism broke the Roman Empire. I guess I'll finish reading the article in Temmin Market Processes (vol. VI, number 2) that is mentioned in the video.
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