The last third of the Edict, divided into 32 sections, imposed a price ceiling - a list of maxima - for well over a thousand products. Merchants were forbidden to take their goods elsewhere and charge a higher price, and transport costs could not be used as an excuse to raise prices. "The first two-thirds of the Edict doubled the value of the copper and billon coins, and set the death penalty for profiteers and speculators, who were blamed for the inflation and who were compared to the barbarian tribes attacking the empire. Prices became so high that Emperor Diocletian made a famous “ Edict on Maximum Prices” in 301 A.D.: This is an excellent video by Told In Stone on the topic.Įmperor Diocletian - (reigned 284-305 A.D.) also known for conducting the largest Roman persecution of Christians - attempted to reform the military, government and monetary system. Money creation was the only option for a declining empire. This stabilization was short lived, however, and inflation roared back stronger than ever in the empire. Emperor Aurelian, a cavalry commander from the peasant class, came to power and attempted to stabilize the money supply by guaranteeing a minimum amount of silver and printing that ratio on coins in order to build trust with the public. Eventually, the Romans minted as many as a million coins per day, driving prices ever higher in an ancient inflationary environment (sound familiar?). While debasement and inflation are not the same thing, at some point the money debased enough to cause massive inflation, and completely eroded trust in Roman coinage.
The silver content went lower and lower, making each coin less valuable over time. In the second and third centuries A.D., Roman silver mines declined in production and tax revenues could not keep up, so the Romans began to debase their currency - slowly, at first under the auspices of Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, but to levels of massive inflation by the time of Diocletian. To fund the increasing costs of the empire, e.g., a giant army, opulent orgies and bribes paid so enemies would not invade, the Romans needed to amass increasingly larger amounts of money. The denarius was the silver coin used most extensively in Ancient Rome. Long before the Federal Reserve, we saw it happen it in the decline of the Roman Empire, where even the death penalty could not prevent merchants from raising prices on goods and services. It is important to note that historically, price control mandates have never worked. To them I say: We all know very well that one hand washes the other. Pedants will point out that federal government lawmakers are proposing these controls while the Federal Reserve Board (an independent agency) is the one causing the quantitative easing. Oftentimes, it is the same centralizing authority making the price controls to reign in the inflation that it created in the first place, and today is no exception. Price control laws are nothing new and actually have precedent going back thousands of years as long as there has been inflation there have been attempts at price control.
Price control laws fix none of these they are like trying to put a really expensive band-aid onto a hemorrhage. Simply put, the reason prices are sky high is because of quantitative easing, supply chain interruptions and price manipulation on a global level. So what do price controls fix? Can they bring prices down anyway? Remember that OPEC is a cartel and cartels, by definition, exist to control the price of a commodity, e.g., crude oil, cocaine, etc. The price of oil is largely set by the global supply provided by OPEC, an entity over which U.S. Notably, when we are speaking about high prices, the conversation largely revolves around gasoline, which in turn affects the price of everything else. Unfortunately, a price control law does not address the underlying mechanisms causing prices to rise in the first place: currency debasement and its ugly brother, inflation.
For those who have faith in the government's ability to control the economy this seems like a great relief to average people everywhere. On the surface, this seems like a good idea as there is no federal law currently making price gouging illegal on a national basis.
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