A large number of references I've read over the years have described one of the critical problems for the roman empire historically as the high cost of transporting goods, particularly food, by road. Hence it cost as much to move grain 75 miles as it did to move it across the whole Mediterranean, and this make trade hard to develop, limited the inland economies and made towns heavily dependent on a small radius around them for food unless they were by the coast.
However, I've never quite understood 2 things:
1) Why was the cost so high for land based transport? One slave, one cart, one oxen to pull it, a few tonnes of grain in the cart; surely that wouldn't be that expensive?
And 2) How this relates to the Medieval periods, i.e. post-Rome. Were costs lower in later years, and if so why? The romans had good roads, so I can only assume that it was some other factor that was dictating the issue. Alternatively did Medieval Europe have the same problem?
Anyone who can help answer these or has anything additional to say, thanks in advance.
Bookmarks