Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Credit crunch, Roman-style
Sometimes, history is like a box of chocolates:
Now, however, the praetor Sempronius Gracchus, responsible for the investigation, was compelled by the numbers of potential defendants to refer the matter to the senate. That body - being implicated to a man - nervously entreated the emperor's indulgence. It was granted. Eighteen months were allowed in which all private finances had to be brought into line with the law. The result was a shortage of money. For all debts were called in simultaneously, and the numerous convictions and sales of confiscated property had concentrated currency in the Treasury and its imperially controlled branches.
Read the whole thing, and marvel at the parallel universe, two thousand years ago.
And remember, memory is not only our best defense against the next time, it is our only defense.
1 Comments:
By 
Noocyte, at
Tue Nov 18, 10:39:00 PM:
"They say history repeats itself...but they've said that before." -Norm Macdonald
Intriguing parallels. The thought occurs that there's nothing like the threat of some good old-fashioned circuses to focus the mind on where one has stashed the bread.
