commodities such as grain, oil, and wine to the urban populace. Products
such as metals, building materials, and textiles came under state supervision.
The goal was to encourage and protect commerce in the hope of reversing
the downward economic trend, but the consequence was to bring bureau-
cratic regulation and dependency to the mechanism of commerce, which
aggravated the situation over the long run.
Modern historians no longer like to talk about the“fall”of the Roman
Empire as if at a given time–the two most convenient dates being 410 and
476 CE–a loud ka-boom could be heard off in the distance signaling the
collapse of the empire. The newer view is that the empire gradually transi-
tioned into something new, a process more than an event. By most indica-
tions, long-distance trade did not benefit during this process. As a growth
sector of economy, it shifted to other regions during the following centuries.
Shifting cores and peripheries in the Imperial West 83