36 THE ROMAN EMPIRE
production and distribution of goods. There were no state factories, no state
merchant fl eets, and although the emperor’s landed possessions steadily
grew as property was confi scated, legated or simply left vacant, the resources
required by the state came in the main not from the imperial properties but
as tax from the provincial population.
A fi scal policy was needed, though not an elaborate one. The nature of the
tax system that evolved in the early empire refl ects the restricted purposes it
was intended to serve: it was unstandardized, undersupervised and it underwent
little change.^3 Thus the diversity of local procedure that was a hallmark of the
Republican taxation system – so that for example the main direct tax ( tributum )
was paid by Spaniards in the form of a lump sum and by Sicilians as a quota
of produce (a tithe) – did not disappear under the Principate. It remained the
Roman custom where possible to follow the practices established by the
previous rulers in any particular area, whether Carthaginians, Seleucids or
Ptolemies. Emperors instituted regular provincial censuses, gradually phased
out the Republican system of letting out contracts to private companies for the
collection of direct (and later indirect) taxes, and in general raised taxes more
effectively than any Republican government had done, and from a much larger
empire. But these developments were not part of any drive for administrative
uniformity such as might be associated with bureaucratic government.
If the government’s fi scal policy was only rudimentary, it is not clear that
it can be said to have had a regular monetary policy at all.^4 When faced with
fi nancial emergency or simply a pressing need for more cash, the central
authorities tended to fall back on another solution, the debasement of the
coinage. It is diffi cult to accept that emperors and offi cials, their attention
fi xed on the short- term advantages of debasement, appreciated the long-
term consequences. They possessed only a limited empirical understanding
of economic concepts and the working of the economy.
Central and provincial administration
There were around forty provinces in the Roman empire governed by a thin
spread of centrally appointed offi cials. The proconsul of Africa stood over a
vast expanse of territory comprising much of modern Libya, Tunisia and
eastern Algeria, while his counterpart in the province of Asia governed the
western coast of Turkey plus a substantial tract of land in the interior. Each
offi cial was assigned a single junior senatorial magistrate with fi nancial
responsibilities (quaestor). He took with him an advisory panel of friends or
protégés (including one or more senatorial legates as potential deputies) and
a small staff of minor offi cials of low rank (freedmen or slaves).
Government under the Republic was by proconsuls, ex- magistrates of
senior standing (praetors or consuls) appointed by lot by the senate.
Augustus took responsibility himself for those provinces where a continuous
military presence was required, and entrusted them to offi cials appointed by