The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean: The Ancient World Economy & the Kingdoms of Africa, Arabia & India by Raoul McLaughlin (PDF)

Description

This study of ancient Roman shipping and trade across continents reveals the Roman Empire’s far-reaching impact in the ancient world. In ancient times, large fleets of Roman merchant ships set sail from Egypt on voyages across the Indian Ocean. They sailed from Roman ports on the Red Sea to distant kingdoms on the east coast of Africa and southern Arabia. Many continued their voyages across the ocean to trade with the rich kingdoms of ancient India. Along these routes, the Roman Empire traded bullion for valuable goods, including exotic African products, Arabian incense, and eastern spices. This book examines Roman commerce with Indian kingdoms from the Indus region to the Tamil lands. It investigates contacts between the Roman Empire and powerful African kingdoms, including the Nilotic regime that ruled Meroe and the rising Axumite Realm. Further chapters explore Roman dealings with the Arab kingdoms of southern Arabia, including the Saba-Himyarites and the Hadramaut Regime, which sent caravans along the incense trail to the ancient rock-carved city of Petra. The first book to bring these subjects together in a single comprehensive study, The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean reveals Rome’s impact on the ancient world and explains how international trade funded the legions that maintained imperial rule.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Being an historian of East-West Interactions, I had previously only dealt with the time of the Portuguese-Dutch-English trading efforts in Asia. This book was purchased to explore that history of that trade: when did it start? What was the duration? Why did it end? This book did not disappoint in providing those answers.The beginning of this book, at least with the first read, was more difficult than desired…I would have appreciated a map in order to orient myself better.Most importantly, the historical parallels are readily apparent. The Roman Empire suffered from the same problem that the British Empire later dealt with. Export of their material wealth to Asia in return for luxury items that only Asia could offer the West. In the case of India it was Aromatics and Spices (Spices could be argued as the reason why America was discovered and the Trade being the reason why it was later populated!) In the case of the British Empire it was for Tea.To stop this mass exodus of silver from the West to the East, the Roman Empire and the Han Empire had to deal with the Antoine virus, which brought both of those Empires to their knees. The loss of the “Mandate of Heaven” led to the destruction of the Han Dynasty, and the loss of military power led to the incursion of the Germanic tribes and the fall of the Western Roman Empire.For the British Empire it was exporting opium to China and then starting a war when the Chinese resisted.Overall, a good book with some interesting sights

⭐While this book provides a welcomed insight into the far-reaching economy of the Roman Empire, I do have some issues with it. My major concern is with how McLaughlin arrived at his estimate for the empire’s revenues. He uses “snapshot” data to determine yearly revenue for the first two hundred years of the empire. By “snapshot” I mean that the author picks pieces of data from disparate points in time and regions in the empire and assumes that this data applies across the empire for two hundred years. I find this highly questionable. He then goes on to state that the 25% tax on imports made up one-third of the empire’s revenue. However, with the figures for the tax income from other sources being so tenuous, this statement is also questionable.Regardless of these issues, the book contains a great deal of valuable information. The author details Roman trade across the Mediterranean to Egypt, Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan, India, Indonesia, and even China (to use the modern names). He also clearly explicates the huge trade imbalance that existed between the empire and eastern kingdoms. Roman society coveted the spices, incenses, jewels, and ivory available in the East, but the empire had no comparable goods valued by eastern kingdoms except silver and gold. This meant that bullion was constantly drained from the empire, a situation that was only tenable as long as the mines were operating and/or new sources could be discovered. He then details how this very fragile arrangement was destroyed by the fifteen-year Antonine Plague. The plague not only decimated the Roman Empire (one-third or more of the population and legionaries may have died or been permanently incapacitated), but threw the entire trade system into chaos. Kingdom after kingdom in the East fell and the Roman Empire was invaded by “barbarians” who were not as severely affected by the plague.The modern world tends to believe that it created global trade in the 18th century. As McLaughlin shows, the Roman Empire had a robust trade system that encompassed Europe, Africa from the Horn north, and a great deal of Asia. The variety of goods and the lengths empire merchants went to obtain them, is truly staggering. And the fragility of the system should make us consider our own economic systems since our economies are even more interconnected.

⭐You can study history through many different lenses to focus on different aspects of what happened. Author McLaughlin goes into great detail about the economics of the Roman Empire, using a mix of hard economic data and anecdotes. He talks about both the big picture of how Rome worked as an empire, and how individual Romans lived. That’s the best of both worlds. We’re given a reason to care about why the big picture mattered without getting bogged down in minor points about how “those guys really loved pepper”. The focus here is on the first and second centuries CE, the peak of trade.The book gets a little repetitive at times. But parts of it read like an adventure story! We get to see how Roman traders explored farther and farther into the Indian Ocean, and what they thought about the specific ports they established or made contact with. For instance, what was it like being a caravan guard riding east of the Nile: what were you guarding, where did you rest, who was funding it, what kind of equipment did you have? This book covers that sort of question while explaining why it all mattered. We see Roman trade and luxury at their height, and then why and how it went wrong.I read this book while actually visiting Pompeii and Rome, so it helped give me a feel for how people actually lived in these dusty ruins I was looking at. Great work.

⭐This book is about a highly specialised subject, and is probably too detailed for anyone wanting a quick intro to Roman trade beyond its frontiers. Having said that, as a renegade classicist I found it extremely interesting. The huge number of citations in the footnotes is probably an indication of its mutation from thesis to book, but with the Kindle mode of handling footnotes they are not intrusiveIt could be argued that there are rather too many repetitions, as he discusses the relationships of the Romans with the various eastern regimes, but this does mean that it is possible to pick out any chapter for study without having to read all the preceding ones. Also, it would be helpful if more of the key locations mentioned in the text were marked up on the maps.I’d never given much thought to the trade and commerce of the Roman Empire with its neighbours before, and I was astonished at the extent of the Roman commercial penetration beyond the Red Sea. On that basis, it is a very readable and comprehensive book – and much more than an introduction to the subject. It demands, and deserves, a significant effort to engage with it.

⭐For anyone interested in the expansion of the Roman Empire, this is a must. India became vital as a means of adding value to Roman gold and silver resources, which were shipped as bullion across the Indian Ocean to purchase exotic goods for sale at great profit within the Mediterranean – even as far as distant Britannia. On top of this were the all-important customs duties. This government income paid for the Roman army in its role of expanding and defending the empire. Packed full of facts and statistics, this book makes a fascinating read.

⭐A fascinating overview of Roman Empire contacts with Asia. These were much more extensive than is generally known,and the author does an excellent job fitting them into the greater picture of Roman trade and imperial finances. Slightly marred by the odd factual error and misspelling, as well as by a lot of repetition, but still an excellent and fascinating read.

⭐This book is fascinating and frustrating because all those monks hard at work never copied any data filled sources, just literary sources! Finally I am given an idea of how the ancient economy operated, what were the sources of income, how was trade conducted. McLaughlin has written a good thesis and has polished it into an easily readable book.

⭐Utterly fascinating. Full of wonderful detail, with extra detail, of what went to and fro and why people wanted them. I thought I knew something about this period and of Roman trade but I found that I knew next to nothing. The whole astonishing Roman Eastern trade system with its marvellous organisation was also something new to me. Wonderful book. Any down sides? Could have done with a bit of editing but so does everything.

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