A Queda de Roma

No seguimento de Marcus Tullius Cicero, Inflation and the Fall of the Roman Empire que transcreve este excelente palestra (MP3, youtube):

The size of the army .... had doubled from the time of Augustus to that of Diocletian. And the size of the civil service also increased. Now, all these events strained the fiscal resources of the state beyond its ability to sustain itself; and the ship of state was kept going, frequently by debasing, then by taxing, and then often simply by accusing people of treason and confiscating their estates.

Rome had basically a laissez-faire concept of state/economy relations. Except in emergencies, which were usually related to war, the Roman government generally followed a policy of free trade and minimal restriction on the economic activities of its population. But now under the pressure of this need to pay the troops and under the pressure of inflation, the liberty of the people began to be seriously eroded — and very rapidly.

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When people tried to get out of this they were then, by law, compelled to remain in the occupation that they were in. In other words, you couldn't change your job or your business. There was, obviously, flight from the land, massive evasion of taxes, people left their jobs, they left their homes, they left their social status. Now, Diocletian's final contribution to this continuing disaster was to issue his famous Edict on Maximum Prices, in 301 AD. This is a very famous instance of a massive effort by the government to limit inflation by price controls.

When freedom became possible in the West in the 5th century, with the barbarian invasions, people took advantage of the possibility of change. The peasantry had become totally alienated from the Roman state because they were no longer free. The business community likewise was no longer free. And the middle class of the cities was no longer free.

…. one of the reasons why the Roman state collapsed in the 5th century was that the Roman people, the mass of the population, had but one wish after being captured by the barbarians: to never again fall under the rule of the Roman bureaucracy.

In other words, the Roman state was the enemy; the barbarians were the liberators. And this undoubtedly was due to the inflation of the 3rd century.

E completando aqui, a partir de um fórum do Mises.org:

As money became debased the fiscal apparatus became more and more oppressive. According to a few historians many of the earliest coin hoards found in Europe were hidden by ordinary Roman subjects not to avoid marauding bands of Germans but to save themselves from the taxman....

We are told many people simply fled to the mountains to avoid Diocletian's merciless taxmen and many of the most fertile lands of the Empire were simply abandoned: tilled fields and lush vineyards gave way to swamps and woods. Diocletian finally threw in the towel and retired to his country palace, leaving his sons to sort out the mess he created.

In the long run, we're all dead