Excerpt:
I was reading Brooks Adams’ The Law of Civilization and Decay the other day and he mentioned something I’d never heard before. What gutted Rome during the declining years of the Empire, he wrote, was that the city didn’t manufacture anything anymore. Gentleman farming was considered the only noble occupation (the Roman version of environmentalism) and all the dirty work of manufacture was farmed out to the provinces of the Eastern Mediterranean. The provincials actually prospered during the era. Meanwhile, Rome tried to survive on conquest and taxation. Taxes were raised to brutal levels in the conquered provinces and all the money funneled back to Rome so that generals and government officials could live in luxury. Soon the Empire was over its head in debt, forced to devalue the currency, and things went downhill from there. It has a familiar ring, doesn’t it?
