Lecture 33: In the course of conquering the Persian Empire, Alexander and his successors promoted coins, cities, and trade that created a new economic order. In 334 B.C., Darius III had in his treasuries stockpiled gold and silver specie estimated a…
Lecture 33: In the course of conquering the Persian Empire, Alexander and his successors promoted coins, cities, and trade that created a new economic order. In 334 B.C., Darius III had in his treasuries stockpiled gold and silver specie estimated as between 300,000 and 350,000 talents, and vast bulk was seized by Alexander and coined in the next 10 years.
The economic impact of the conquests of Alexander the Great have been debated since the publication of the three volume work of Michael Rostovzteff, stressing the development of trade expansion in the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C. Furthermore, this economi unity was far more important than the political fragmenting of Alexander’s empire, because it was the foundation for a common cultural and social unity. All of that trade generated enormous amounts of hard currency; goods were traded and exchanged and ultimately coin money was necessary in order to buy and sell these goods, and that monetized markets. The taxes collected on this long-distance trade by the Macedonian kings were extremely lucrative.
Coins put into circulation by royal soldiers, officials, and contractors stimulated markets. In turn, consumers and vendors alike paid ever more taxes in coin, and royal expenditure then returned the coins to circulation. Banking, credit, and trade rose with the expansion of the money supply. Explorers who mapped the Caspian and Arabian Seas or the routes of Central Asia were followed by ever more caravans and merchant fleets meeting market demand for spices and silks. At the end of the 2nd century B.C., the navigator Hippalus learned how to navigate by use of the monsoon winds, and so opened the Erythraean Sea–the Red Sea and Indian Ocean–to commerce between Ptolemaic Egypt and India. As the unintended economic consequence of Alexander’s conquests, the Hellenistic world attained unprecedented prosperity, and so became the coveted prize in the eyes of
Rome’s commanders and legionaries.
Lecture 34: https://www.bitchute.com/video/N6XRDb2URfCp/
