Economy

Difference Between Rome and British Economies

While the land of Britain is similar to Italy with both being extremely hilly, its location provides a unique issue to the Roman way of life. Due to it being located so far north than most of the Roman world, the Romans could not grow most of the crops it heavily relied on for survival. Grapes and olives would not be able to grow at all in the British climate and crops like wheat and other grains are restrained to stricter growing seasons due to the cold of northern winters. To counteract these developments, those living in Roman Britain relied heavily on trade with the mainland empire and domesticated animals for its food. Trade of domestic animals and the heavy reliance on them was much more common in Roman Britain than the mainland which, because it has less of a need to heavily rely on them due to better growing conditions, would need far less animals per person than up north. Below is evidence of this with high concentrations of domesticated animal remains spread across multiple sites all across Britain.

Reliance on Trade

The Romans relied heavily on trading resources throughout the empire to ensure that their governmenmts and troops would not lack any necessary resources required to keep order. While the expansion into Britain provided access to a great deal of resources, its distance would prove to cause a bit of struggle in this normal process. Where it would once take a week or two to reach most ports based in the Mediterranian, it would now take a full thirty days in the best conditions to reach the port of Londonium. Despite the amount of time it would take to transport resources too and from, Britain did have a major advantage for trade that most places in the empire did not have. By simply being an island, ports can be established wherever the Romans needed resources. If more resources were needed to the north for Hadrian's Wall, establish a small port up north. Setting up a mine outside of Gloucester for metals to be sent back to Rome? Just set up a port near the city for both it and the city itself. Below is a link to Stanford's ancient world travel system Orbis, if you are curious about viewing the time and conditions Roman trade takes feel free to check it out.

Resources of Britain

Understanding why the Romans would go so far out of their way to conquer Britain is a bit complicated. While we do not know exactly why they invaded, we can infer that it was because of Britain's rich untapped resources. The main factor of this theory comes from how abundant lead and iron were in Britain along with good deposits of copper and tin. Lead was the perfect metal for commonplace things like pipes while iron, copper, and tin were used for weapons and armor which were always needed to keep government in such an expansive empire. Other resources such as clay, timber, and stone provided a great deal of aid to the Roman way life as all of these materials can be used for construction. Clay could also be used to create pottery for transporting materials, foods, and liquids throughout the empire.