Price Controls: The Edict of Diocletian
Diocletian (born 245 AD) was the Roman Emperor from 284-305 AD. His rule is considered the end of the Crisis of the Third Century. He brought stability to the Roman Empire, notably by splitting the Empire into East and West administratively. However, not all of his reforms would prove long lasting. Just as Kamala Harris is promising price controls to keep inflating prices low, Diocletian promised the same thing with his Edict on Maximum Prices.
The Crisis of the Third Century (235- 284 AD) was about 50 years of Roman civil war caused by a corrupt government increasing taxes, regulations, and debasing the coinage (inflation). People revolted, the armies proclaimed different emperors (Latin for military commander) and barbarians came across the border to loot.[1]
Diocletian was one such proclaimed commander. After ending the wars (in the 290s), he brought stability to the Empire, notably by splitting it between East and West, with each side ruled by an Augustus and subordinate Caesar. He also moved the capital(s) outside of Rome.[2]
His successor, Constantine, following another civil war, would found the city of New Rome on the site of Byzantium, which would popularly be called “Constantine’s City,” Constantinople. The Eastern Roman Empire is sometimes called the Byzantine Empire for this reason. The Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian the Great (born 482 AD; ruled 527-565) was the last native Latin speaker to rule.
However, not all of Diocletian’s reforms were so effective or long lasting. His Edict on Maximum Prices, Edictum de Pretiis Rerum Venalium (301 AD), was a list of goods and services and their legal maximum prices. The problem was the the government had debased the mostly silver coins to mint more coins that had less silver, so they could pay for more things. Businessmen figured this out and increased their prices so they wouldn’t be getting less silver. Diocletian made that illegal. Since businessmen couldn’t sell their goods and services for profit, they went out of business. People eventually either ignored the edict or rebelled.[3]
Note: Roman gold coins were also debased, but not nearly as much as the silver coins. That didn’t matter to most Romans who weren’t selling things costly enough to require gold.
The USA are so broke that we aren’t even debasing the silver and gold coins. We already stopped using precious metals in our money, much like the Romans in the third century AD. Today, the government is printing paper (internet) money so that they can pay for more things, like medicare, medicaid, social security, government employees, and to bomb Palestinian women and children. Businessmen have figured this out and are increasing their prices so that they can have enough money to buy the things they need to stay in business, all of which have gone up in price. Kamala Harris is reportedly promising price controls so people can afford to buy things again. It is being called “corporate price gouging.”[4]
Will it work? Well, today, August the 15th, is the 53rd anniversary of President Richard Nixon abandoning the gold standard and implementing price controls in 1971. Kamala Harris isn’t promising to fight “corporate price gouging” because Nixon was successful. She is promising price controls because the alternative is for the Federal Reserve to stop printing money to finance the government going into debt. That won’t end well for the people at the top. After all, Diocletian spent most of his reign putting down rebellions. Americans are the most armed society in the history of the world.[5][6]
“The U.S. has always paid its bills on time, but the overwhelming consensus among economists and Treasury officials of both parties is that failing to raise the debt limit would produce widespread economic catastrophe. In a matter of days, millions of Americans could be strapped for cash. We could see indefinite delays in critical payments. Nearly 50 million seniors could stop receiving Social Security checks for a time. Troops could go unpaid. Millions of families who rely on the monthly child tax credit could see delays. America, in short, would default on its obligations.” -US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, former chairman of the Fed (2014-2018), in opinion piece written for the Wall Street Journal, Sept 19, 2021
“As never nation was more abused than ours has been of late by the dirty race of money-changers; so never nation could with a better grace, with more justice, or greater security, take its full vengeance, than ours can, upon its detested foes. Sometimes the greatness and popularity of the offenders make strict justice unadvisable, because unsafe; but here it is not so, you may, at present, load every gallows in England with directors and stock-jobbers, without the assistance of a sheriff’s guard, or so much as a sigh from an old woman, though accustom’d perhaps to shed tears at the untimely demise of a common felon or murderer. A thousand stock-jobbers, well trussed up, besides the diverting sight, would be a cheap sacrifice to the Manes of trade.” -The Cato Letters, The Fatal Effects Of The South-Sea Scheme, And The Necessity Of Punishing The Directors, published on November 12, 1720
Diocletian (born 245 AD) was the Roman Emperor from 284-305 AD. His rule is considered the end of the Crisis of the Third Century. He brought stability to the Roman Empire, notably by splitting the Empire into East and West administratively. However, not all of his reforms would prove long lasting. Just as Kamala Harris is promising price controls to keep inflating prices low, Diocletian promised the same thing with his Edict on Maximum Prices.
[1]https://www.hamiltonmobley.com/blog/bellum-monetariorum-the-war-of-the-moneyers
[2]https://www.britannica.com/biography/Diocletian
[3]https://kark.uib.no/antikk/dias/priceedict.pdf
[5]https://history.state.gov/milestones/1969-1976/nixon-shock