Those for whom the welfare state does not provide as much welfare as they would like might care to reflect on the plight of the Romans, for whom there was no such thing as the welfare state. A superb monograph by Kim Bowes, Surviving Rome: The Economic Lives of the Ninety Percent, drawing on papyrus and other finds from across the Roman and Egyptian worlds, shows in fascinating detail how the poor survived.
She defines the poor as the c. 90 per cent who ‘worked with their hands’, most of whom were farmers renting their farm (rents were not cheap). One Soterichos rented a number of small, scattered plots, with small yields, and died in debt. His wife and children budgeted carefully and started breeding farm animals (very profitable). They kept receipts, even one compensating a neighbour whose grass their cattle had eaten, juggled the leases and maximised yields. It finally paid it off. Small farms of this sort, buying and selling into towns and villages, lay at the heart of the ancient economy. Farmers even dabbled in futures: one Pasis sold his sheep’s future wool nine months before it was sheared. Debt and credit were integral to Roman life. That meant constantly thinking of the future, the impact of interest and penalties, and the skill of negotiating late payments.
The point is that survival was a family business: the poor had to use all the resources available to them. Children could be leased out for the day to guard sheep, herd geese, run errands; older children were sent out as apprentices (smiths, potters); girls learned weaving and spinning (there was huge demand for tunics, cloaks, socks, hats: women’s work was a critical part of family income).
Hustling too drove the Roman economy, because wages were so low. A graffito in Pompeii mocks a man who had worked at eight jobs: innkeeper, baker, farmer, pickler, jug dealer, huckster, maker of trinkets, and ends ‘lick c–t and you’ve done the lot’. Such activity was made possible by markets and the spread of money. Poor Romans well understood that anything bought could also be loaned out and make money to support the household budget.
Grit, inventiveness, pride – not a bad formula for tough times.
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