Source: Mises.org
In 301 AD, Roman emperor Diocletian implemented price ceilings on over 1,200 goods. The silver coinage had been debased over the past 250 years, and the citizens were understandably unhappy about high prices. In 50 AD, each denarius had about 3.9 grams of silver, but then the empire debased the coins, sometimes in dramatic steps and sometimes more slowly. By 125 AD, the coins had less than 3 grams of silver. By 200 AD, it was less than 2 grams. There was another precipitous drop in silver content between 250 and 275 AD, and in short order there was only a “neglible coating of silver” on each coin.
The English translation of Diocletian’s edict is fun to read. It shows that not much has changed in politics over the millennia. Diocletian is introduced as “dutiful, blessed, unconquered” and the empire’s military victories are acknowledged as having produced a wonderful peace. But, the emperor is obliged to “secure the quiet we have established with the reinforcements Justice deserves.” The barbarian tribes had been vanquished, the Samaritans, Persians, and Britons had been conquered, but now a new war must be waged against greed: “Greed raves and burns and sets no limit on itself.” Greedy businessmen were exploiting the poor with high prices and “It is appropriate to the forethought of us who are the parents of the human race, that justice intervene in matters as a judge.”
Some lines in this edict are reminiscent of the media’s take on Kamala Harris’s anti-price gouging remarks. The edict says that prices increase even when there is an “abundance of goods” and a “bounty of good years.” James K. Galbraith and Isabella Weber made a similar claim in their pro-Harris piece, saying that egg prices increased even when egg production increased. Of course, neither Diocletian nor these 21st century authors said anything about the money. A pro-price control article at The Atlantic says, “Price-gouging laws represent a different set of market rules, grounded in fairness”—Diocletian’s edict similarly appeals to justice, public interest, and righteousness. Even Paul Krugman’s wordplay, in which he tried to claim that a ban on price gouging is not the same thing as a price control, has its 4th century counterpart: “we have taken the position, not that we must set prices of goods and services for sale […] but that we must set a limit.”
Lactantius, a philosopher, wrote about the effects of Diocletian’s edict a few years later:…