Download Logistics of the Roman Grain Trade – Summary

Logistics of the Roman Grain Trade – Summary
1. Introduction – it explains the nature of the market in brief
-> Meet the Roman empire and its extended land mass and enormously big population
-> Grain/Wheat = 80% of the average caloric intake
-> The problem of securing enough grain for the Romans -> it has led to the development of
securing system
2. The Grain Trade to the city of Rome – the role of individual agents in supply and delivery
-> Wheat-supplying process - ways and observations. Challenges: healthy wheat yields require
suitable soil + sufficient rainfall per square meter + special storage conditions + long-distant
water transportation
-> The importance of maintaining control + formalized hierarchy of labor + established
infrastructure for wheat storage and delivery (!!!)
-> The “invisible” role of engineers, lawyers, judges, financiers, etc.
3. Roman Trade
Structure
and
organizati
on of the
grain
enterprise
Tax in goods
Tax in cash => monetize and integrate the Roman Economy
-> Taxes collection from conquered
provinces:
-> Existence of goods in peripheral areas + money concentration in the center = circular
monetization pattern
-> Circular movement of goods and money created some kind of free market system
4. The harvesting of grain
-> Egypt had turned into an important supplier-province due to the river of Nile and its
properties
-> Egypt + North Africa + Mediterranean world = enormous grain trade production source for
the Roman Empire. As a result, a complex market system has developed to manage that trade.
Globalization
5. Financing and organizing the grain trade – ways in which the trade was financed
-> How were the logistics of grain trade managed?
-> Vertical structure of the “investors” :
Senators
Knights
Freedmen
-> What kind of operations has been financed? Contracts signing, accounts maintaining, profit
distribution payments, legally existing operations
-> Companies were responsible for the arrangement of deliveries of grain
Company Profile & Structure
Staff + Ships
Subcontracted
Ships
Accountants
and employees
at both ends of
the supply chain
Network of
agents; local
buyers, extra
logistical staff,
and overseers
“Working Hand”
Trade Associations
Collegia -> Monopoly
Physical Infrastructure
Special technical details +
logistical infrastructure
A will to join the grain
trade
Information and
expertise exchange
environment has been
created
Ships were specially designed
to transport grain
Extra Assistance
Satellite offices
=> extra
distribution
Structured to
optimize the
potential profit
that existed
locally
elsewhere, but
in Rome
Transportation
Complex functions of the whole Roman market system
6. Informational uncertainty and the Roman market – the main problem that drove the
structural and organizational behavior of the grain networks
-> Lack of information – the biggest constrain of that time => created issues in the functioning
of the market
-> Hierarchal structure to order and manage company`s operations
-> Coordination of buying and selling was difficult to manage
-> Legal agreements signing (terms and conditions) + supply chain supervision + state measures
of assistance and support obtainment + receipts exchanging processes = mechanisms that
controlled against moral hazard and/or fraud
-> A network of TRUST was established
7. The Role of the State
-> State = Roman Elite => state interests = Roman Elite interests
-> Investment
-> incentivisation
-> Distribution