Editing Roman Britain (section)

== Trade ==
{{See also|British Iron Age#Trade between Iron Age Britain and the Roman world|l1=Trade between Iron Age Britain and the Roman world}}

During the Roman period Britain's continental trade was principally directed across the Southern [[North Sea]] and Eastern [[English Channel|Channel]], focusing on the narrow [[Strait of Dover]], with more limited links via the Atlantic seaways.<ref name="Morris 2010">{{Harvp|Morris|2010}}.</ref><ref name="Fulford 2007">{{Harvp|Fulford|2007|pages=54–74}}.</ref><ref name="Cunliffe">{{Cite book |last=Cunliffe |first=Barry |title=Facing the Ocean: the Atlantic and its Peoples 8000 BC&nbsp;– 1500&nbsp;AD |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-1928-5354-7}}</ref> The most important British ports were London and [[Richborough Castle|Richborough]], whilst the continental ports most heavily engaged in trade with Britain were [[Boulogne-sur-Mer|Boulogne]] and the sites of [[Domburg]] and [[Colijnsplaat]] at the mouth of the river [[Scheldt]].<ref name="Morris 2010"/><ref name="Fulford 2007"/> During the Late Roman period it is likely that the [[saxon Shore|shore forts]] played some role in continental trade alongside their defensive functions.<ref name="Morris 2010"/><ref>{{Harvp|Pearson|2002}}.</ref>

Exports to Britain included: [[roman currency|coin]]; [[ancient Roman pottery|pottery]], particularly red-gloss ''{{Lang|la|[[terra sigillata]]}}'' (samian ware) from southern, central and eastern [[Roman Gaul|Gaul]], as well as various other wares from Gaul and the [[Rhine]] provinces; olive oil from southern [[Hispania|Spain]] in ''{{Lang|la|[[amphora]]e}}''; wine from Gaul in ''{{Lang|la|amphorae}}'' and barrels; salted fish products from the western Mediterranean and [[Brittany]] in barrels and amphorae; preserved olives from southern Spain in ''{{Lang|la|amphorae}}''; lava [[quern-stone]]s from [[Mayen]] on the middle Rhine; glass; and some agricultural products.<ref name="Morris 2010"/><ref name="Fulford 2007"/><ref>{{Harvp|Tyers|1996a}}; {{Harvp|Tyers|1996b}}; {{Harvp|Peacock|Williams|1986}}; {{Harvp|Monfort|Funari|1998}}.</ref><ref name="Fulford 1991">{{Harvp|Fulford|1991|pages=35–47}}.</ref><ref name="Fulford 2004">{{Harvp|Fulford|2004}}.</ref><ref name="Mattingly 2006">{{Harvp|Mattingly|2006}}.</ref> Britain's exports are harder to detect archaeologically, but will have included metals, such as silver and gold and some lead, iron and copper. Other exports probably included agricultural products, oysters and salt, whilst large quantities of coin would have been re-exported back to the continent as well.<ref name="Morris 2010"/><ref name="Fulford 1991"/><ref name="Fulford 2004"/><ref name="Fulford 1984">{{Harvp|Fulford|1984|pages=129–142}}.</ref>

These products moved as a result of private trade and also through payments and contracts established by the Roman state to support its military forces and officials on the island, as well as through state taxation and extraction of resources.<ref name="Morris 2010"/><ref name="Fulford 1984"/> Up until the mid-3rd century, the Roman state's payments appear to have been unbalanced, with far more products sent to Britain, to support its large military force (which had reached {{Circa}} 53,000 by the mid-2nd century), than were extracted from the island.<ref name="Morris 2010"/><ref name="Fulford 1984"/>

It has been argued that Roman Britain's continental trade peaked in the late 1st century AD and thereafter declined as a result of an increasing reliance on local products by the population of Britain, caused by economic development on the island and by the Roman state's desire to save money by shifting away from expensive long-distance imports.<ref name="Fulford 1991"/><ref name="Mattingly 2006"/><ref name="Fulford 1984"/><ref name="Fulford 1989">{{Harvp|Fulford|1989|pages=175–201}}.</ref> Evidence has been outlined that suggests that the principal decline in Roman Britain's continental trade may have occurred in the late 2nd century AD, from {{Circa|lk=no}} 165 AD onwards.<ref name="Morris 2010"/> This has been linked to the economic impact of contemporary Empire-wide crises: the [[Antonine Plague]] and the [[Marcomannic Wars]].<ref name="Morris 2010"/>

From the mid-3rd century onwards, Britain no longer received such a wide range and extensive quantity of foreign imports as it did during the earlier part of the Roman period; vast quantities of coin from continental mints reached the island, whilst there is historical evidence for the export of large amounts of British grain to the continent during the mid-4th century.<ref name="Morris 2010"/><ref name="Fulford 2004"/><ref name="Fulford 1996">{{Citation |last=Fulford |first=Michael |title=Coin Finds and Coin Use in the Roman World |pages=153–177 |year=1996 |editor-last=King |editor-first=Cathy E. |series=Studien zu Fundmünzen der Antike |chapter=Economic hotspots and provincial backwaters: modelling the late Roman economy |place=Berlin |publisher=Mann Verlag |isbn=978-3-7861-1628-8 |editor-first2=David G. |editor-last2=Wigg}}</ref><ref>{{Harvp|Fulford|1977|pages=35–84}}; {{Citation |last=Fulford |first=Michael |title=The interpretation of Britain's late Roman trade: the scope of medieval historical and archaeological analogy |pages=59–69 |year=1978}} in {{Harvp|du Plat Taylor|Cleere|1978}}; {{Harvp|Birley|2005|pages=423–424}}; {{Citation |author=[[Julian (emperor)|Julian]] |title=Epistula ad senatum populumque Atheniorum |language=la|trans-title=Letter to the senate of Athens |at=279D, 280A, B, C}}; {{Citation |author=[[Libanius]] |title=Orations |at=[http://www.loebclassics.com/view/libanius-oration_18_funeral_oration_julian/1969/pb_LCL451.331.xml 18.82–83], [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/libanius-oration_18_funeral_oration_julian/1969/pb_LCL451.335.xml 87]}}; {{Citation |author=[[Ammianus Marcellinus]] |title=Res Gestae |language=la|at=[[:s:Roman History/Book XVIII#II|18.2.3–4]]}}; {{Citation |author=[[Eunapius]] |title=Fragmenta Hist. Graecorum |language=la|trans-title=Fragments of Greek History |at=12}}; {{Citation |author=[[Zosimus (historian)|Zosimus]] |title=Historia Nova |language=la|trans-title=New History |at=[[:s:New History/Book the Third|3.5.2]]}}</ref> During the latter part of the Roman period British agricultural products, paid for by both the Roman state and by private consumers, clearly played an important role in supporting the military garrisons and urban centres of the northwestern continental Empire.<ref name="Morris 2010"/><ref name="Fulford 2004"/><ref name="Fulford 1996"/> This came about as a result of the rapid decline in the size of the British garrison from the mid-3rd century onwards (thus freeing up more goods for export), and because of 'Germanic' incursions across the Rhine, which appear to have reduced rural settlement and agricultural output in northern Gaul.<ref name="Morris 2010"/><ref name="Fulford 1996"/>