What reforms instituted by Diocletian saved the Roman Empire from economic collapse?

Question

and im pretty sure an economic collapse would be the SAME exact thing as financial breakdown.. can somebody that knows what they're talking about hit me up with an answer.. and maybe even a source cuz this is a grade. thanks guys

Answer 1

union of egypt and Rome

Answer 2

I think the point of the guy above me is that Diocletian's reforms did not necessarily save the Roman Empire from collapse, and might even have contributed to it. There is some point there: some of Diocletian's reforms worked and really helped, some didn't, and might have made things worse.

OK, anyway, Diocletian instituted a few reforms.

First of all, he issued his famous Edict on Prices. Inflation (the rapid rise of prices) was a major problem for the Roman economy, so he had a list made of all goods and the maximum price that could be charged for each product. The penalty for overcharging was steep, and could even be death. The idea was that this would force merchants to keep their prices down. Its effect, however, wasn't that great because merchants really have no control over inflation and so it simply made people do business under the table. However, the list is useful to historians as it lets us know the prices of goods in the Roman world.

Also, he replaced the denarius with the solidus as the currency of Rome. The inflation of the past was mainly caused because the denarius, which was originally made of silver, was gradually devalued (using less and less silver) by Emperors to give them more spending power. By the time of Diocletian, the Denarius was essentially worthless (833 denarii was worth only 1 gold coin). So Diocletian introduced the solidus, which was made of gold. Other coins were also issued, and the Roman currency at the time was quite complicated, but that is an overview.

Diocletian also instituted the capita, or head tax. A city or region would owe taxes in proportion with the number of people who lived there. If a city could not pay the amount, the members of the city council would have to pay the difference. The disadvantage of this was that it made the city leaders far less patriotic (and they often tried to shirk their responsibility), but was helpful in that it made tax paying standardized (the system previously had been very complicated and usually based on production) and allowed the government to make long term budgets

Finally, Diocletian's biggest reform was organizing the Roman people into a sort of caste system. A lot of farm land had been left fallow because the farmers had abandoned their land, and there was a danger of food shortage. So tenant farmers were legally tied to the land, forming the basis of the medieval serf. But Diocletians reforms went beyond farmers: most workers (those considered necessary to the smooth operation of the economy and military, which was almost everybody) were organized into guilds, where they were legally bound to remain. For example, a baker would become a member of the guild of bakers, he would have to remain a baker his whole life, and his children would have to become bakers. Members of some guilds were even branded or tattooed, because apparently they tired to escape their jobs.

Answer 3

I think the main purpose of his reforms was not to save the empire from economic collaps (the reforms were part of the collaps) but to save the state from financial breakdown.