The Economic History of Byzantium - Dumbarton Oaks

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1. St. Gregory the Theologian and Julian the Exisotes. Mount Athos, Panteleimon monastery, cod. 6, fol. 77v (12th century) (after Ofl Yhsauro‹ toË ÑAg¤ou ÖOrouw. Efikonografhm°na xeirÒgrafa, vol. 2 [Athens, 1975], pl. 304)
The Role of the Byzantine State in the Economy 979 coin, although the use of copper coin, the main tool for everyday transactions, had not extended to the entire empire at that time. Clearly, the monetization of the economy began with the activities of the state, and its primary purpose was to serve the needs of the state. The state economy appears to have been largely monetized between the ninth and eleventh centuries and to have been based on the interaction between taxes and salaries. Taxes were paid in coin—gold, for preference (charagma)—and the state collected or spent in kind or in the form of services only as a supplement, to allow corrective action to be taken if the system became rigid. The significance of transactions in kind or services grew during the eleventh century. After the time of the Komnenian emperors, concessions of privileges played an important part in the state economy. In this way, the economy became less monetized, but never lost its monetary character entirely. The main source of revenue for the state was the tax on land and farmers. Its principal expense was the cost of running the administration and the army. Those who served the state were remunerated in three main ways, which called for cash to be used in different manners, at least where the state was concerned. The roga (salary) was usually paid on an annual basis and always in cash; payments in gold coin were particularly frequent. The roga was the state’s principal way of putting cash into circulation, before attempting to collect it once more as taxation. It was often supplemented by disbursements in kind (usually food, or, in the case of senior officials, valuable silk cloth). By comparison with the cash payments, these supplementary disbursements in kind were of little significance. A second form of remuneration, privileges, usually took the form ofpartial or complete exemption from tax on the beneficiary’s land or of concession to him of the right to collect some or all of the obligations that one or more third parties might have toward the state. Here the use of cash was not essential, but the inflow of cash to the state was reduced. Finally, payment of the employee could be made by the citizens who used his services. The state intervened in this economic procedure only to regulate it, determining how it ought to take place and preventing excesses. The use of cash was not essential, but it certainly played an important part, especially in the urban centers. When speaking of the monetization of the state economy, we have, of course, to bear in mind the differences that undoubtedly occurred from one area to another, and it is essential toremember the special importance of Constantinople and its environs for the Byzantine economy, atleast to the twelfth century. In the capital, the prevailing economic processes were undoubtedly more advanced than in any other part of the empire. It can thus be seen that the state’s revenue and expenditure took a number of forms, all of which coexisted from the beginning of Byzantine history and throughout it. The percentage of the state economy to which each of these forms applied changed over time, and the picture of the public economy changed substantially, too. If we look at the Byzantine state economy from a distance and describe it in a highly schematic manner, we can discern two major periods, the first of which begins around
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To conclude, let us note one unusua
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number of western European merchant
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The Economic History of Byzantium - Dumbarton Oaks

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