Industrial Output
The majority of the people of the Roman Empire lived in destitution, while the small fraction of the population that engaged in commerce was much poorer than the elite. Industrial output was minor, due to the fact that the majority poor could not pay for the products. Technological advance was severely hampered by this fact. Urbanization in the western part of the empire was also restricted by low overall population density and the poverty of the region. Low labour costs brought about by slavery may also have contributed to the lack of development in mechanical means of production.
Read more about this topic: Roman Economy
Famous quotes containing the words industrial and/or output:
“Dead power is everywhere among us—in the forest, chopping down the songs; at night in the industrial landscape, wasting and stiffening the new life; in the streets of the city, throwing away the day. We wanted something different for our people: not to find ourselves an old, reactionary republic, full of ghost-fears, the fears of death and the fears of birth. We want something else.”
—Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)
“Lizzie Borden took an axe
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When she saw what she had done,
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—Anonymous. Late 19th century ballad.
The quatrain refers to the famous case of Lizzie Borden, tried for the murder of her father and stepmother on Aug. 4, 1892, in Fall River, Massachusetts. Though she was found innocent, there were many who contested the verdict, occasioning a prodigious output of articles and books, including, most recently, Frank Spiering’s Lizzie (1985)