The closest thing to a logistics company is the guild of grain carriers from Pouzzeoli I'd say, an interst group uniting the owners of around a hundred heavy grain cargo ships specialized in Egyptian grain to Italy transport. There are also trade guilds on the main rivers (OTL too, see the Nautes pillar in Paris for instance). But no Maersk or similar global trading concern because of communication and travel speed.Do we see logistic companies pop up? Eg Maersk like organizations? Speaking of companies like that: standardized shipping containers made a world of change in handeling, loading and unloading times of all freight suitable for container transport
The more I think about this TL the more similarities I see between Imperial Rome and Modern China c. 1980's. Both are reaching out for some kind of transition to market economy, both are industrialising like mad, both are developing technologies at breakneck speed and both have a social structure which is antipathetic towards making money from trade for the elite. of course modern China was the advantage that they have exemplars of what to do and what not to do around them - Rome only has China which is in a mess right now.a number of quick elements thrown here before I go to bed :
- Senators could not, in theory, participate in commercial or industrial ventures, and had to get their money from land, of which they must hold for at least one million sestertii. In practice they went through family connections of equestrian rank to circumvent the rule
- Romans do seem not to have used long term contracts, the compagnies they formed to, for example, farm taxes were short term only so no corporation as we know them
- Letters of change and paper money in general might be an area in which Rome lacks. The control of trading patterns is indeed not present but on the other hand Rome IS the trade in and off itself for most concerned, the Indian Ocean trade, while important in terms of revenues and taxes, is still a very small amount of goods in comparison with other trades (potery, glass, garum...)
- Metalurgy is indeed far in advance of OTL if only because they have chinese-type cast iron availlable for instance, but a lot of their assembly is still manual rivetting only... And the advance is not exactly similar to OTL in terms of order of discoveries so don't take an OTL sequence as happening here, many roads lead to Rome
- Fabricae (state military gear factories) seems to have appeared mainly around Diocletian and/or Constantine but their apparition is somewhat unclear, but their cost might not be what you're thinking of : slaves for instance are not bought by the state, they are simply captured in military operations
- Transports : beware, there is still a huge cost to transport even with a few steamers on the main rivers and many more canals than OTL, so that remains a major slowing factor
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I'm getting the feeling of a future class conflict between the Senators(Aristocracy) and the Equestrian(Bourgeoisie).Domus Caesari, Baiae, July 258
The automobile had brought the imperial court to Baiae in two days with a stop at the old villa of Tiberius in Sperlonga instead of a ten days trip as would have been the case only a few years earlier. Two automobiles had already carried many of the necessary goods and of the servants during the previous days and two trains had left the Palatine hill station for the imperial translation itself.
It had come as a great relief for the emperor, as he was in pain from his old age : moving on horseback or on carriage would have been much more painful. He also like the opportunity to work while on the move. His personal coach had a private part, with a bed, and a public part with a working desk where he could read and eventually write, look through the windows, dictate to a scribe or receive a guest. A third small compartment was also present, where a scribe and his personal slave waited with some wine and food should the Emperor wish to have a snack.
The five other coaches of the train were one for the empress, two for the closest advisors and courtiers, one for the three contubernia of praetorians assuring the close security and one for more serving staff. The second train had the rest of a century of soldiers as well as more staff and equipments that might be needed for the ride, including tents, water and food.
The railroad they had used had been built alongside the old Via Ardeacina, which reached the coast at Ardea, and then followed the Severiana until it joined with the Appia, queen of all roads, which was followed until it met the Domitiana at Sinuessa.
Now they had all arrived in Baiae, on the bay of the same name, in a luxurious villa said to have been owned by the divine Julius Caesar himself and which had been renovated and provided with a railroad connection to the main line as well as with its own telegraph tower to keep the information flow from Rome flowing.
Here on the cliff top the emperor could breathe the fresh air from the sea and look at one of the most wonderful place of the empire, far from the heat of the capital in which he’d been forced to stay longer than planned due to the untimely death of a prominent senator. .
Marcus Iulius Philippus Augustus was at the balcony of the imperial suit, pensive while contemplating the dying sun. Behind him four slaves busied themselves to prepare the room for the night, but he did not care about them.
Rather he thought of the changes the Empire was going through. Everywhere it seemed that people were busy building, innovating, changing the way people had always lived. He’d read reports from some cities, especially in the West, where the urban poors now had real wages from working into factories : that was true in particular in the cities which the localization of coal and iron favourized. Smoking chimneys were rising to the sky in ever more places, and new fortunes were made.
The equestrian class seemed to be the one most benefiting from this tremendous evolution. Whereas the administration had often seemed an attractive career for the ambitious equestrians, it was now becoming a second choice for those who did not want or could not enter into the various new businesses of the empire.
But this also meant that some equestrians were becoming notably richer than some senators, and also ambitious. The Senate felt it, and thus tried to keep them out of the political game but Philipus knew they would not always succeed. Further change would be needed. Being on holiday in Baiae was also a way to hold a number of informal meetings with senators to get their feeling on the developing situation.
Philipus was especially afraid of the situation with regard to loyalty of the army. Some of the richest equestrians could easily subvert whole units, and the powerful auxiliary forces were all under command of equestrians.
The 400 auxiliary units of the empire had more or less as many men as the 30 legions, but Philipus also knew that many of the praesidis forces in the provinces would probably follow an equestrian usurper should a civil war break out, because ultimately they drew their pay from the local authorities, often of equestrian class.
The saving grace was that the auxiliary units were rather widely spread and the communication network would ensure rapid warning in the event of a rebellion. Such had been proved only a few months before when a senator fearing the discovery of his financial misbehavior had tried to get himself proclaimed emperor. His men had not followed him and he’d been arrested, and Philipus had ordered his estates seized and his fortune to be divided between the loyal soldiers of his legion, which had amounted to a much larger bonus than what the man had promised them…
While the rationalis rea publicae had been aghast at the decision, it had seemed a good way to ensure loyalty from the troops : order had been sent to all commanders to read news of the decision to their troops…
As he thought of this a smile crept on his face, soon replaced by a rictus as he rose his hand to his chest, clutching it as spasm took his body. The heart attack struck ferociously and he did not feel himself go across the balustrade and fall to the ground two floors below, only to hit a statue head first on his way down, instantly killing him.
Why don't they call it a Locomotio? I mean both the words are latin.
I'm getting the feeling of a future class conflict between the Senators(Aristocracy) and the Equestrian(Bourgeoisie).
Is this really a problem if they are the ones who send his head to the emperor?The unwanted side effect of this move is it provides incentives for troops to tempt/force someone into rebellion who otherwise wouldn't have thought if it. All in the hopes of getting the guy's money....
Time had come, there was no way around it. All of the office of the Censors knew it and dreaded it. An immense amount of work had been invested in it during half a decade and had delivered an enormous amount of documentation.
...
One of them was responsible for the collection of the birth and death registers, an innovation thirty year old which collected the data at the district level : every birth and dead, even of stillborn children, even of slaves, had to be communicated.
The information about the name of the parents, their age, their status, the month of the birth and the status of the child was registered in a roll to be kept at the local archive. Once a year, in mid september, a copy was sent to the pagus with a global summary of all the births and death of the year, with a summary by age category and another one by status of the persons born or dead.
In the pagus the local reports would be bundled and summarized in a table of which a copy would be kept locally and published while another copy would be sent to the province no later than mid-october. Yet, although the official report was yearly, every pagus magistrate knew that it was better to collect data once a month, both to compare with the yearly records and to be able to answer should a district record be lost to any cause : this way there were not too many discrepanties of the records.
At the provincial level new summaries would be made and sent to the diocesis capital where one of the quaestors affected to each vicarius would make sure to have all the data collected by mid-november. Of course some diocesian quaestors had more work than other, but with less than 150 provinces for 17 diocesis none was overwhelmed… Most of the work had already been done at the lower level by the pagus authorities !
In practice their is a permanent collection of data and the birth and death data is certainly yearly, but the official census is published every 5 years which allows for quality controls and communication delays to be managedIs this census yearly, or every five years? Even modern countries only carry out a census every five or ten years. Every year would be very excessive.
i think we are getting ahead of ourselvesIf they're exploring the African coast they're in for a surprise when they try and round the cape of good hope, it was known as the cape of storms for a reason. then again if they get caught in a storm there is a possibility they could get blown to to the Americas, either way the Romans are about to learn a lot about the world.
Are they going to return to Europe with African slaves?