Grossly oversimplifying here but ssentially massive empires like Rome were based on gold currencies, their prominence was during what Graeber calls the “Axial Age”. They coincided with massive suffering, but when they collapsed people went back to local debt-based systems of exchange. This was relatively much more humane. Then with the rise of colonialism we went back to gold, empires, and massive suffering again.
Highly recommend David Graeber’s analysis on this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt:_The_First_5,000_Years
Grossly oversimplifying here but ssentially massive empires like Rome were based on gold currencies, their prominence was during what Graeber calls the “Axial Age”. They coincided with massive suffering, but when they collapsed people went back to local debt-based systems of exchange. This was relatively much more humane. Then with the rise of colonialism we went back to gold, empires, and massive suffering again.