属州エジプトにおける貨幣の流通

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Egypt provides students of economic history of the Roman Empire with plenty of valuable information. Government officials and ordinary people left considerable records of their daily activities. Papyrological evidence reflects the increase of price inflation in the third century and shows us how it influenced daily life. This paper deals with evidence for one specific type of monetary transaction, and by analysing this shows how people acted toward the ever depreciating currency. In the papyri of this period, from the reign of Gallienus onward, we find frequent references to 'the new silver coin' and 'the old silver coin'. Among them, P. Oxy. 2587 is a receipt for payment in the 'new coin' of a loan made in 'the Ptolemaic coin'. This obviously gives a clue to the relationship between the 'new coin' and the 'old coin'. But it is not clear whether this payment was in part or in full. So it has previously been impossible to decide whether there was any difference in value between these coins, or these expressions were only conventional with no technical significance. To solve this problem, we must examine all the documents referring to these coins and inquire whether these transactions have any peculiarity for the use of these coins. Whatever the relationship between them, it follows that there was some difference in value between the 'new coin' and the 'old coin'. And from one document it emerges decisively that the 'old coin' had a higher value than the 'new coin'. P. Stras. 557 from Hermopolis, dated to 291 AD, is a lease contract for land divided between fodder and wheat cultivation. It lays down that the rent for fodder land is 40 drachms per aroura, and it must be paid in the 'old Ptolemaic coin'. Comparing these provisions with other lease contracts of fodder land, we will see the exact character of our document. First, the rent of 40 drachms is very low for this period. In the reign of Aurelianus the inflational spiral set in, and the rent for fodder land leaped to hundreds of drachms. Otherwise it was paid in kind. Forty drachms is rather a figure of the period before the 260s, that is, the period of relatively stable prices. The second unusual feature is the term of the lease. A 4-yearterm is laid down in P. Stras. 557. From the late 260s onward almost all lease contracts are made on a 1-yearterm. The 4-yearterm is instead typical of the earlier period, before inflation. The use of the 'old coin', not the ever depreciating one, enabled the lessor and the lessee to make a contract for a lower rent and longer term than usual for the period. But there may be a possibility that the 'old coin' is an accounting unit in book keeping, not actual cash, as happened in the Tetrarchic and later period, when drachm and talent served as accounting units. However, this possibility is excluded by the evidence of PSI 890. In this account of a vine-growing estate, an exchange fee is charged for the 'old coin'. This shows clearly that the 'old coin' is actual coin. The general preference of ordinary people for the 'old coin' can most evidently be recognized in one private letter. In P. Oxy. 1773 a daughter tells her mother that her arrival will be delayed. She asks her mother to pay the bearers of the letter two and a half talents in the 'new coin', and to accept from them all the 2092 drachms of the 'old coin'. Probably the daughter hoped that the 'old coins' would be handed over to her mother with no loss. And she thought the bearers would be sufficiently rewarded by payment in the 'new coin'. In the late third century Alexandrian tetradrachms suffered successive weight reductions and debasements. Price leap can be traced back to the 270s. At roughly the same time it can be inferred from hoard data that withdrawal of the old issues accompanied Aurelianus' vast issue. This price inflation and reminting perhaps caused the people to distinguish between the value of the 'old coin' and the 'new coin', and to prefer the 'old' one.
日本西洋古典学会の論文
1998-03-23

属州エジプトにおける貨幣の流通

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