The Fourth

Today is US Independence Day.

As is my patriotic duty, I went online this morning and scheduled my Madison County property tax payments for this year.

This afternoon, as per my annual custom, I will watch my DVD of 1776. Inaccurate and anachronistic though it is, it's still entertaining.

Happy Fourth to my USAn friends!

Byways

I suddenly have the desire to read about the economic history of the late Roman Empire, especially around the time of Diocletian.

(From various sources, I have gathered that one of the causes of the decline of the empire was its chronic balance-of-trade deficit with the civilizations to the East, especially China, which caused a steady flow of coinable metal out of the empire; eventually there wasn't enough specie available to maintain a monetary economy, and society collapsed into a barter economy, until the discovery of new silver mines in, I think, Bohemia. That would tend to cause monetary deflation, I would think. But Diocletian imposed wage and price controls, which are generally used as a weapon against inflation. So what was really going on?)

Does anybody know where I might look?