The end of the ancient economy: a provisional balance sheet
Michael McCormick
T he economy which had sustained the Roman empire collapsed. It did so through a very long concatenation of gradual deteriorations and sharp blows. Over time, short-term trend was neither uniform nor unidirectional: situation improved, sometimes considerably, at various times between c. 250 650. But upswings were not sufficient to redress long-term even when, in some areas, they lasted two or three generations. Certain regions began decline while others still, once again, climbing new heights population production wealth. This disjuncture worked negative consequences on interaction different empire. The closing decades seventh century radically from what obtained 160 years earlier. Population settlement reached southeastern quadrant former world last. Whether it still continued areas where first appeared, how exactly newcomers, especially Slavs Arabs, affected it, is less clear. There no sign that late antiquity's established newly virulent infections abating. In volume, variety, also geographic range export, last pottery shops Africa producing scale but shadow their selves; Middle East, may have been stepping fore, are, for now, indistinct.