Disruptions in Roman market

The turmoil in the financial markets and in the real economy made state intervention necessary. Carrying out active measures to limit the effects of the crisis, however, is nothing new and was used hundreds of years ago, as evidenced by the history of one of the first banking crises in history, which took place in the Roman Empire.

In 32 CE three ships belonging to Seuthes & Syn of Alexandria sank in the Red Sea, causing a significant deterioration in the company’s financial situation. A year later, as a result of the Phoenician workers’ revolt and embezzlement, the banking house of Malchus & Co. in Tire went bankrupt.

The result of the combination of these unfavourable events was the bankruptcy of Quintus Maksymus and Lucius Libo, who were the largest banking houses of the Roman Empire, and at the same time creditors of the aforementioned entities.

This event, despite the fact that it took place long before the institution of a commercial bank was formed, is referred to as a banking crisis, and the intervention of Emperor Tiberius, involved the transfer of 100 million sesterces to bankers from state funds, was duplicated nineteen centuries later by the US authorities during the panic with 1907.