Its all about the Money

I am in the Economics Major here at BYU and am currently taking an International Trade and Finance class. One of the things that Economist do best is using empirical data to find out why people do the things they do. But in wondering why the Romans sought to expand their empire across the world, it doesn't take a Phd. level Economist and a vast array of empirical data to solve this problem. 

Early on in the Roman Republic, Romans used the equivalent of the modern Tariff in order to protect local producers of different goods. In the study of trade by Economists it pretty well agreed upon that Free Trade is the most effective form of trade as there are no barriers that create inefficiencies in trade, with tariffs being one of those barriers. What we see from the Romans in the final part of the 1st century B.C. and the following three centuries is their attempt to make one of the first “World Trade Organizations.” While today trade agreements are made by different countries to reduce the barriers to trade, Rome just decided to conquer all of their trading partners to reduce the barriers to trade. 

As the Roman Empire expanded, so did the resources they acquired. From Spain they acquired gold. From Britain, Iron and other precious metals. From Greece and Northern Italy, marble. Agriculture was a very large means of trade in addition to metal and stone used for buildings. As a result we see the gains from trade that Rome obtained produce an extremely wealthy empire. It is not hard to see where the Romans intentions were in their expansion. It was not merely to say there empire was really big, it was to obtain the gains from the resources WITHIN the empire they conquered. It was about Economics and they were good at it. If only they had figured out that whole communication thing, we would probably be speaking Latin right now.