Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Byzantium Wasn’t Particularly Byzantine
Byzantium Wasn’t Particularly Byzantine
Aug 28, 2025 4:15 PM

Writing in The Guardian, historian Peter Frankopan looks at how the Byzantine Empire, which had “the distinction of being one of the very few realms to survive for more than a millennium,” might offer clues to a way out of the current Eurozone crisis.

Frankopan, author of The First Crusade: The Call from the East, notes that “like the EU, the Byzantine empire was a multilingual, monwealth that spread across different climates and varied local economies, ranging from bustling cities to market towns, from thriving ports to small rural settlements. Not only that, but it also had a single currency – one, furthermore, that did not fluctuate in value for centuries.”

More on the history of the Byzantine gold coin known as the solidus or, in Greek the nomisma, here.

Frankopan asserts that government in Byzantium was “lean, simple and efficient.”

If Eurocrats could learn from the structure of the empire, then so too could they benefit from looking at how it dealt with a chronic recession, brought on by the same bination that has crippled western economies today. In the 1070s, government revenues collapsed, while expenditure continued to rise on essential services (such as the military); these were made worse by a chronic liquidity crisis. So bad did the situation e that the doors of the treasury were flung open: there was no point locking them, wrote one contemporary, because there was nothing there to steal.

Those responsible for the crisis were shown no mercy. The Herman Van Rompuy of the time, a eunuch named Nikephoritzes, was lambasted by an angry population faced with price rises and a fall in the standard of living, and was eventually tortured to death. Widespread dissatisfaction led to others being unceremoniously removed from position, often forced to e monks, presumably so they could pray for forgiveness for their sins.

Read “The Byzantine empire’s own ‘eurozone’ crisis offers a lesson for the EU today” by Peter Frankopan in The Guardian.

If you haven’t read Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg’s new book, ing Europe: Economic Decline, Culture, and How America Can Avoid a European Future, what are you waiting for? (No, he doesn’t prescribe torture for free-spending EU bureaucrats.)

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Donald Boudreaux on why Oren Cass’s comparative advantage is not discussing comparative advantage
Last week I wrote about the basic economic illiteracy behind of Oren Cass’s case for industrial policy. So basic were the mistakes that I thought perhaps I had misread Cass’s argument. Like the villainous Mugatu from edy Zoolander I asked myself, “Doesn’t anybody notice this? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!” Thankfully the economist Donald Boudreaux, former economics-department chair at George Mason, writing today for AIER has reassured me that Oren parative advantage is not his discussion parative advantage:...
As Germany slows, Europe should worry
In 2019, the mighty German economy, the economic powerhouse of the European Union, grew a mere 0.6 percent. That’s right. It grew just over half a percent. In 2018, Germany grew 1.5 percent. This is not a lot, but it was better than 2019. The German economy is Europe’s largest. Hence, when it goes wrong, things go wrong elsewhere in the EU. As reported in the Wall Street Journal: Germany’s weakness is bad news for Europe, and not just because...
2019 Best sellers: Surprises in the Acton Book Shop
Book sales data is hard e by. Publishers keep their sales numbers close to their chest. The information is valuable. It shapes which authors, designers and editors publishers cultivate as well as which topics, genres and formats they invest in. It reveals the effectiveness of marketing and advertising as well as the weight of a review. In this respect, even the worst sellers provide high quality information. Best seller lists, such as The New York Times, are the products of...
FAQ: The U.S.-China ‘Phase One’ trade agreement
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump and Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He signed “Phase One” of a two-part trade agreement between the United States and China. Here are the facts you need to know. What does the new trade deal mean for both countries? The agreement cools, or at least pauses, the 18-month-long trade war between the two nations. The world’s two largest mit to opening their markets: The U.S. reduces tariffs, while China agrees to purchase a specific amount of goods...
The apocalyptic style in 21st century environmentalism
We’ve just put online the Fall 2020 issue of Religion & Liberty, which looks at environmental stewardship and current problems in conservation from a number of aspects (get over to Acton’s Facebook page ment on the articles). In the cover story, I wrote about the demands for a “citizen’s assembly” to accelerate the agenda of the radical environmental organization Extinction Rebellion. Presumably, these new assemblies won’t involve elected bodies like the U.S. Congress or the Parliament of the United Kingdom:...
Trump to Davos: Reject the ‘prophets of doom’
President Donald Trump told the world’s foremost government and business leaders to reject the “prophets of doom” and follow “the great eback” during his speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, today. President Trump gave a forthright call to unleash human creativity by embracing technological progress, energy exploration, lower taxes, deregulation, and the free market. “This is a time for tremendous hope, and joy, and optimism, and action,” the president told skeptical Davos attendees, who mostly sat in...
Bernie Sanders tweets a recipe for exacerbating the housing crisis
Note: An expanded version of this post was released as this week’s Acton Commentary. This week, Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Bernie Sanders, I-VT, tweeted the following reaction to a story from The Economist describing rising American rent payments: This is a crisis. We need national rent control. — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 19, 2020 Sanders is certainly right that we face a housing crisis. Prices for housing have continued to rise with the decline in housing stock relative to population....
Lunch lady equality: The fruits of Sweden’s ‘good socialism’
Sweden is often hailed for its sweeping cultural and political emphasis on the equality of all things. But while the popular discourse tends to center on its progressive economic policies and far-reaching public services, the country’s focus on fairness stretches across the spheres of Swedish society—including, more recently, its school cafeterias. At a local school in Falun, head cook Annica Eriksson was ordered by city officials to pursue a bit more mediocrity in her cuisine. Her food was good—too good....
Samuel Gregg reviews ‘Islam: Menace or Challenge?’
In his new book, “L’Islam: menace ou défi?” (“Islam: Menace or Challenge?”), Bishop Dominique Rey addresses how Catholics in Europe can best respond to the growth of Islam throughout the continent. While Rey lays out various manifestations of Islam in the book, he chooses to focus mainly on Christianity rather than Islam, writes Samuel Gregg at The Catholic World Report. “Rey is more concerned with how Catholics respond to Islam’s growth throughout Europe.” Islam’s presence in Europe offers Catholics a...
6 quotes: Martin Luther King Jr.
Americans celebrate the third Monday of every January in honor of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. However, his message of human dignity and racial equality inspired people worldwide, whether he delivered his sermons in Atlanta or Oslo. Below are six quotations that reflect his deepest beliefs and philosophy: On the source of human dignity: Deeply etched in the fiber of our religious tradition is the conviction that men are made in the image of God and that they are souls...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved