Hispania, the engine of Roman imperial wealth: a fresh look at the economy of antiquity

The abundance of natural resources on the Iberian Peninsula attracted Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians, and is one of the factors that explain the confrontation between Rome and Carthage in the Second Punic War. As the Romans conquered large areas of the Mediterranean coast and expanded inland, they introduced intensive exploitation of mining, forestry, fish and agricultural resources. Some products — oil, wine and fish by-products — regularly supplied the demand of the western provinces and Rome in the early centuries of the Empire, thanks to a combination of free trade and state redistribution and fiscal mechanisms. 

The interdisciplinary work Economía de la Hispania romana. Paisajes de producción y dinámicas comerciales, edited by César Carreras Monfort, Jaime Molina Vidal, Oriol Olesti Vila and Víctor Revilla Calvo, results from the research of sixteen renowned specialists from different universities. The book analyses the economic dynamics of Hispania between the 2nd century BC and the 5th century AD, based on the factors that made it possible for this imperial territory to function as an integrating system of interactions, and is structured around a number of key themes: viticulture, oil production and distribution, cereal growing, the sea as a source of resources, mining, transport networks and infrastructure, law, crafts, the circulation of money, etc. 

The presentation of the book took place on April 10 at the Alibri bookshop in Barcelona and on 9 May at the Department of Tourism in Alcalá de Henares. It is part of the collection Economia i empresa of UB Editions. Led by Mercè Bernardo and Raúl Ramos, this collection aims to encourage critical academic debate and find a space for reflection and deal with the current social and economic challenges, based on the fruitful links between economics and business sciences, but from a sociological perspective. The latest titles of this collection are La ciutat i el consum després de la globalització. Perspectives internacionals del comerç urbà, edited by Lluís Frago Clols, Carles Carreras Verdaguer and Sergi Martínez Rigol, and Decisions, preferències i heurístiques. Una introducció a la psicologia econòmica, by Pere Mir i Artigues. 

César Carreras Monfort (ed.), who holds a PhD in Ancient History from the UB and a PhD in Archaeology from the University of Southampton, is a lecturer at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He is currently directing the excavations of the Roman forum of Llívia and is participating in the excavations of Puig Castellar (Biosca) and the castle of Cervelló. 

Jaime Molina Vidal (ed.), a professor of Ancient History at the University of Alicante, took his postdoctoral studies at the University of Perugia. He has directed national (Elche, Roman villa of Albir, Portus Ilicitanus (Santa Pola) and illa del Portitxol) and international (Villa de Rufio and Amiternum) archaeological excavations, and directs the Virtual Heritage research group. 

Oriol Olesti Vila (ed.), lecturer at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and teaching collaborator at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, has been a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Franche-Comté and a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford . He has taught at several European universities and directs national projects on ancient history and archaeology. 

Víctor Revilla Calvo (ed.), professor of Ancient History at the UB, he has taught at universities and scientific institutions in Spain and abroad. He directs several archaeological projects in Catalonia and Andalusia and has participated in research projects in Italy, Tunisia, Libya, Germany and Greece.