Diocletian's Edict on Maximum Prices
- Date
- 301 CE
- Category
- Economy & trade
- Region
- Europe
- Era
- Classical Antiquity
- Significance
In 301 CE the Roman emperor Diocletian issued the Edictum de Pretiis Rerum Venalium, an empire-wide decree setting legal maximum prices for well over a thousand goods, services, and wages in an attempt to halt runaway inflation.
The crisis stemmed from decades of currency debasement during the Crisis of the Third Century, during which the silver content of the denarius had collapsed to near-worthlessness, driving prices sharply upward. The edict, promulgated in the names of the Tetrarchy and justified with claims of divine sanction, prescribed severe penalties, including death, for merchants who exceeded the caps or hoarded goods. Enforcement was uneven across the empire, applied most vigorously in the eastern provinces and largely ignored in the west, and the controls quickly proved unworkable: legal trade became unprofitable, goods vanished into black markets, and shortages worsened. Within a few years the edict had fallen into disuse, and it was effectively dead by Diocletian's abdication in 305 CE. It survives as the most famous ancient attempt at state price control and the longest extant piece of Tetrarchic legislation.
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Empires active in 301 CE
- Roman Empire27 BCE – 476 CE
- Kingdom of Funan50 CE – 550 CE
- Sassanid Empire224 CE – 651 CE
- Teotihuacan100 BCE – 750 CE
- Kushan Empire30 CE – 375 CE
- Pyu City-States200 BCE – 1050 CE
Related economy & trade events
- Crisis of the Third Century and the Collapse of the Roman Denarius235–285 AD
- Aksum Issues Its First Coinage under King Endubisc. 270 CE
- Sogdian Merchant Network and Sogdian as the Silk Road Lingua Francac. 400 CE (peak 4th–8th centuries)
- Monsoon-Driven Indo-Roman Sea Trade Boom (Periplus Era)c. 50 CE (Periplus era, monsoon route established c. 45-47 CE)
- Athenian owl tetradrachm becomes the dominant ancient trade currencyc. 449 BCE
- Monsoon-wind navigation opens direct Indo-Roman Indian Ocean tradec. 30 BCE (1st century BCE)
Further reading
The wider story
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World
Best-selling world history told through the trade routes that moved goods, faiths and ideas.
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