Pompeii and Herculanuem Economy

What does the available evidence reveal about your topic in Pompeii and Herculaneum?

When discussing the economies of Pompeii and Herculaneum, it must firstly be considered that on the grand scale, neither of the towns were major centres of economic activity. Other towns such as Capua and Puteoli were far more economically active around the time of the eruption. However, due to the carbonised preservation of many objects in the cities, we are able to analyse a greater range of evidence in Pompeii and Herculaneum than in surrounding towns. This evidence provides us with the knowledge that the two cities were involved in structured and organised trade, markets, and overall commercial activity. It can be interpreted from the evidence that commercial life in Pompeii was relatively significant. It has been estimated by historians and archaeologists that there were around 600 privately owned shops in the city, around 200 public eating and drinking houses, as well as graffiti evidence that a major mixed market was held on a weekly basis in the Forum. During the mixed market, temporary stalls (as indicated in wall paintings) that sold fresh fruit and vegetables, spices, perfume, shoes, flowers and prepared food, were set up alongside permanent structures, for example, the produce and fish markets and the Macelleum. The market would allow the buying and selling of locally and imported goods. A Table of Measures which is “a stone table with 12 bowl-shaped depressions designed to hold liquid or dry substances in volumes corresponding to the weights and measures of the Roman standard” has been discovered in both Pompeii and Herculaneum. This table would have been used during the mixed market, where a city official would have supervised the weighing and measuring of goods. Money and lending was an important part of commercial life in Pompeii and Herculaneum. In Pompeii, 150 carbonised wax tablets containing the receipts of loans, rent payments and other business transactions...