> Was the Roman economy only as developed as that of Europe circa 1300 or was it as advanced as that of western Europe on the eve of the Industrial Revolution i

> Was the Roman economy only as developed as that of Europe circa 1300 or was it as advanced as that of western Europe on the eve of the Industrial Revolution in say 1700. The question is ill posed. It assumes that economies move on a linear scale - with definite positive and negative directions. Was the economy of the Soviet Union in the 1930s more advanced than that of the Dutch Republic in the 1600s? Well, the USSR could produce tractors and icebreakers. But the Dutch had a stock market and a really good internal transportation network.