Peter Hutchison wrote:
> Surely the Roman furnaces were larger than the Celtic ones? This to me
> suggests an improvememt in some of the technology - perhaps the Romans
> had better bellows. They probably used slaves to work them. I agree that
> their better organisation had something to do with it - perhaps
> ironmaking was paid for from taxes directly or indirectly since it seems
> to have been largely military.
As a Romanist, may I add a few clarifying comments. Firstly, what is a
Roman furnace? Archaeological evidence throughout the Roman Empire tells
us that iron smelting during this period was essentially a Roman
provincial activity. Indigenous knowledge contributed as much to the
process as did technological traditions from other parts of the Empire.
The capacity of pre-Roman furnaces is not smaller than that of Roman
times, it's a matter of the scale of production (translates into
organisation). The overall scale of iron production in Roman Britain as
compared to the pre-Roman period is no doubt significant but different
levels of productivity from small scale to substantial output can be
observed both in the Weald and along the Jurassic Ridge, and potentially
also in the Forest of Dean. Smaller sites did not fall out of use but
served different markets.
There is no evidence to date to suggest that slaves were used in the
iron
production in the Roman world. This view is wrongly adopted from the
mining of precious metals (cf. Diodorus for Egypt) or from the quarries
(cf. Simitthus). Equally, Roman iron production is predominantly
civilian
by nature. The army certainly played an important role as a consumer in
certain areas but there is little to confirm direct military
exploitation
as opposed to indirect or managed exploitation.
In any case, no tax payer's money was used for the production, rather
the
contrary. Taxation during the Roman period was closely related to land
ownership and taxation in goods. Iron (or the money made from it), in
addition to foodstuff, must have been an important addition to the
provincial revenue. The pressure of taxation is one of the reasons
behind
increased production during Roman times.
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