Edict on Maximum Prices
The Edict on Maximum Prices (also known as the Edict on Prices or the Edict of Diocletian; in Latin Edictum De Pretiis Rerum Venalium) was issued in 301 by Roman Emperor Diocletian.During the Crisis of the Third Century, Roman coinage had been greatly devalued due to the numerous emperors and usurpers minting their own coins to bribe soldiers and officials. Earlier in his reign, Diocletian had attempted to reform the system of taxation, and tried to stabile the coinage, replacing the gold aureus with the solidus, and introducing the silver argenteus, approximately equivalent to the old denarius. These coins held their value during his reign, but were minted only very rarely and had little effect on the economy. He also mass produced smaller denominations: a copper denarius worth two silver denarii, and a bronze nummus worth five denarii.
These new denarii actually added to the inflation, and in an attempt to combat this he issued his Edict on Maximum Prices in 301. The Edict doubled the value of the copper and bronze denarii, and set a limit on prices for over a thousand products, including various food items, clothing, and weekly wages. It also set the death penalty for profiteers and speculators. However, the Edict did not solve the problem, as his mass minting of coins continued to increase inflation, and merchants either stopped producing goods, sold their goods illegally, or used a barter system instead. The Edict tended to disrupt trade and commerce, especially among merchants and sometimes entire towns who could no longer afford to produce trade goods. Because the Edict also set limits on wages, those who had fixed salaries (especially soldiers) found that their money was increasingly worthless as the artificial prices did not reflect actual costs. By the end of Diocletian's reign a few years later the Edict was virtually ignored.
The Edict was set up in inscriptions in Greek and Latin. It now exists only in fragments found mainly in the eastern part of the empire, where Diocletian ruled.