II.3. Trade and industry

Before the Roman Invasion, Britain had a reputation for producing fine quality products. The woollen garments exported as far as the Roman Empire were very popular. Livestock, especially hunting dogs and basketry along with minerals were also exported in great quantities. However, little is known about British produce before the Romans.

There were fundamental drawbacks that prevented Britain from trading a wider variety of goods.

The first was the lack of an effective road system. The road network consisted of a series of rough tracks from settlement to settlement, with no proper order or structure. That was because the country did not have a central administrative capital, as it consisted of a series of tribes, each with their own designated area. To build a road network would have meant co-operation between the tribes, an agreement on routes and overall costs.

The second reason was that the tribes in Britain all had their own unique currencies which were minted by hand in their own territories. And some did not have any currency at all and were just bartering goods. As Roman money was not yet legal in Britain, and the European countries would not accept individual tribe's currencies, this was one of the biggest barriers to effective trade.

On the continent, the Roman Empire, with its' single currency, was spreading and occupied countries all adopted the Roman monetary system as their standard. So, trade for goods and services became easier within Europe. Trade between Britain and Europe was good, although rather difficult as the British insisted on trading goods for goods, rather than goods for money.

Gold, iron, lead, silver, jet, marble and pearls were, however, all exploited by the Romans in Britain along with more everyday commodities such as hunting dogs, animal skins, timber, wool, corn and slaves. Foreign investment created a vigorous domestic market and imports were often of exotic Continental items such as fine pottery, olive oil, lava stone querns, glassware and fruit. One of the most important changes which the Romans brought was their monetary system, which was universal in the empire. Under this system, buying and selling goods could be done in hard cash, which could be used anywhere the Roman influence existed.

The Roman road network took the place of mud tracks; the long, straight, direct links between the cities determined fast growth of commercial centres. Goods could be transported in far less time.

Under Roman influence, the industrial standard rose considerably.

One of the reasons why the Romans invaded Britain was the country's richness in mineral resources, that were needed for the military's use and the minting of silver coins. The quantity of minerals mined increased under the Romans. The lead was cast into large ingots, sometimes bearing the name of the emperor and sometimes those of private lessees (owners of mines on a leasehold basis). Such ingots have been found not only in Britain, but also in France, indicating a high export rate.

Although mining had long been practised in Britain, the Romans introduced new technical knowledge and large-scale industrial production to revolutionise the industry.

By the third century, Britain's economy was diverse and well-established, with commerce extending into the non-Romanised north. The design of Hadrian's Wall especially catered to the need for customs inspections of merchants' goods.

The industry that has left most traces is the manufacture of terracotta for tiles and pottery. While some tile works were official concerns that, for example, served the needs of the procurators in London or the colonia in Cirencester, most were private concerns that might have supplied roofing tiles for villas. Some pottery, such as the black-burnished ware of Dorset, was produced in vast quantities and taken as far as Hadrian's Wall.

Excavations of the Roman waterfront in London have confirmed Tacitus in showing the significance of this port as a centre for import and export in the first and second centuries. Doubtless various trinkets and other manufactured goods were exported to the barbarians in exchange for slaves and other products such as skins.