Past as prologue

• Author: Anthony Annett - Joshua Lipsky
• Position: Assistant to the director - Senior communications officer in the IMF's Communications Department
• Pages: 37-39

Anthony Annett and Joshua Lipsky

PAST AS

PROLOGUE

Ancient Rome offers lessons on the importance

of sustainable development

S

ustainable development encapsulates t he idea that

material progress must a lways go hand in hand with

social inclusion and respect for the environment.

Delinking economic growth from the other two

pillars would be an act of self-sabotage. Ancient Rome

offers us a case study of how tra gedy might play out—and

how it can be avoided.

e Roman Republic lasted 500 yea rs because its

institutions were supple enough to adapt to two great

challenges —internal conflict between aristocrats and

the masses and ex ternal conflict with rival states and

integration of conquered peoples. Despite constant ten-

sions, Romans were bonded by shared values —a sense

of honor rooted in public service and a commitment to

their conception of the common good.

For generations, the center held—until it did not. At

first, the change s were subtle. Territorial expansion—at

the beginning of the second century BCE, t he Republic

stretched from Gaul to Greece— brought an influx of

wealth in the form of tribute payments, ta xes from new

provinces, and the development of metal mines. A new cl ass

of super-wealthy Romans created financial i nstruments to

package debt, resell it, a nd invest the profits in infrastruc-

ture projects. Sound fami liar? In many ways, this was an

ancient form of globalization, both trade a nd financial.

And the boom times drove the popul ation of Rome to

nearly 1 million by the first c entury BCE, ma king it the

first city on eart h to reach that milestone.

ART: GETTYIMAGES/NASTASIC

March 2019 | FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT 37