This chapter explores the economy of the later Roman Empire, with special emphasis on resource management, economic structures and regional variations. It highlights how land, labour and capital functioned within a largely agrarian system, with agriculture serving as the primary economic driver and tax base. The chapter examines diverse sources, including archaeological surveys, historical texts, coinage and environmental data. It analyses the effects of political instability, regional differentiation and resource distribution on economic trends. Case studies from North Gaul, Iberia, Italy and the Eastern Mediterranean reveal that economic activity was influenced by both local conditions and imperial policies. The study also incorporates ecological data, such as pollen analysis and lead pollution levels, to assess economic fluctuations. A central argument is that the later Roman economy was not a uniform system but a collection of interconnected regional economies. While political fragmentation led to economic contractions in some areas, others adapted through local specialisation and changing trade networks. This study thus challenges the view of economic collapse, instead emphasising resilience and adaptation, and calling for an interdisciplinary approach to better understand the complexities of late Roman economic life and its long-term transformations.

Of the duties, offices, and jurisdictions of the pope, few responsibilities were as crucial and esteemed as charity. This chapter surveys papal concern for and response to charity (500–1800 CE). The initial direction, speed, and efficacy of papal charity depended largely on individual popes and the contexts in which they operated. Charity became more regular with early Church councils and with the personal efforts of certain popes, but these endeavors remained informal until the Gregorian Reform and the Lateran Councils of the high Middle Ages. By the later Middle Ages, centralized charitable care emerged under the charge of the papacy: popes approved the creation of hospitals, protected pilgrims and prostitutes, and made regular charitable donations in kind and in coins. These efforts continued during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, despite significant changes for the Church. Papal concern for charity never waned: from its beginnings to the modern period, the papacy embodied the Christian tenant to love one’s neighbor.

Chapter 5, “The Supply of Food to Constantinople,” discusses the supply, distribution, preparation, and consumption of food to the capital, noting the importance of the relationship between the urban center, its hinterland, and the empire’s distant provinces.