By Jonathan Newman
In 301 AD, Roman emperor Diocletian implemented price ceilings on over 1,200 goods. His edict shows that not much has changed regarding the politics and economics of price controls.
Lactantius, a philosopher, wrote about the effects of Diocletian’s edict a few years later:
While Diocletian, that author of ill, and deviser of misery, was ruining all things, he could not withhold his insults, not even against God. This man, by avarice partly, and partly by timid counsels, overturned the Roman empire. […]
He also, when by various extortions he had made all things exceedingly dear, attempted by an ordinance to limit their prices. Then much blood was shed for the veriest trifles; men were afraid to expose aught to sale, and the scarcity became more excessive and grievous than ever, until, in the end, the ordinance, after having proved destructive to multitudes, was from mere necessity abrogated.