How to Fix A Corrupt Republic: Julius Caesar Style
The Roman Republic formed and thrived.
Then it degenerated into the Roman Oligarchy, as all republics do.
There was an entrenched political elite that operated alongside a financial/cultural elite to suppress—and financially enslave—the average people.
Sound familiar? This oligarchy largely resembles our own situation (us plebs against our ruling class).
Julius Caesar devised a solution. That solution involved an end to the corrupt optimate republic, in favor of the populares.
The Julius Caesar solution is twofold:
- First, chase out the optimates (oligarchs) and then make any that remain subject to the new head of state.
- Second, completely wreck the oligarch’s financialization ability over the masses.
The first is rather self-explanatory. He corrected the power cycle by putting in proper hierarchy and authority, which always falls away in degenerated periods. Unaccountable wealth should not control the state and the institutions, but in late-stage republics, it always does.
But the second point is truly fascinating, and it is something many of our own modern reformers gloss over. It is what I want to focus on for this article.
Caesar often gets a bad rap because of our corrupted history (and because of Cicero’s dramatic whinings about the man due to Cicero being an eques optimate who had much to lose personally).
If his coming and reforms were so hated as some of the biased historians claim, then why do we have ample evidence of people cheering his crossing of the Rubicon, gathering to greet him, populares joining at whim, and helping his soldiers along the way? Additionally, and perhaps more impactful, why did the oligarchs have to flee to Asia if the republic had such superb support?
The truth is that the republic’s ruling class oligarchs were trash. And like all trash, they needed to be and were thrown out. Just like how our own trash needs to likewise be emptied.
But not only did Caesar do so, he then also put in the monetary reforms to permanently keep them confined to the trashcan.
The reform’s primary focus was to decimate the financialization ability of the oligarchs. But they massively benefited the people in the process. Both are win/wins in my book.
The crisis of the Roman Republic lasted from 134 BC to 44 BC. But the main piece, the monetary crisis, existed around 51 BC to 44 BC. Julius Caesar reigned from 49 BC until his assassination in 44 BC. It is these monetary items that largely set the empire up for success under Augustus.
Caesar is the only person I know of throughout all of history that actually solved a debt crisis that existed alongside a monetary crisis favorably. The financial issues that existed during his short reign were massive, but you rarely hear about them because he solved them. Once the civil war period ended and Augustus came in, only minor tweaks were needed based on Caesar’s blueprint. Pax Romana was achieved.
How’d he do it?
Julius Caesar mandated the following:
- Control of the minting process was transferred from the oligarchs to the state. This made it so the state could get seigniorage and currency control, instead of private oligarchs.
- New cheap metal coins were issued as the means of exchange. The oligarchs used gold/silver as a means of exchange previously, but they controlled the purchasing power of these through the production/distribution of the materials. Cheap metal coins kept everything tied to the state and could not be influenced privately.
- Forgiveness of all interest (usury).
- New interest could not exceed 1% per month and could not exceed the capital loaned or be compounded.
- Any interest already paid must be applied to the principle.
- Slavery was abolished as a means of settling debt.
- Restoration of property. Any property taken from usurious conditions was returned to the original owners. This included land property that was returned to the poor after being centralized for the past hundred years in the hands of a few.
- Reappraisal of loans based on true property/collateral value pre-Civil War. (I.e. You get a loan for $400,000 in construction equipment, the value crashes to $100,000. After Caesar’s adjustment, you paid the $100,000. The oligarchs could not extort everyone and simultaneously cash-in on low prices).
- Rent was cancelled for one year.
- The rich had to use their wealth, not hoard it. For instance, one law outright forbid holding more than 60,000 sesterces in cash by any one person. No rich hoarders that could then use their money for corrupt gain or influencing purchasing power through monopolization.
- State debt was immediately reduced by 25% simply by the acts conducted above. The state also then had a recurring budget surplus which could pay off further debt (but Caesar put toward other things in the year before his death).
(* Note: These are sourced from many books. Most come from Plutarch’s history, but I also used Goldsmith’s History of Rome (Gutenberg), SPQR, and A History of Central Banking and the Enslavement of Mankind.)
Even in his death Caesar helped his people. In his will, he distributed the wealth he amassed to each citizen (300,000 sesterces to each person). He also gave up his villa, gardens, and art gallery to be made public.
This list solved the monetary crisis amicably. Both lenders and borrowers were satisfied. That never happens. The only people that fought Caesar were the holdouts in the Senate optimate oligarchy, that had to give up their looting of the masses.
The exact same kind of looting that is happening to our people right now, in modern America.
Could you imagine if we enacted these reforms today? How absolutely awesome it would be?
Vanguard could not hoard their money and farms anymore. Houses and land could not be centralized by the likes of Bill Gates and BlackRock. Interest would be capped at a measly 1%, so loans would actually be fair and affordable (not usury). The Fed would be disbanded, because they would no longer serve a purpose. No more enslavement of our average people in massive debt, both public and private. Our people could get their land and currency back.
I know people don’t like to hear it, but sometimes a strongman is needed. When a system gets overtaken by oligarchs and is hopelessly lost, sometimes you need a Caesar. You cannot go from a rule-by-few back to a rule-by-many. It is impossible. You have to get through the rule-by-one first.
The Optimates are near-identical to our current corrupt ruling class republic-ites. Whether you like it or not, you are a populare. And we need a Caesar.
Everyone always talks about learning from history or failing to repeat it. Well, if you want to learn how to solve an oligarchy, Julius Caesar provided the perfect blueprint over two thousand years ago.
We do not need to reinvent the wheel, we just need to cross the Rubicon.
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