Something Weird

I have a post on commodity prices during the Depression below which has reminded me of something different, but interesting. Wheat is selling for the same price now as it did during the era of the Roman Empire. How do we know? Wheat was sold for "talents" of silver or a portion thereof; a talent weighed approximately what a man weighed (37 kilos) so we know that a talent of silver would be worth $6,500 at today's prices. So we know what was paid for what. Wheat is the only constant from way back then; no corn or beans were used or available and not everyone could grow barley and so on. What is interesting is the absence of elasticity of wheat prices, thus we assume prices are nearly the same for all commodities. Just think about all that for a moment. Really interesting.