The second volume of the Handbook describes different extractive economies in the world regions that have been outlined in the first volume. A wide range of economic actors – from kings and armies to cities and producers – are discussed within different imperial settings as well as the tools, which enabled and constrained economic outcomes.

This paper analyses rural settlement patterns in the Lower Rhine frontier
zone to elucidate the role of forts in the rural economy. Von Thünen’s model of rural
marketing suggests that market centres attract intensive cultivation, making them
identifiable through spatial analysis of rural settlements. Environmental factors that
influenced production capacity, however, can also be expected

This book is the fourth in a series of conference proceedings organized by the editors as part of the Oxford Roman Economy Project (OxREP). After an introduction, the book is divided into three sections, one on the state and institutions, one on trade within the empire, and one on trade across the frontiers.