A Study On City Administration Of Constantinople

Byzantine was a continuation of the Roman Empire. It not only in the regionremained the eastern territory in the Roman Empire period, but also further developedthe legal system of Roman Empire, and established of a perfect administrativemanagement systems. Constantinople, as Byzantine capital, was not only thecountry’s political center, but also was an important economic center. Therefore, it isespecially necessary to research of it. This paper is intended to discuss from the viewof the administration of Constantinople, analysis the standard and system of the cityadministration of Constantinople. Full text has four parts, namely the construction ofConstantinople, the management of imperial factories, the management of privateindustry and commerce, and the management of urban public service as well.The first chapter mainly discusses the layout of Constantinople and theconstruction of public infrastructure. In later period of Roman Empire, in order tostrengthen the management of the east of the Empire, alleviate the barbarian’s threatto empire, Constantine the Great decided to set up new capital in Byzantine lying inthe eastern Balkan Peninsula. So, it was called Constantinople. The construction ofthe new capital completely imitated the layout of Rome city, and constructed theurban public infrastructure, such as water supply system, bathing place, square,harbors, etc. In the whole, the urban public infrastructure of Constantinople wasconstructed mainly in the6th century before. After the6th century, under the doublestrike of barbarian invasion and natural disaster, the power of Byzantine Empiregradually declined, and the urban public infrastructure of Constantinople was nearlystagnated and wasted. At8-10century, Empire had reformed in the aspects of military,the finance, and the urban public infrastructure of Constantinople gradually gotrebuilding. But, with the arrival of the Crusades, the fate of the decline of ByzantineEmpire finally could not reverse. Before Constantinople fell in1453, its urban publicinfrastructure could not be repaired. The course of building and rebuilding the urbanpublic infrastructure of Constantinople reflected the change of the power of ByzantineEmpire. In fact, municipal government and Empire government administrated the cityof Constantinople together. The second chapter elaborately deals with the management of imperial factories.After the Crisis of the Third Century, social economy of Roman Empire tended tocollapse. Industry and commerce sharp declined, a lot of craftsmen lost their jobs, andthe people lived in destitution. In order to restore order to production industry andcommerce, when Diocletianus was in power, he practiced the binary policy of urbaneconomy. He strengthened the management of the private industry and commerce. Onthe other hand, he took state monopoly measures in some field. The essence of thestate monopoly refers that the industry and commerce which linked closely with state,were prohibited from operating by the private, which was imperial factory. AfterRome Imperial broke up, The East continued to implement economic policy ofDiocletianus.The imperial factories of Byzantine Empire include mints, weaponsmanufacturing factories and silk factories, which mainly involve the revenue of thestate finance, national security and the demand of the royal noble in luxury. Asterritory of the empire reduced, the imperial factories of the empire mainlyconcentrated in Constantinople, which makes the empire the government can moreconvenient and effective managed the imperial factories.The State bought the raw material of the imperial factories, and the workers wererecruited by the state, and the process of production was supervised by specialofficials appointed by the state. All their products flowed to the army and bureaucraticaristocrat group to meet the empire’s military and political needs, not to the civilsociety. So, from the production process, these imperial factories were closed politicalproduction mechanism, not real social production organization, but the part of theruling system of the Empire. From these, we can find that the formation, developmentand evolution of the imperial factories followed the change of the power of theEmpire. When the Empire strengthened, the imperial factories had a very goodopportunity to develop. And management of the state was very strict, the stateprohibited private people opening the workshop.Through researching management of imperial factories of Constantinople, todeeply expounds the function and the influence of the Byzantine Empire governmentin the business management. Hence, in order to facilitate the direct control andmanagement of the central government, the imperial factories mainly concentrated inConstantinople. When the Empire was in unrest or crisis, the imperial factories alsocorrespondingly declined. However the private industry and commerce was difficultto develop in the turbulence and crisis. Generally speaking, the imperial factories represented the central authority of the Empire. The monopoly of the state ensuredEmpire’s financial stability and ordnance supply. But this model did not promote thesocial productive force, block the folk society vigor and vitality. Therefore, rigidstructure of the imperial factories in essence was very fragile, because the foundationwas the overall control of the empire, lack of inner vitality, namely could not achievesustained reproduction mechanism. The imperial factories killed the vitality of civilproduction, which was the reason that made the great dividing line between ByzantineEmpire and Western Europe in the late Middle Age.The third chapter mainly deals with the management of private industry andcommerce. The private industry and commerce of Constantinople includes the localindustry and commerce and foreign trade, which has the inextricable relationship withthe need of royal household and nobles. Under autocratic centralization of state power,the purpose of Byzantine Empire government controlled the private industry andcommerce of Constantinople was to meet the needs of the imperial bureaucracy, noble,and ensure material supply of the residents in Constantinople, not to develop theprivate industry and commerce of Constantinople.In the early days of the private industry and commerce, the government of theempire adopted a mandatory control. However, with the development of the privateindustry and commerce, the empire government, in order to get more finance income,also actively adjusted their management policy and means. Later, the empire began tofade. What’s more, import trade suppressed the development of the local industry andcommerce, so that Constantinople private industry and commerce gradually fadeddown. From the course of the whole development of private industry and commerce,the control of imperial government varied from the power of Byzantine Empire state.Therefore, on the one hand, the Empire government managed private industry andcommerce mandatorily. On the other hand, with the continuous development ofprivate industry and commerce, in order to get more finance income, the empiregovernment also actively adjusted their management policy, let the private industryand commerce create more wealth. On the whole, in the early and middle period,empire government active managed and adjusted the private industry and commerce,and later, the imperial government was so weak that the private industry andcommerce could be free operated. Forced management of the private industry andcommerce created a stable social environment, but the mandatory management alsocontained the free energy and power of the industry and commerce.The fourth chapter discusses the management of city’s public service. The public service businesses of Constantinople comprise medical treatment, relief and publiceducation. Under the influence of Christianity and empire political, the emperor, themunicipal institutions of Constantinople, Christian churches and monasteries, whichtogether were involved in Constantinople the charities. On the one hand, they carriedout the direct measures to help the old, the weak, the sick and the. On the other hand,they also set up some of relief agencies to help all kinds of the poor people in trouble.These relief agencies take initial shape of a comprehensive and systematic charity.Emperor provided financial assistance for education, established public schools.Churches and monasteries were responsible for public school education. Thegovernment of Constantinople was responsible for supervision and management ofeducation.