208 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
obvious. The capital was now situated in a position to take its
share in the increasing continental trade. An indication of the
higher plane of civilisation resulting from continental contacts
may be seen in the comparative frequency of finds of small
coins of the period. These coins, denoting the necessity for
small change, are important in another respect. Many of them,
bearing an engraved ear of corn, provide a significant comment
on the previous remarks regarding the improved agriculture of
the La Tene III people.
With the Roman Occupation Essex appears within the
southern or civil area of Britain ; the inference being that order
and stable settlement existed in the district. The main sites
of many Romano-British towns and settlements may be indicated
with some certainty. We are also aware that agriculture
developed considerably, since Britain apparently produced
sufficient corn to feed the Roman Army of Occupation and the
civil service, in addition to the agricultural population. Further-
more, whilst there seems to be no evidence of the import of food,
frequent instances have been noted of corn export, and it seems
probable that there would have been an annual export to Rome.
Essex almost certainly participated in the export of the corn
sent from Britain to the relief of the Rhenish provinces.'3
From these many indications of British corn-growing one
may gather that the civil area was definitely above subsistence
farming ; the stability implied by the "Pax Romana" resulting
in an increased production. So much may be gleaned from
contemporary writings, but these writings are silent regarding
the exact siting of the corn-producing areas, and to what extent
Essex, or the district later to be Essex, contributed. It seems
not unlikely that the corn-growing districts of Britain at this
time might have been those clearings made by the British
to the south-east of the country. The colonising Romans would,
no doubt, have continued to occupy and possibly extend the
limits of these areas. It seems certain that a few of these
areas occurred in the Essex district.
An examination of the O.S. Map of Roman Essex fails to
indicate the existence of any such agricultural areas in Essex,
or, indeed, elsewhere in Britain. Settlement sites of the Roman
6 Noted in Zosimus and Ammamianus Marcellinus.