The Edict on Maximum Prices, Established by the Roman Emperor

question 283

Multiple Choice

The Edict on Maximum Prices, established by the Roman Emperor Diocletian, created price ceilings on various jobs and goods in a failed effort to curb inflation. For example, legal pay for a farm laborer could be no more than 10.8¢ a day (payment set in modern currency) . If the market rate of farm labor was 12¢ a day, which would be a plausible consequence of this law?

• A) farms would produce more food than they otherwise would
• B) nothing unusual
• C) a laborer would work less hard than he otherwise would
• D) an increase in unemployment for farm hands

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Definitions:

Spectrum

A range of values or conditions, often specifically pertaining to the distribution of energy emitted or absorbed by a substance, visible in bands of colors or intensities.

IR Spectroscopy

A technique used in analytical chemistry to identify molecular structure through the absorption of infrared radiation by molecules, leading to vibrational and rotational changes.

Electronegativity

A measure of the tendency of an atom to attract a bonding pair of electrons towards itself in a molecule.

Frequency

The number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time.