Describe the situation of the inhabitants of the Roman Empire in the last two centuries of its existence.

The decline of trade was expressed in the naturalization of all government payments: taxes, military salaries, etc. Trade almost did not go beyond the city market. The cities themselves were no longer commercial and industrial centers, but rather fortresses, their territories were shrinking. In the village, serf relations developed rapidly in the form of a colonate. The high turnover of the population forced the state to attach workers to the land, but they still fled. In the last two centuries, the decline of handicrafts was also observed in the Roman Empire.