公元302年，罗马皇帝戴克里先下令“物价必须低廉”，并宣布：“无良的贪婪无处不在，尤其是我们军队行进的地方……我们的法律将对这种贪婪设定一个衡量标准和限制。” 可预见的结果是，戴克里先的粮食价格管制引发了黑市、饥荒，以及士兵对粮食的强制征用。尽管价格管制的历史充满灾难性的后果，政客们却从未能抵挡干预价格的诱惑——这对他们的学习能力不是个恭维的评价。

——沃尔特·E·威廉姆斯

In 302, the Roman emperor Diocletian commanded "there should be cheapness," declaring, "Unprincipled greed appears wherever our armies ... march. ... Our law shall fix a measure and a limit to this greed." The predictable result of Diocletian's food price controls were black markets, hunger and food confiscation by his soldiers. Despite the disastrous history of price controls, politicians never manage to resist tampering with prices -- that's not a flattering observation of their learning abilities.