Page "Roman Britain" Paragraph 63

These products moved as a result of private trade and also through payments and contracts established by the Roman state to support its military forces and officials on the island, as well as through state taxation and extraction of resources.

Up until the mid-3rd century, the Roman state ’ s payments appear to have been unbalanced, with far more products sent to Britain, to support its large military force ( which had reached c. 53, 000 by the mid-2nd century ), than were extracted from the island.