My Ruminations On Rome & Real Estate Lessons For Cooperative Societies (PART 2)

Last week, I wrote about three areas of our current civilization that are still heavily influenced by the defunct Roman Empire. We shared insights about the Roman Numerals, the origin of Spaghetti, and the Roman Catholic Church as vestiges and relics of the ancient Romans

Particularly, the real estate strategy of Crassus, a Roman aristocrat and politician who used the principle of flipping distressed properties was highlighted and parallels were drawn for cooperative societies, which through real estate trading can grow their revenue and improve their members’ personal economies.

In the concluding part of this article, I will briefly highlight four more ways Rome still impacts our lives and salient lessons we can glean for personal and cooperative benefits.

4. THE ENGLISH ALPHABET

It is almost certain that you didn’t know our English alphabet traces its origin and development to the Latin language which was the official language of ancient Rome and the lingua franca of the then world. Every time you write or speak in English, you are invariably perpetuating the Roman heritage of the Latin language and era.

5. THE GREGORIAN CALENDAR

According to the Britannica Encyclopedia, the Gregorian calendar is a solar dating system used by most of the world. It is named for Pope Gregory XIII, who issued the papal bull Inter gravissimas in 1582, announcing calendar reforms for all of Catholic Christendom. The Gregorian calendar modified the existing Julian calendar, which Julius Caesar had introduced to the ancient Roman Republic in 46 BCE.

Shortly after its introduction, the Gregorian Calendar was adopted by Italian states, Portugal, Spain, and the Roman Catholic German states. Gradually, other countries adopted the Gregorian calendar: the Protestant German states in 1699, Great Britain and its colonies in 1752, Sweden in 1753, Japan in 1873, China in 1912, the Soviet socialist republics in 1918, and Greece in 1923. Islamic countries tend to use the Gregorian calendar for secular life but retain calendars based on Islam for religious purposes.

6. “A.M. & P.M.”

Apart from the calendar system, our clock system evolved partly from the Roman time system. The Latin words meridies (midday), ante (before), and post (after), the term ante meridiem (a.m.) meaning before midday and post meridiem (p.m.) after midday are the standard way of dividing a day into two halves of 12 hours each.

7. ROMAN COOPERATIVES & REAL ESTATE

There are many housing co-operatives in Rome, Italy; the social vocation of which is to guarantee all those who live on Italian soil, local or immigrant, access to decent and inexpensive housing.

Co-operatives are autonomous associations of individuals who join together voluntarily to meet their own economic, social, and cultural needs. Together they constitute a common property company that is democratically controlled by all members.

Housing cooperatives are non-profit and must allow their members to build housing with a quality/price ratio similar to or lower than that of social housing.

The first Italian cooperatives date back to the beginning of the 19th century when masons self-built workers’ houses in the green districts of Milan. The impact of housing cooperatives in Rome gave rise to the legislation of the “bio edilizia” (bio-construction) and “auto-recupero” (renovation of public buildings) by cooperatives.

In Nigeria today, the housing deficit still remains at a gaping level and the onus is on cooperative societies across the length and breadth of Nigeria to devise innovative means of reducing the burden of lack of quality housing. Alternatively, Cooperative societies are encouraged to partner with credible and reliable real estate companies with proven track records of delivery and integrity to provide access to its members to own affordable housing, while equally improving the quality of their lives, finances, and families through the several opportunities that abound in the real estate sector.

Rejoice Alabi Esq, ChMC; MBA Candidate, Real Estate & Finance (IREF), Msc Agribusiness Candidate (Rome Business School) writes from Lagos and can be reached at +234 901 504 8728 or via email on alabitober@gmail.com