Memberships in several professional associations and economic networks in the Roman West

In the urban centres of the Roman West, many skilled workers gathered in collegia. Devoted to friendship and conviviality, those associations still had a significant impact on economic life, because they reinforced relations between the professionals of the same trade. Besides, in the greatest harbours, some dignitaries belonged to several collegia or patronized another collegium than their own. This was characteristic of a business elite involved in complementary activities and helped to extend economic networks far beyond each specific trade.