During the Roman Republic, the Roman economy was largely agrarian, centered on the trading of commodities such as grain and wine.[2] Financial markets were established through such trade, and financial institutions which extended credit for personal use and public infrastructure, were established primarily through inter-family wealth.[3] In times of agricultural and cash shortfall, Roman officials and moneyers tended to respond by coining money; this happened during the prolonged crisis of the First Punic War, and created economic distortion and difficulties. Beginning in the early Roman Empire, the economy became monetized to a near-universal extent, in the sense of using money to express prices and debts, and a basic banking system was formed.[4]