London: Routledge, 2002. According to the orator, Demosthenes, Athens imported some 400,000 medimnoi (approximately 4,800,000 liters) of grain per year in the late fourth century from the Crimean kingdom of the Bosporus alone. Two great epic poems with much information about economic practices at the outset of the Archaic period, c. 800-750 B.C. -----Trade Helps Greece Prosper. In Athens the prominent and wealthy metic banker, Pasion, for example, was originally a slave who assisted his masters Antisthenes and Archestratus. Although this is true for the most part, like other aspects of the Finley model, the case is overstated. In the Archaic and Classical periods, Greece was not unified but was comprised of hundreds of small, independent poleis or “city-states.” During the Hellenistic period, Greek civilization spread into the Near East and large kingdoms became the norm. Nonetheless, the ancient Greeks did engage in economic activity. The cradle of Greek Civilization that influenced many other western civilizations was in a large peninsula that was surrounded on three sides by the Mediterranean Sea. Economics: How did the civilizations grow and prosper? Public officials oversaw weights, measures, scales, and coinage to limit and resolve disputes in exchanges as well as to ensure state interests. The Ptolemaic state also involved itself in various manufacturing processes, such as olive oil production. In Athens the state obtained the necessary timber for the ships (and oars) of its navy, but it contracted with carpenters who worked under the supervision of state officials to craft the timber into the warships that were so vital for Athenian power in the Classical period. Excellent collection of documents on Greek and Roman slavery translated into English. "The Athenian economy twenty years after. In the final war, a pretender to the Macedonian throne attempted to expel the Romans with the support of Corinth and other Greek city … Stone for building and sculpture was another valuable natural resource of Greece. The slaves of Athens were chattel, that is the private property of their owners, and had few, if any, rights. A classic that greatly influenced Hasebroek and Finley. In addition, there was an extensive and regular slave trade that trafficked in people who had become slaves by all the means mentioned previously. Top Answer. The olive tree and grapevine, as well as orchards, were complemented by the cultivation of herbs, vegetables, and oil-producing plants. But material goods may be produced, exchanged, and valued by means other than market institutions. Animal husbandry focused on sheep and goats, which could be moved from their winter lowland pasturage to the moister and cooler mountainous regions during the hot summer months. Significant variations from the Athenian example will be noted, however, as will some recent trends in scholarship. Some were enslaved for failure to pay debts, though this was outlawed in Athens in the early sixth century B.C. Ingenium is an ancient concept, with synonyms in Sanscrit and often equated with eupheuia, ‘ευφυία’ in Greek. There were no assembly lines and no big factories. But their mobility was completely restricted; they had very few rights; they had to turn over a large percentage of their produce to their Spartan overlords; and they were routinely terrorized as a matter Spartan state policy. Thompson, M., O. Mørkholm, and C.M. Literary accounts as well as scenes from painted vases make it clear that the ancient Greeks left textile production largely to women. Thus, slaves comprised over a third of the total population and outnumbered adult male citizens by three to one. States minted coins not to facilitate economic transactions among their citizens, but merely for state purposes so that, for example, it had a convenient medium through which to collect taxes or make state expenditures. : Honors and Privileges for Trade-Related Services. Kurke, L. Coins, Bodies, Games, and Gold: The Politics of Meaning in Archaic Greece, 1999. The Hellenistic Age from the Battle of Ipsos to the Death of Kleopatra VII. Part of the production went to domestic usage (dishes, containers, oil lamps) or for commercial purposes, and the rest served religious or artistic functions. Austin, M.M. Art. Most taxes were indirect: market taxes, port taxes, import-export taxes, and taxes on foreigners who took up long-term residence in Athens. Both approaches are useful and not necessarily mutually exclusive. Brock, R. “The Labour of Women in Classical Athens.” Classical Quarterly 44 (1994): 336-346. Scheidel, W. and S. von Reden. Ancient Roots In Mesopotamia and Egypt, by the 3rd millennium BCE, local officials appeared to have been tasked with rounding up criminals and bringing them to justice. However, the situation gradually changed between the 8th and 4th centuries BC, with the increased commercialization of the Greek economy. In Classical Athens it has been estimated that there were around 120,000 slaves. A brief and highly readable survey of the early Archaic period. Olives were then left to ferment and only after a few weeks they were pressed. Though adequate in some area the land ( and more particularly the soil ) in much of Ancient Greece was ill suited to the growing of crops like Wheat, Barley etc. Pottery in ancient Greece was most often the work of slaves. In fact, agorai were considered sacred places to the degree that they were marked off with boundary stones across which no one who had the stain of religious pollution could cross. One resource that Greece did have was stone for building. Ancient Greece never really declined. The real centers of Greek culture moved to other areas in the world including the cities of Alexandria (Egypt), Antioch (Turkey), and Ephesus (Turkey). Berkeley: University of California Press. Both Greece and Rome are Mediterranean countries, similar enough latitudinally for both to grow wine and olives. Both transient and resident foreigner traders had to pay poll taxes in Athens that citizens did not. Given that the ancient Greeks did have a monetized economy, it is not surprising that they also developed banking and credit institutions. For instance, Euripides' mother sold chervil from her garden (cf. This was due to healthy standards of living and an increase of medical inventions. Peasants whose status lay somewhere between slave and free not only worked the king’s lands, but were also often required to labor on other royal projects. Wiedemann, T. Greek and Roman Slavery. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. Since land was the chief source of wealth in the ancient Greek economy, the inability to control it severely constrained the economic role of women. What religion were the Romans? However, women were not citizens and neither were slaves. The ancient cultures of Greece, the Minoan and the Mycenean, produced wonderful works of art, but we are indebted to archeology for the finds that we have from these cultures. to 400 B.C, the population in ancient Greece rose. Although von Reden believes that the use of coinage arose within an embedded economic context and, therefore, did not have to be re-embedded, she has argued that coinage and other forms of money did not have an intrinsically economic use or meaning in ancient Greece, but rather multiple meanings that were determined by the context within which they were used, which could be social, religious, or political as well as economic. After the death of Pericles in 429 BC, a new class emerged: that of the wealthy owners and managers of workshops. Such means may be tied to non-economic social and political institutions, including gift exchange or state-controlled redistribution and price-setting. The major flattish area of Greece is generally considered to be Thessaly, which not coincidentally was also the only part of ancient Greece famed for horse breeding. Such activities were not to be undertaken simply to make a profit and certainly not to obtain capital for future investment and economic growth. Throughout most of ancient Greek history before the Hellenistic period, a free enterprise economy with private property and limited government intervention predominated. 1988. Non-slave workers were paid by assignment since the workshops could not guarantee regular work. True, the Greeks produced and consumed goods, engaged in various forms of exchanges including long-distance trade, and developed monetary systems employing coinage, but they did not see such activities as being part of a distinct institution which we call the “economy.”. But it is clear that there were significant innovations in some places and sectors on account of the collision and fusion of Greek notions of the economy with those of the newly won lands of the Near East. Austin, M.M. Such a policy attests to a state interest in production and exports, at least in this sector of the economy. Trade was limited mostly to local exchanges between the countryside and the urban center of city-states. in what are called the Archaic (776-480), Classical (480-323), and Hellenistic (323-30) periods.2 During this time, Greek civilization was very different from our own in a variety of ways. The very first coins were made from electrum (an alloy of gold and silver), followed by pure silver, the most commonly found valuable metal in the region. Thus, we see greatly increased government control over the economy, as evidenced most strikingly in the surviving papyrus records of the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty that ruled Egypt. Finley’s model, of course, holds that coinage had strictly political functions. Archimedes’ screw-like pump was used to remove water from mines and to improve irrigation for agriculture. Techniques for working with clay have been known since the Bronze Age; the potter's wheel is a very ancient invention. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977. Of course, one must be careful to account for genre and audience in addition to the personal perspective of the author when using such sources for information about the economy. Osborne, R. Classical Landscape with Figures: The Ancient Greek City and Its Countryside. But why did people grow beards in ancient Greece and did not do so in Rome? These islands were the Cyclades, the Dodecanese, the Ionian Islands, and the Isle of Crete along with southern peninsula of Peloponnese. Thus, the model makes little distinction between different regions or city-states of Greece, even though it is clear that the economies of Athens and Sparta, for example, were quite different in many respects. Some slaves even lived on their own and ran their owners’ businesses largely unsupervised. Provides both a survey of the subject and excerpts from the primary sources of evidence. This abundance o food supported the people and allowed Rome to prosper. Chiefly because of the need for certain imports, such as grain and timber, and for revenue drawn from taxes on trade, many cities did have an interest and involvement in overseas trade. During the Classical period of ancient Greek history (480-323 B.C. The distribution of finds of ancient pottery can, therefore, tell us the extent of trade in various goods. On the other hand, the great temples of ancient Greece required much organization, many resources, and incredible technical skill. But like other manufactured products in ancient Greece, they were made by hand. 6 7 8. 2020. Cannabis helped ancient civilizations prosper. Many of the literary works listed below are available in the Loeb Classical Library and Penguin Classics series in English translations. Through their power to harness farming and many other types of technology. Von Reden, S. “Money, Law, and Exchange: Coinage in the Greek Polis.” Journal of Hellenic Studies 107 (1997): 154-176. A close philological study of the evidence for banking practices in Classical Athens that argues for a disembedded economy with productive credit transactions. In the case of grain, it can be shown that supply and demand over long-distances did have an impact on prices and traders sought to take advantage of the lag-time between price adjustments in order to make a profit. One drawback of such evidence, however, is that the authors of these works were without exception members of the elite, and their political perspective and disdain for day-to-day economic activity should not necessarily be taken to represent the views of all or even the majority of ancient Greeks. In addition, there were officials who oversaw such things as weights, measures, and coinage to make sure that people were not cheated in the market place. Economies beyond Agriculture in the Classical World. Finely painted vases were also manufactured for decorative and ritual purposes. An excellent collection of some of the most important articles on the ancient Greek and Roman economy from the last 30 years with a helpful introduction, notes, and glossary. Greece's main exports were olive oil, wine, pottery, and metalwork. Socrates. The Romans were unusually adaptable and willing to change their strategy when compared to the rest of the ancient world. The civilization of Ancient Greece emerged into the light of world history in the 8th century BC. Garnsey, P. Non-Slave Labour in the Graeco-Roman World. Yet for all its interference in the economy, the Ptolemaic government did not assemble a state merchant fleet and instead contracted with private traders to transport grain to and from public granaries. The main participants in Greek commerce were the class of traders known as emporoi (ἕμποροι). Alongside this they were the first democracy and many wanted to see it prosper Thus, weaving and baking, activities so important to the Western late medieval economy, were done only by women before the 6th century BC. 46 terms. Millett, P. Lending and Borrowing in Ancient Athens. Given the remoteness of ancient Greek civilization, the evidence is minimal and difficulties of interpretation abound. This brief article, therefore, will not include any of the statistics, tables, charts, or graphs that normally accompany economic studies. But caution is necessary, since there have been changes in the physical environment of and settlement patterns in Greece over time that can skew comparative analyses. Many of the goods traded throughout ancient Greek history were luxury goods, manufactured items, such as jewelry and finely painted vases, as well as specialty agricultural products like fine wine and honey. A typical trading venture involved a non-citizen trader (emporos) who either owned his own ship or rented space on a ship owned by another (naukleros). Prices were rarely fixed, so bargaining was a common practice. As more research is done, it may even be necessary to replace the Finley model altogether in favor of one that fits the evidence better. Among townsfolk, this task often fell to the women. Despite limited resources, how/why did Greece prosper economically? “Archaic Coinage as Evidence for the Use of Money.” In Money and Its Uses in the Ancient Greek World, edited by A. Meadows and K. Shipton, 7-21. Ancient Greek city-states regulated the economic activities that took place in their markets to a certain degree. It was never a country. Learn more about the … Many of the potters of Athens assembled between the agora and the Dipylon, in the Kerameikon. The Greek economy contributed to the success of Greece as a civilization. The methods are largely coercive, not productive, such as cornering the market in grain during a famine, debasing coinage, etc. Epigraphic evidence comes in the form of stone inscriptions from public and private institutions. How did Rome turned conquered peoples into allies? Such occupations existed in the manufacturing, service, retail, and trade sectors. 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