The Ancient EconomyWalter Scheidel, Sitta von Reden Taylor & Francis, 2002 - 282 pages The Ancient Economy introduces readers to the nature of economic life in the ancient world, and provides a valuable guide to scholarly debates on the subject. The book describes and examines the economic processes and fluctuations of the ancient world, and shows how these relate to political and social change and conditions. Leading experts address the central issues, from agricultural production to the uses of money and the creation of markets. Taken as a whole the book exemplifies the range of interdisciplinary perspectives on the ancient economy, and illustrates the methodological approaches scholars have deployed to understand it. In doing so it draws on literary, ecological and archaeological evidence. |
Contents
Introduction I | 1 |
Traditional and Ancient Rural Economy | 53 |
The Contestation | 87 |
The Price Histories of Some Imported Goods | 133 |
The Ancient Economy and GraecoRoman Egypt | 155 |
Rome Taxes Rents and Trade | 190 |
Modernism Economics and the Ancient Economy | 233 |
Framing the Debate over Growth in the Ancient | 251 |
| 270 | |
| 279 | |
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Common terms and phrases
agricultural amphorae ancient economy ancient Greek ancient historians ancient world archaeological areas argued argument aristocratic Aristotle Athenian Athenian economy Athens average C. R. Whittaker Cambridge capital cash century BC Classical Antiquity coinage crop cultural debate Delian Delos demand Descat drachmas Duncan-Jones E. A. Wrigley econ economic growth economic history elite evidence example exchange value fallowing farming Figure Finley's fourth century Garnsey Glotz Graeco-Roman Greece Greek world Hellenistic Herodotus Hitchner Hopkins important investment Italian Italy labour land London Mattingly Mediterranean million HS modern modernist olive production Oxford papyrus papyrus prices peasant period Phainippos Phanias pitch prices political population primitivist provinces Ptolemaic Egypt recent Reger region rents Roman economy Roman Egypt Roman Empire Rome Rostovtzeff rural Saller scale scholars slaves social society sources subsistence suggests taxes Themistocles Timocreon Timocreon's town trade traditional transhumance University Press urban wheat wine amphorae