{"title":"Nonagricultural Production, Capital, and Innovation","authors":"Alain Bresson","doi":"10.23943/princeton/9780691183411.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23943/princeton/9780691183411.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines the logic of capital and innovation in nonagricultural production in Classical and Hellenistic Greece. It begins with a discussion of fish production and consumption in ancient Greece, focusing on salt production and the preservation of food supplies by means of salt and salting, before discussing the Greek cities' exploitation of their coastal waters. It then considers the importance of fish trade and fish consumption to food supply, artisanal trades, and the distinctive character of artisanal production. In particular, it analyzes the structures of production and the kinds of constraints, both in terms of technology and capital, involved in artisanal work. It also explains how enterprises were structured and how unskilled labor was used by looking at the case of textile manufacturing. Finally, it describes technological innovation in textile manufacturing and in the artisanal trades, including the introduction of rotary movement and the watermill.","PeriodicalId":331139,"journal":{"name":"The Making of the Ancient Greek Economy","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129222090","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Economy of the Agricultural World","authors":"Alain Bresson","doi":"10.23943/princeton/9780691183411.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23943/princeton/9780691183411.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines the social and technical conditions that both structured the Greek agricultural economy's permanent features and presided over the changes it experienced. It first considers the structures of real property, with a particular focus on the distribution of property, the size of the estates, and access to land and farming systems. It then discusses the crucial questions of risk management in an unpredictable environment, taking into account the different strategies employed by peasants to limit uncertainty caused by, for example, the extreme variability of the climate. It also analyzes tradition and innovation in agriculture and animal husbandry, the development of new lands that increased the area suitable for cultivation, and how general institutional conditions and social power relationships limited the transformations of agriculture, and hence an increase in yields in agricultural production. The chapter concludes with an analysis of changes in ancient agriculture and the market.","PeriodicalId":331139,"journal":{"name":"The Making of the Ancient Greek Economy","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126177247","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"City-States, Taxes, and Trade","authors":"Alain Bresson","doi":"10.23943/princeton/9780691183411.003.0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23943/princeton/9780691183411.003.0011","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines the taxation system for trade and commerce in ancient Greece. It first considers how foreign trade and customs duties were supervised before discussing the system of taxation for maritime trade. Citing documents concerning tax exemptions, the chapter shows that traders were constantly seeking privileges in an effort to avoid paying taxes. Maritime shipping was the quickest and least expensive way to move goods, and ports were levied the highest amount of taxes. Cities situated on the coastline benefited from an economic rent related to their location, and they exploited their natural advantage to the maximum. A city had the right to levy transit fees on its own territory, but not if these fees were levied on a maritime channel. The chapter also emphasizes the importance of economic information in maritime commerce, especially with regard to ensuring the security of international trade.","PeriodicalId":331139,"journal":{"name":"The Making of the Ancient Greek Economy","volume":"47 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124428233","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Greek Cities and the Market","authors":"Alain Bresson","doi":"10.23943/princeton/9780691183411.003.0015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23943/princeton/9780691183411.003.0015","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines the extent and the limits of the market system in ancient Greece. It begins with a historical overview of the center-periphery model that emerged during the period, predation as a defining characteristic of the ancient Greek market, and the divergence of prices from one region to another—often seen as a symptom of a lack of market integration. It then compares the overall performance of the market in the city-states with those of the cities of medieval and modern Europe before discussing the disequilibrium between supply and demand and the form of risk management adopted by individuals and by cities that made the market of ancient Greece far from being a “perfect market.” The chapter concludes with an analysis of the Nash equilibrium that characterized the market and the factors that limited the production of grain to be sold on the market.","PeriodicalId":331139,"journal":{"name":"The Making of the Ancient Greek Economy","volume":"95 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125404874","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Institutions of the Domestic Market","authors":"Alain Bresson","doi":"10.23943/PRINCETON/9780691183411.003.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23943/PRINCETON/9780691183411.003.0009","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines the institutions of the domestic market system in the Greek city-states. It begins with a discussion of private property in relation to trade, noting that, in the framework of the kind of collective appropriation constituted by the city-state, citizens were free to use their property as they wished. It then considers the city-states' law and legal practices relating to transactions, with particular emphasis on the law of sale and contracts, before exploring the agora as a legal space and as a marketplace connected with other official places of exchange that were also institutionalized. The chapter goes on to describe buying and selling in the agora, legal constraints on the agora, supervision of contracts and production, and the authority of the agoranomoi (magistrates). It concludes with an analysis of informational asymmetry and guarantee of sales in commercial trade, along with price control policies for commodities on sale.","PeriodicalId":331139,"journal":{"name":"The Making of the Ancient Greek Economy","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130612777","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}