Strategies of International Trade

This chapter examines the strategies employed in international trade in ancient Greece. It explains how the rules of trade and the distribution of “natural advantages” played the role of a system of constraints within which genuine strategies of foreign trade could be constructed. To better understand the specificity of these trade strategies, the chapter first considers the two institutional logics that prevailed in the international market: the first consisted in setting up a “surpluses for surpluses” trade strategy; the second allowed trade partners to act freely. The notions of mutual trade and nondirectional trade are discussed, along with the case of grain. The chapter also looks at the strategies used by cities to control grain trade, such as laws prohibiting grain exports, before concluding with an analysis of the grain policy of Athens as well as food production and supply in Aegean cities.