The Ancient Economy

Introducing students to current controversies over the nature of the ancient economy, this volume brings together twelve influential studies by leading experts in the field. In 1973, Moses Finley unveiled a comprehensive model of the economic underpinnings of classical civilisation. Since then, supporters and critics have turned the study of the ancient economy into what has been called 'an academic battleground'. In recent years, however, a growing number of scholars have aimed to move the debate beyond partisan controversies. This volume takes stock of these developments. Embracing a wide range of interdisciplinary perspectives derived from ecology, economics and cultural studies and drawing on literary, documentary and archaeological evidence, the contributions address crucial issues from agricultural production, the uses of money and the creation of markets to the scale of long-distance trade and economic growth in the Greek and Roman periods. In a general introduction and separate headnotes for each chapter, the editors provide a concise survey of recent debates, seeking to situate the different contributions in the broader context of contemporary scholarship. This is the first collection of its kind. It is designed to acquaint beginners as well as more advanced students with a variety of thematic and methodological approaches to the study of economic processes in the ancient world. All terms in foreign or ancient languages have been translated into English or explained in a comprehensive glossary. An up-to-date bibliographical essay covering pertinent scholarship in English offers guidance for further reading and the preparation of term papers.

ISBN 0748613226   Pages 320 ISBN13 9780748613229 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 586 Publisher Edinburgh University Press   Published in Edinburgh Imprint Edinburgh University Press   Series title Edinburgh Readings on the Ancient World Format Hardback   Height (mm) 234 Publication date 26 Feb 2002   Width (mm) 156 DEWEY 330.93   Spine width (mm) 24 DEWEY edition DC21   Academic level Undergraduate, Postgraduate

		Acknowledgements
		Note on the Reader
		Abbreviations
		Glossary
		Maps
		Introduction		1
Pt. I		After Finley
1		The Economy (Economies) of Ancient Greece by Paul Cartledge		11
2		Twenty Years after Moses I. Finley's The Ancient Economy by Jean Andreau		33
Pt. II		Production
3		Traditional and Ancient Rural Economy in Mediterranean Europe: plus ca change? by Paul Halstead		53
4		Olive Production and the Roman Economy: The Case for Intensive Growth in the Roman Empire by Robert Bruce Hitchner		71
Pt. III		Money and Markets
5		Money and Mythic History: The Contestation of Transactional Orders in the Fifth Century B.C. by Leslie Kurke		87
6		Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Subsistence: Exchange and Society in the Greek City by Robin Osborne		114
7		The Price Histories of Some Imported Goods on Independent Delos by Gary Reger		133
8		The Ancient Economy and Graeco-Roman Egypt by Dominic Rathbone		155
Pt. IV		Trade and Transfer
9		Agricultural Products Transported in Amphorae: Oil and Wine by Clementina Panella and Andre Tchernia		173
10		Rome, Taxes, Rents and Trade by Keith Hopkins		190
Pt. V		The Nature of the Ancient Economy
11		Modernism, Economics and the Ancient Economy by Scott Meikle		233
12		Framing the Debate over Growth in the Ancient Economy by Richard Saller		251
		Intellectual Chronology		270
		More...

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