"Modern economics tantalizes historians, promising them a set of simple verbal and mathematical formulas to explain and even retrospectively predict historical actions and choices. Colin P. Elliott challenges economic historians to rethink the way they use economic theory. Building upon the...

"In an essay published in 2002, I discussed the nature of technical specialization in the economy of Classical Athens. Although I found little evidence for vertical specialization (different skills needed to provide a single good or service), I showed that there was plentiful evidence for...

"In this book, Kenneth Hirth provides a comparative view of the organization of ancient and premodern society and economy. Hirth establishes that humans adapted to their environments, not as individuals but in the social groups where they lived and worked out the details of their livelihoods. He...

This paper explores the impact of antiquity on capitalism through the finance-growth nexus. We define antiquity as the length of established statehood (i.e., state history) and agricultural years. We argue that extractive institutions and deeply entrenched interest groups may prevail in...

"Roman Frugality offers the first-ever systematic analysis of the variants of individual and collective self-restraint that shaped ancient Rome throughout its history and had significant repercussions in post-classical times. In particular, it tries to do the complexity of a phenomenon justice...

We show that the creation of the first integrated pan-European transport network during Roman times influences economic integration over two millennia. Drawing on spatially highly disaggregated data on excavated Roman ceramics, we document that interregional trade was strongly influenced by...

Population and Economy in Classical Athens This is the first comprehensive account of the population of classical Athens for almost a century. The methodology of earlier scholars has been criticised in general terms but their conclusions have not been seriously challenged. Ben Akrigg reviews and...

"The authors of this book argue that post-war fiscal and monetary policies in the U.S. are prone to more frequent and more destabilizing domestic and international financial crises. So, in the aftermath of the one that erupted in 2008, they propose that now we are sleepwalking into another,...

"The subject of the book is the food supply to Ancient Rome during the period from the early to the middle Empire when the city was at the peak of its power and population. The subject matter delves into the wider supply of goods, such as wood and building products, to add further perspective to...

Since 1789, mass education has been a key factor in development, enablinglarge numbers of people to escape at least the worst effects of poverty. This paper explores an ancient harbinger of mass education, among Jews in the Roman empire, the basis of Jewish religious education to modern times....

"With the spread of interest-based transactions, major problems such as inequality, poverty and debt-based slavery have emerged. Those who practiced professions such as usury have, despite the negative connotations attributed to them, contributed extensively to the construction of the...

Cover -- Half Title -- Series Information -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of contents -- About the editors -- Contributors -- Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1 Introduction to interest and debt -- Introduction -- The interest-bearing debt: conceptual...

1: The Dark Light of Early Greek Texts on Trade -- 2: Direct Evidence for Long-Distance Exchange from Early Greece -- 3: Assessing Quantitative Change in the Archaeological Record -- 4: Bronze Deposition (and Circulation?), Trade in Commodities, and Evidence from around the Mediterranean -- 5:...

Intro -- Titel -- Impressum -- Inhalt -- Einleitung -- 1. The Value of Everything -- 2. Die Metamorphosen des riesigen Automaten -- 3. Mehrwert, Banken und die großen Unternehmen -- 4. Der sechste Kondratjew -- 5. Megatrend Digitalisierung -- 6. Die Wurzel des Digitalen -- 7. No Capitalism in...

Cover -- Half Title -- Series Page -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of contributors -- Acknowledgements -- List of abbreviations and acronyms -- Introduction -- 1 The extramercantile economy: An assessment of the New Institutional Economics paradigm in relation to recent studies of...