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...

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...

"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...

"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,...

"Eastern Wines on Western Tables: Consumption, Trade and Economy in Ancient Italy is an interdisciplinary and multifaceted study concerning wine commerce and the Roman economy during Classical antiquity. Wine was one of the main consumption goods in the Mediterranean during antiquity, and the...

"In this book, Gabriele Cifani reconstructs the early economic history of Rome, from the Iron Age to the early Republic. Bringing a multidisciplinary approach to the topic, he argues that the early Roman economy was more diversified than has been previously acknowledged, going well beyond...

"This book focuses on the Canaanite-Phoenician economic systems that predominated in and determined Mediterranean history. Phoenician trade networks were sophisticated and elaborate operations that required a highly developed society and institutions in order to spread and be maintained. By...

Colonial Adventures: Commercial Law and Practice in the Making' addresses the question how and to what extend the development of commercial law and practice, from Ancient Greece to the colonial empires of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, were indebted to colonial expansion and maritime...

Economic archaeology and ancient economic history have boomed the past decades. The former thanks to greatly enhanced techniques to identify, collect, and interpret material remains as proxies for economic interactions and performance; the latter by embracing the frameworks of new institutional...

1. Asymmetric Information and the Roman Economy: Introduction -- 2. Economics and Information: Asymmetries, Uncertainties and Risks -- Part 1: Information Management -- 3. Managing Economic Public Information in Rome: the Aerarium as Central Archive of the Roman Republic -- 4. Managing...

This volume studies information as an economic resource in the Roman World. Information asymmetry is a distinguishing phenomenon of any human relationship. From an economic perspective, private or hidden information, opposed to publicly observable information, generates advantages and...

This book studies past economics from anthropological, archaeological, historical and sociological perspectives. By analyzing archeological and other evidence, it examines economic behavior and institutions in ancient societies. Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, it critically discusses...

Chapter 1 - An Introduction to the Critique of Archaeological Economy (Reinhard Jung, Stefanos Gimatzidis) -- Chapter 2 - Writing the Deep History of Human Economy (Randall McGuire) -- Chapter 3 - Wealth, Women's Labor, and Forms of Value: Thinking From the Study of Ancestral Central America...

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....

"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 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...

"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...

"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...

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...

"This book offers an interpretation of the two fragmentary texts of the P. Vindobonensis G 40822, now widely referred to as the Muziris papyrus. Without these two texts, there would be no knowledge of the Indo-Roman trade practices. The book also compares and contrasts the texts of the Muziris...

"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...

Bread was the staple of the ancient Mediterranean diet. It was present in the meals of emperors and on the tables of the poorest households. In many instances, a loaf of bread probably constituted an entire meal. As such, bread was both something that unified society and a milieu through which...

Introduction / John T. Fitzgerald, David B. Hollander, and Thomas R. Blanton IV -- The extramercantile economy : an assessment of the new institutional economics : paradigm in relation to recent studies of ancient Greece and Rome / Thomas R. Blanton IV and David B. Hollander -- Early Greek...

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...

Inhaltsverzeichnis: Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- Figures, Tables and Graphs -- Figures -- Tables -- Graph -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Primitive Positions-the Oikos Debate -- 1. The Defining Quartet-Marx, Weber, Polanyi and Finley -- 2. The Ancient Economy Post-Finley -- Chapter 2. New...

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...

From around 700 BCE until the first centuries CE, the Mediterranean enjoyed steady economic growth through trade, reaching a level not to be regained until the early modern era. This process of growth coincided with a process of state formation, culminating in the largest state the ancient...

"Often viewed as self-sufficient, Roman farmers actually depended on markets to supply them with a wide range of goods and services, from metal tools to medical expertise. However, the nature, extent, and implications of their market interactions remain unclear. This monograph uses literary and...