Transcript Economy of Ancient Greece - The Hellenic

Economy of Ancient Greece
Alex Krikos
Hellenic-American Cultural Association of Colorado
April 21, 2005
Overview
Evidence of Economy
Socio-Political Drivers
Value System
Land Ownership
Labor
Technology
Conclusion
Background
Ancient Greek Civilization
• Archaic Period:
• Classical Period:
• Hellenistic Period:
776 to 480 B.C.
480 to 323 B.C.
323 to 30 B.C.
Qualitative Methods of Economic Analysis
• Greece as collection of independent poleis or “citystates”
• Examination of sectors of the Ancient Greek economy
• Scholarly trends
Background
Evidence of Ancient Greek Economy
• Literary works (Demonsthenes, Lysias, Isokrates)
• Analysis of economic matters and lawsuits
Background
Evidence of Ancient Greek Economy
• Philosophical works (Xenophon, Plato, and Aristotle)
• How ancient Greeks perceived and analyzed economic
matters
Background
Evidence of Ancient Greek Economy (other)
• Description of financial resources of Athens during
Peloponnesian War
• Poems and dramas with random references to trade,
manufacturing, status of businessmen, and other economic
matters
• Ptolemaic Dynasty (ruled Egypt): bureaucracies to oversee
numerous economic activities. Records of administrative
issues, taxes, labor, and currency
• Boundary markers on land indicating security for loans
• Markings on pottery signifying various goods
• Shipwrecks showing types of trade, commerce routes etc.
Nature of Ancient Greek Economy
Primitive, or
•Argument over quantity of goods and services
•Argument over organizational principles
•Johannes Hasebroek: …ancient Greek citizen was a
“political man”, not an “economic man”
Modern?
•Evidence of capitalistic economy
•Evidence of free enterprise
•Evidence interconnected price-making markets
•Michael Rostovtzeff: …ancient Greek economy in the
Hellenistic periodwas so great that it could not be
considered primitive.
Nature of Ancient Greek Economy
Substantivist,or
•Economy embedded in political and social
institutions; that is, what is needed for the
sustenance of city states.
Formal?
•Prices are set from impersonal forces of supply
and demand among a group of interconnected
markets.
•Karl Polanyi argues that ancient Greece did not
have a developed market system until the
Hellenistic Period. Economies were largely
“substantivist” before then.
The Finley Economic Model
Moses I. Finley (~1973)
• Ancient Greek economy of smaller scale and
organization.
• Oikonomia: “household management”. Ancient
Greek economy was embedded in political and
social and economic institutions rather than the
production, distribution, and consumption of
goods.
• Embedded in ancient Greek value system that
emphasized the wellbeing of the community over
that of the individual.
• Subordination of economic activities to social and
political ones.
The Finley Economic Model
Moses I. Finley (~1973)
• Ancient Greek Value System
• Economic activities not subordinated to traditional
activities of managing the family were held in low
esteem. These were “banausic” work activities
which meant investing money to make money.
These activities were considered incompatible with
the activities of the polis and were even considered
as unnatural and morally corrupting.
• Production and exchange were to be undertaken
only for personal need or to benefit the community
as a whole
The Finley Economic Model
Moses I. Finley (~1973)
• Ancient Greek Value System
• Bulk of economic activity was produced from the
land.
• “Banausic” work including trade, manufacturing,
and trade were looked down upon.
• Ancient Greek political elite were landowners with a
primary interest in oikonomia—consumptive in
nature which fulfilled traditional social and political
needs, not strictly economic ones.
The Finley Economic Model
Moses I. Finley (~1973)
•Supply/Demand & Pricing
• Impersonal price-setting mechanisms not
adhered to.
• Prices set according to local conditions and
personal relationships rather than the
impersonal forces of supply and demand.
• Stemmed from self-sufficiency and the needs
of the city-state.
The Finley Economic Model
Moses I. Finley (~1973)
• Socio-Political Factors of Archaic Period
• Governed by “material wants” of citizens, such as
food at reasonable prices and revenue obtained
from taxes on trade.
• Social and political concerns focus on consumptive
goals of citizens.
• Those who engaged in “banausic” occupations and
sought profit from those occupations did not hold
high positions in society or government.
• Finley’s model holds true for Archaic Period
The Finley Economic Model
Moses I. Finley (~1973)
•Deviations from Finley Model in Classical
Period
• Increase in population and political factors
make the economy more capitalistic, modern,
and networked.
• Economy of different city-states differed.
Athens and Sparta were polar opposites in
their social and political organizations.
The Finley Economic Model
 Public and Private Economic Sectors
• Free enterprise with private property and limited government
predominated before Hellenistic Period. Sharp contrast to
other ancient civilizations.
• Main Economic Concern: Greek city-states made harmony
with private economy (making laws, adjudicate disputes,
protect private property rights, ensure food was available at
reasonable prices, obtain tax revenue for government
expenses.)
• Laws to Protect Economy: weights measures, coinage, food
supply (laws against exports of grain), incentives for imports
• Athens did not tax its citizens directs expect in cases of
emergencies (eisphorai) requiring the wealthiest of its citizens
to perform public services (liturgies).
The Finley Economic Model
 Public and Private Economic Sectors
• Athens obtained revenue from leases of publicly owned lands
and mines.
• Revenue was necessary for various government expenditures
(administrative costs, public festivals, maintenance of widows
and orphans, military, and temples for gods.
• Expenditures were understood as a necessary impact on the
economy (ex. Inscribed accounts of building projects such as
Athenian acropolis)
• Finley’s model drew too sharp a difference between citizens
(landowners) and non-citizens (non-landowners).
• Finley’s model upheld during Archaic and Classical Periods
where . Vast majority of economic activity left untouched the
government and carried out by private individuals.
The Finley Economic Model
 Land
• Most important economic sector in Archaic Period
• Majority of agriculture carried out on the subsistence level by
numerous small family farms
• Distribution of land among population was far from equal
• Ethnoarchaeology shows how farmers adjusted crops for
variations in local topographical and climatic conditions.
• Resources: Bronze and iron used in weapons. Little evidence
that copper was mined in abundance in Greece. Athens had
abundance of silver.
• Land leases: Leases of mines preferred to leases of land for
the Athens elite. Breakdown of Finley model regarding
preference for consumptive acquisition of land and disdain for
productive investments for profit.
The Finley Economic Model
Labor
•Labor force at height of power (431 B.C.)
• 305,000 people total
• 160,000 were citizens (80K men and women,
80 children)
• 25,000 were free resident foreigners (metics)
• 120,000 were slaves (outnumbered male
citizens 3:1)
•Citizens, metics, and slaves all performed
labor in the economy.
The Finley Economic Model
 Labor: Citizens/Metics/Slaves
• Wage earning looked down upon (impingement
on freedom and akin to slavery)
• Free men doing same work side-by-side with
metics and slaves earned the same wages.
Wages were adequate to make a living.
• Wages and expenses in Athens
• Wages: one drachma/day at end of 5th Century B.C.
• Price of Wheat: one drachma for 16 days of wheat
for one person
The Finley Economic Model
 Labor: Metics
• Foreign born, free non-citizens
• Willing to become businessmen and wageearners
• 25,000 metics at height of ancient Greek
civilization. Barred from owning land, but
engaged in “banausic” occupations that were
looked down upon by society.
• Metics had to pay special poll tax and serve in the
military even though they could not own land or
participate in politics and have a citizen represent
them in legal matters.
The Finley Economic Model
 Labor: Slaves
• Undeniably a large part of labor force
• Comprised over a third of population
• Private property of land owners
• Did not perform military duty expect in case of
emergency
• Sources of Slavery: war captives, those who could not
pay debts, people rescued and provided for in return for
labor
• No particular race singled out for slavery
• More human treatment: ability to exit slavery
(“manumission”). Slaves had to compensate owners for
their freedom. Freed slaves became “metics”.
The Finley Economic Model
Slaves
Freed from slavery
but not citizens
“manumission”
Metics
Citizens
• Consumption based work
ethic (social and political
goals
• Have slaves or metics if they
could afford them
• Finley said work was
considered necessary but
not ennobling
• “banausic”work
• Businessmen
• Work considered unworthy
for citizens
The Finley Economic Model
Slaves
Freed from slavery
but not citizens
“manumission”
Metics
Citizens
• Consumption based work
ethic (social and political
goals
• Have slaves or metics if they
could afford them
• Finley said work was
considered necessary but
not ennobling
• Technology and
manufacturing thought to
stagnate due to cheap labor
• “banausic”work
• Businessmen
• Work considered unworthy
for citizens
Archimedes: Archimedes’ Screw
• Used as a water pump—can raise a great
amount of water
• Made out of wood and reinforced with iron
• Still in use in some parts of the world
Conclusions
Evidence of both “modern” and “primitive”
economies
Socio-political drivers in economic growth
Land ownership a key attribute for citizens
Labor was driving force for economic
expansion.