Economy and the Polis Flashcards
Economy and the Polis
- Economy was not considered a separate field independent from politics
- Literature produced by upper class Greeks – bias
- Their attitude may be ideologically biased: the exceptional importance of politics in Greek culture made them understate other fields including economy. However, economic concerns played a very important role in public and private life
- Good Greek gentlemen were supposed to just have money
Classical economy and modern scholarship
1) Primitive school
2) Modernist school
3) Neo-primitive
4) Realist
Primitive school of thought
- Agriculture is almost the only and exclusive form of economy
- Until 4th C there was only “household economy”
- The social structure was not dramatically divided
- Economy was embedded in politics
- Public (polis community, state) ruled over private and social
Modernist school of thought
- Use of concept of “capital” in ancient economy
- Like modern production
- Class struggles - From archaic period, economy developed greatly and was independent from politics
Neo-Primitive approach
M. Finlay:
- Ancient economy should be seen within its cultural context and values
- In general, Greek economy was not very developed -> status was more important than profit
Realist approach
- Economic activity was independent from other areas of life in ancient Greece
- At least some economic behavior in ancient Greece
- There are elements resemble those of more recent historical cultures
- Stress on the actual economic significance of the behavior of individual and the city
- Cultural context was important.
Economy in Homeric Poems
- Agriculture, animal husbandry and craftsmanship are fundamental economic activities
- Fairly established notion of value of goods, in which metals and oxen are used as measure units
*Production – accumulation – exchange = cycle
- Commerce is practiced especially by Phoenicians, but the attitude of the elite is ambiguous: they enjoy imported luxury items and display them, but traders are looked upon with suspicion and sometimes disdain
- Outsiders trade (depicted in negative way- unreliable, dangerous, sneaky- pirates)
Hesiod (7th C) on trade
-Trade and agriculture: trade of local products, seasonal, short ranged
- Sea-trade: risky and ill-framed, for the poet should be avoided, but can be a resource
- Ideology of the active man, who strives to get wealthy
- Difficult balance between the safety of accumulation and opportunities of exchange
-Sea trade dangerous – could lose life (and family line), or product in shipwreck (lose status in community, money, cant support family, etc.) *change balance in social group
Archaic Economy-
Exchange and aristocracy: controversial relationship
-Aristocracy regarded trade as less honorable form of exchange, but at the same time was strongly involved in it, both directly and indirectly
Society and economy in 6th C – Aristocratic societies
- Great social tensions
- Development of slavery as result of growing inequality
- Accumulation of revenue, concentration of land and wealth
- Accumulation tends to prevail over exchange
- Diverse attitudes towards private richness and its display, ranging from extravagant lifestyle to strict austerity
- Aristocracy = elites, choose accumulation
Problems of a working economy (Archaic)
- Sale of land, concentration of land property inequality
- Most stable form of richness = land
- Aristocratic (political) response: eunomia and isonomia
Eunomia= ‘good institutions, good order’
- Stable and doesn’t change over time
- Keep boundary between upper class and the others
- Example: Sparta
Isonomia= ‘equality of rights, equality before the law’
- More flexible concept, originally developed by elites to support the idea of equal political rights for all members of the upper class, regardless their economic power
- Concept later used in more inclusive sense, becoming a founding principle of Athenian democracy
- Example: Athens
Political responses to Archaic economic inequality
- Laws limiting the display of wealth
- Laws regulating and restricting sale of land
- Can’t sell to foreigners
- Laws against slavery for debts
- Can’t sell women
- Political institutions designed to reduce the importance of wealth as a factor
- Democracy
Exchange in Archaic and Classical Greece – Different forms of commerce
Prexis:
- Commerce of aristocrats, who sailed with friends to exchange products of their estates for other valuable goods
- It isn’t a regular activity
Emporie:
- Commerce of traders who buy and sell goods as a regular economic activity
- Traders specialized group
Kapeleia:
-Short range commerce of small retailers, cheap merchandise
*Archaic transport amphorae (oil) 7th C – containers different, recognizable (shows quality and product guarantee – there were even knock-offs)
Long range exchange and foreign markets in Archaic Period
Herodotus 4.125
- Samians got to new market (Tartessos, exceptional, untapped market)
- Great profits but can’t compete with Aegina
Economy and politics at Archaic Sparta
- Full right Spartans had large estates by Greek standards, and numerous work-force of Helots
- But weren’t poor
- Myth of Spartan austerity is based on the way richness was managed and displayed, not on actual disinterest for the economic factor
