Lecture 9 - Trade and Archaic economies

Question 1

Primitivist view of the economy - key features

Answer 1

All economic activities embedded in and is determined by social behaviour, for example attitudes to women.
Certain types of economic activity such as banking are seen as inappropriate for citizens.
Trade is dominated by reciprocity, not by markets.

Question 2

Archaic economies - key features: agriculture

Answer 2

Non-intensive, citizen based - individual, small holders, fragmented land-holdings, subsistence agriculture.
Non-intensive, slave/serf based - small land-holding, proportion of produce owed to the local ruler, remainder is subsistent.
Intensive - concentrated land-holdings, residence on the land, intensive methods. Surplus produce sold for profit.

Question 3

Warfare - source of profit? Aristotle

Answer 3

Aristotle - “Even the art of war will by nature be in a manner an art of acquisition”

Question 4

Religion as an economy? Dedications

Answer 4

Snodgrass estimates that between 700-500 at Olympia: 250,000 bronze tripods were dedicated and 100,000 helmets were dedicated. Religious festivals and sacrifices - Great Pananthenaea: 220 cattle sacrificed.

Question 5

Modernist view of trade

Answer 5

Large-scale targeted trade such as the Euboean pendent plates at Al Mina.
Circulation of pottery implies circulation of other goods such as olive oil.
Colonies facilitate long-range trade which is large-scale.

Question 6

Purpose of coinage

Answer 6

Local trade (and/or payment of mercenaries)
Political functions - coins as propaganda, shared weight standards reflect political allegiance.

Question 7

Coins used in trade - Aristotle

Answer 7

“All commodities exchanged must be able to compare in some way. It is to meet this requirement that men have introduced money”.