The Monetary Systems of the Greeks and Romans

W. V. HarrisHistory
The Monetary Systems of the Greeks and Romans

Author: W. V. Harris

Publisher: OUP Oxford

ISBN: 9780191615177

Category: History

Page: 344

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Most people have some idea what Greeks and Romans coins looked like, but few know how complex Greek and Roman monetary systems eventually became. The contributors to this volume are numismatists, ancient historians, and economists intent on investigating how these systems worked and how they both did and did not resemble a modern monetary system. Why did people first start using coins? How did Greeks and Romans make payments, large or small? What does money mean in Greek tragedy? Was the Roman Empire an integrated economic system? This volume can serve as an introduction to such questions, but it also offers the specialist the results of original research.

Money - the Root of Global Trade

Katharina John
Money - the Root of Global Trade

Author: Katharina John

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

ISBN: 9783638864961

Category:

Page: 57

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Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Economics - Monetary theory and policy, grade: 2,0, Vienna University of Economics and Business, course: Seminar Business English, 47 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: The transition from barter economic systems to early monetary economies in Europe took place at around 700 BC. Ancient Greece (1000 BC - 323 BC) and afterwards the Roman Republic (509 BC - 44/27 BC) successfully established simple coinage systems with currencies like the denarius that already managed to fulfil the three modern economic functions that distinguish money from all other assets. In line with an ancient "free-market"-regulatory system during the early years of the Roman Empire (44/27 BC - 476 AD) the denarius subsequently paved the way for a tremendous enlargement of foreign trade, thus marking off the beginning of modern "free" trade. On the other hand, the Romans were the first who suffered from the negative aspects and challenges of a market economy: since modern principles as social and income justice as well as price stability were fully disregarded, the Romans were facing financial inequality, hyperinflation, and cultural erosion of their "way of living". Their fiscal and monetary policy harshly failed to finance long-term public expenditure, in particular military expenditures and imperial bribes. This imperfect competitive system is one of the main reasons for the disastrous collapse of the (Western) Roman Empire. However, this erroneous trend cannot only be assessed for ancient market systems: inflation during the years 1914-1923 in the German Reich and Weimar Republic also showed negative economical implications of hyperinflation including intense individual suffering and social impairment. Accompanied by the Black Tuesday of 1929 the German inflation finally fuelled political extremist fractions and amplified distrust towards economic institutions and legitimate democratic authorities.

Money, the State and Crisis in the Third-century Roman Empire

Colin Peter Elliott
Money, the State and Crisis in the Third-century Roman Empire

Author: Colin Peter Elliott

Publisher:

ISBN: OCLC:847540709

Category:

Page:

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The political, economic and social transformations of the so-called 'Crisis of the Third Century' appear to have combined to form a watershed moment in the history of the Roman empire, if not western civilisation in general. In particular, the period's dramatic coinage debasement has been roughly, if not at times self-evidently, correlated with catastrophic economic consequences, most notably price inflation. Apart from the numismatic evidence, the dearth of empirical data has not dissuaded scholars from pursuing quantitative studies of the period. These efforts often rely heavily on positivism in general and the models and assumptions of neoclassical economics more specifically. However, positivism as a rule produces conclusions which are never proven and correlations without firm causal relationships. Thus ancient economic historians are engaged in a seemingly perpetual debate over both the causes and effects of a third-century crisis. This thesis argues that quantification is both unhelpful and impossible in this particular case. Instead, a comparative approach is employed which, rather than comparing historical periods, contrasts the factual with the counter-factual. In questioning why price inflation did not immediately follow third- century debasements, quantity theory is reconstructed as an apodictic counter-factual proposition. In contrast to the predictive aims of neoclassical economics, this approach embraces the clear dissonance between reality and its theoretical alternative, narrowing the analysis to the differences exposed in quantity theory's inapplicability. What emerges is a picture of the third-century monetary economy which is considerably different than previously thought. Recent assumptions which correspond to a narrative of 'crisis' or even 'decline' are questioned, including the breakdown of a monetary monopoly, legal coinage ratios and a pro-growth 'monetary policy.' In fact, such elements may never have been present and the changes in the third century were the result of tensions due to a monetary system which was normally localised, disconnected and plural.

The Creators of Inside Money

D. Gareth ThomasBusiness & Economics
The Creators of Inside Money

Author: D. Gareth Thomas

Publisher: Springer Nature

ISBN: 9783030703660

Category: Business & Economics

Page: 223

View: 418

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This second edition updates and extends the original foundations of the loanable funds model. It develops a new monetary model of inside money, which is created by the commercial (or retail) banks, drawing on the events of 2007/08 that led to the Great Recession and fragile economy of today. Coronavirus is likely to cause another downturn of economic activity, from the perspective of late 2020 as this is written. That will represent a long-period of subpar, anaemic growth, which has not been satisfactorily explained by the traditional theory in the form of neo-classical analysis. The reason may lie with the adoption of a body of theory based primarily on a barter system of exchange but sometimes with one commodity used as money to try to explain a dynamic, monetary economy of today. Money has evolved from a system of barter to become a medium of exchange based on fiat money and credit currency underpinned by legal tender, and therefore, a creature of law. If households and firms lose confidence in the banking system, they can withdraw their deposits in the form of cash as a medium of exchange, which must be accepted in exchange for goods and services as legal tender. This book highlights the importance of how money is created or destroyed endogenously and derives the loanable supply of funds in conjunction with the demand within a revised analysis of monetary theory, with a new emphasis on portfolio theory. It applies critical thinking and the realization of a more precise formulation of the loanable funds theory to final year and postgraduate students in particular, with various features systematically added such as the catastrophe framework and Minsky’s theory of changing states in an attempt to derive a fully dynamic model. There is a new framework using aggregate demand and supply analysis to explain inflation. This will be reinforced at each stage by the inclusion of revised and updated case studies, graphs and figures to give an international setting and application

The Financial Markets of Roman Egypt

Paul V. KellyHistory
The Financial Markets of Roman Egypt

Author: Paul V. Kelly

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

ISBN: 9781837647187

Category: History

Page: 232

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The Financial Markets of Roman Egypt analyses some 4,367 financial transactions, leases, sales and loans, recorded on papyri in Roman Egypt in the period AD 1 to 350. The analysis of this remarkable body of information, the ancient equivalent of modern-day ‘Big Data’, helps us understand how ordinary people thought about some of the most important decisions they would make in their life: buying a house, lending their savings or renting land. Using innovative theories and techniques inspired by classics, mathematics and the financial markets, it brings out the differences and similarities of behaviours with modern and historical comparators. The book looks at risk and return for both asset holders - the landlords and lenders - and those dependent on the use of those assets - the tenants and borrowers. In particular it quantifies the risks facing families, including climate variability. Issues such as wealth concentration, social mobility and the role of the aged and women in the financial markets are addressed. The analysis presented expands our knowledge of the nature of the financial markets, and from that examination a sharper insight into the nature of the economy of the Roman world is gained, making it clear that there was no single “market” economy, but different sectors, some of which were driven by reciprocity/redistribution and others by financially rational judgements.

Complexity Economics

Koenraad VerbovenBusiness & Economics
Complexity Economics

Author: Koenraad Verboven

Publisher: Springer Nature

ISBN: 9783030478988

Category: Business & Economics

Page: 363

View: 641

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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 economics. Both disciplines, however, still have great difficulty talking with each other. There is no reliable method to convert ancient proxy-data into the economic indicators used in economic history. In turn, the shared cultural belief-systems underlying institutions and the symbolic ways in which these are reproduced remain invisible in the material record. This book explores ways to bring both disciplines closer together by building a theoretical and methodological framework to evaluate and integrate archaeological proxy-data in economic history research. Rather than the linear interpretations offered by neoclassical or neomalthusian models, we argue that complexity economics, based on system theory, offers a promising way forward.

Institutions, Behaviour and Economic Theory

Heinrich BortisBusiness & Economics
Institutions, Behaviour and Economic Theory

Author: Heinrich Bortis

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

ISBN: 0521570557

Category: Business & Economics

Page: 468

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The failure of centrally planned socialism and the serious problems arising with the capitalist system requires a middle way between both doctrines. In this book it is argued that a synthesis of Classical and Keynesian economic theory provides the basis for this intermediate system. A monetary production economy is primarily considered. The author sets up a system of linking political economy with other social sciences, i.e. sociology, law and politics in the traditional sense, thus establishing the unity of the social sciences.

Debasement

Kevin ButcherSocial Science
Debasement

Author: Kevin Butcher

Publisher: Oxbow Books

ISBN: 9781789254013

Category: Social Science

Page: 240

View: 907

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The debasement of coinage, particularly of silver, was a common feature of pre-modern monetary systems. Most coinages were issued by state authorities and the condition of a coinage is often seen (rightly or wrongly) as an indicator of the broader fiscal health of the state that produced it. While in some cases the motives behind the debasements or reductions in standards are clear, in many cases the intentions of the issuing authorities are uncertain. Various explanations have been advanced: fiscal motives (such as a desire to profit or a to cover a deficit caused by the failure to balance expenditure and revenues); monetary motives (such as changing demand for coined money or a desire to maintain monetary stability in the face of changing values of raw materials or labour costs); pressure from groups within society that would profit from debasement; misconduct at the mint; or the decline of existing monetary standards due to circulation and wear of the coinage in circulation. Certain explanations have tended to gain favour with monetary historians of specific periods, partly reflecting the compartmentalization of scholarship. Thus the study of Roman debasements emphasizes fiscal deficits, whereas medievalists are often more prepared to consider monetary factors as contributing to debasements. To some extent these different approaches are a reflection of discrepancies in the amount of documentary evidence available for the respective periods, but the divide also underlines fundamentally different approaches to the function of coinage: Romanists have preferred to see coins as a medium for state payments; whereas medievalists have often emphasized exchange as an important function of currency. The volume is inter-disciplinary in scope. Apart from bringing together monetary historians of different periods, it also contains contributions from archaeometallurgists who have experience with the chemical and physical composition of coins and technical aspects of production of base alloys

Capital in Classical Antiquity

Max KoedijkBusiness & Economics
Capital in Classical Antiquity

Author: Max Koedijk

Publisher: Springer Nature

ISBN: 9783030938345

Category: Business & Economics

Page: 392

View: 178

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This book discusses the extent to which Thomas Piketty’s work can offer a model for ancient economic history, both methodologically and politically. The book derives from a research workshop in Berlin in April 2018, which brought together a group of established and early career scholars to discuss the implications of Piketty’s work and related themes for classical antiquity. Key questions reflected in the text include:d: How should we characterise the ‘development’ of the economy/economies of the classical Mediterranean, in relation to the role of ‘capital’ and the prevalence of inequality? How was wealth, both public and private, evaluated and managed? How much of the wealth of their society did the ancient 1% control – and is their dominance better understood in terms of the power of capital, or the role of predation and state capture? How far did certain ancient polities – above all the Greek city-states – succeed in placing limits on the power of the rich and integrating their interests with those of the masses? Did inequality increase between the height of the Roman Principate and late antiquity, as is often believed? This book will be valuable reading for academics and students working in economic history, ancient history, and other related fields.

The Real Estate Market in the Roman World

Marta García MorcilloBusiness & Economics
The Real Estate Market in the Roman World

Author: Marta García Morcillo

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

ISBN: 9781000845549

Category: Business & Economics

Page: 303

View: 626

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As it is today, the property market was a key and dynamic economic sector in Ancient Rome. Its study demands a deep understanding of Roman society, of the normative frameworks and the notions of wealth, value, identity and status that shaped individual and collective mentalities. This book takes a multisided insight into real estate as the subject of short- and long-term economic investments, of speculative businesses ventures, of power abuses and inequalities, of social aspirations, but also of essential housing needs. The volume discusses thoroughly relevant and new literary, legal, epigraphic, papyrological and archaeological evidence, and incorporates comparative historical perspectives and methodologies, including economic theory and current, critical sociological debates about the functioning of modern real estate markets and issues linked to its commodification and regulation. In pursuing this line of enquiry, the contributions that make up the book investigate the impact of ideas such as profit, risk, security and trust in transfers, management and use of residential houses, commercial buildings and productive estates in urban and rural contexts. The work further evaluates the legal responses to and the public enforcement strategies concerning such activities, the high mobility of fortunes and unstable property-rights that resulted from one-off but also structural, political, financial, economic and institutional crises that marked the history of the Roman Republic and Principate. This book aims to demonstrate the relevance of the study of pre-modern real estate markets today, and will be of significant interest to readers of economic history as well as Roman law, Roman archaeology, the history of urbanism and social history.

The Roman Monetary System

Constantina KatsariHistory
The Roman Monetary System

Author: Constantina Katsari

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

ISBN: 9781139496643

Category: History

Page:

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The Roman monetary system was highly complex. It involved official Roman coins in both silver and bronze, which some provinces produced while others imported them from mints in Rome and elsewhere, as well as, in the East, a range of civic coinages. This is a comprehensive study of the workings of the system in the Eastern provinces from the Augustan period to the third century AD, when the Roman Empire suffered a monetary and economic crisis. The Eastern provinces exemplify the full complexity of the system, but comparisons are made with evidence from the Western provinces as well as with appropriate case studies from other historical times and places. The book will be essential for all Roman historians and numismatists and of interest to a broader range of historians of economics and finance.