- Description
- 1 online resource (viii, 275 pages) : illustrations, maps,.
- Summary
- 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 Mediterranean would ever know, the Roman Empire. Subsequent economic decline coincided with state disintegration. How are the two processes related? In Trade in the Ancient Mediterranean, Taco Terpstra investigates how the organizational structure of trade benefited from state institutions. Although enforcement typically depended on private actors, traders could utilize a public infrastructure, which included not only courts and legal frameworks but also socially cohesive ideologies. Terpstra details how business practices emerged that were based on private order, yet took advantage of public institutions. Focusing on the activity of both private and public economic actors--from Greek city councilors and Ptolemaic officials to long-distance traders and Roman magistrates and financiers--Terpstra illuminates the complex relationship between economic development and state structures in the ancient Mediterranean.
- Series Statement
- The Princeton economic history of the Western World
- Uniform Title
- Trade in the ancient Mediterranean (Online)
- Princeton economic history of the Western world.
- Alternative Title
- Trade in the ancient Mediterranean (Online)
- Subject
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-260) and index.
- Access (note)
- Access restricted to authorized users.
- Contents
- Public Institutions and Phoenician Trade -- King's Men and the Stationary Bandit -- Civic Order and Contract Enforcement -- Economic Trust and Religious Violence.
- LCCN
- 2018957367
- OCLC
- ssj0002221012
- Author
Terpstra, Taco T.
- Title
Trade in the ancient Mediterranean [electronic resource] : private order and public institutions / Taco Terpstra.
- Imprint
Princeton, New Jersey ; Oxford : Princeton University Press, [2019]
- Series
The Princeton economic history of the Western World
Princeton economic history of the Western world.
- Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-260) and index.
- Access
Access restricted to authorized users.
- Connect to:
- Chronological Term
1517-1789