
The Ancient Economy
"Technical progress, economic growth, productivity, even efficiency have not been significant goals since the beginning of time," declares M. I. Finley in his classic work. The states of the ancient Mediterranean world had no recognizable real-property market, never fought a commercially inspired war, witnessed no drive to capital formation, and assigned the management of many substantial enterprises to slaves and ex-slaves. In short, to study the economies of the ancient world, one must begin by discarding many premises that seemed self-evident before Finley showed that they were useless or misleading. These essays are just as electrifying today as when Finley first wrote them.
Buy this book at Amazon- Publisher
- Univ of California Press
- Year
- 1973
- ISBN-13
- 9780520025646
- Genre
- History
- Topics
- Ancient economyClassical antiquityEconomic history
Awards
- Wolfson History PrizeWon(1974)
If you liked The Ancient Economy, you could also like these

The Making of the Middle Sea
Cyprian Broodbank
1 win · 8 score

The Wheels of Commerce
Fernand Braudel
1 win · 8 score

Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius
Sylvia Nasar
1 win · 8 score

Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery
Robert William Fogel, Stanley L. Engerman
1 win · 8 score

Capitalism in America: A History
Alan Greenspan & Adrian Wooldridge
0 wins · 3 score

Shopping in the Renaissance
Evelyn Welch
1 win · 8 score

European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism, 1550–1750
Jonathan Israel
1 win · 8 score

New Worlds, Ancient Texts: The Power of Tradition and the Shock of Discovery
Anthony Grafton
1 win · 8 score

Cities and the Wealth of Nations
Jane Jacobs
1 win · 8 score

A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World
William J. Bernstein
0 wins · 3 score

Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400–800
Christopher Wickham
1 win · 8 score

Economics and the Public Purpose
John Kenneth Galbraith
0 wins · 4 score

John Maynard Keynes: The Economist as Saviour, 1920–1937
Robert Skidelsky
1 win · 8 score

The Unity of Mankind in Greek Thought
H. C. Baldry
1 win · 5 score

Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty
Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo
1 win · 8 score

