Exploring the economy of late antiquity : selected essays / Jairus Banaji.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Banaji, Jairus, 1947- author.

Standardized Title:

Essays. Selections

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economic history--To 500.

Economic history.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xix, 253 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2016.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This collection of essays, by leading historian Jairus Banaji, provides a stimulating rebuttal to the prevailing minimalism in late antique studies. Together, they strike a balance between the wide lens and more specialised discussion, expanding on the perspective and argumentation laid out in an earlier book, Agrarian Change in Late Antiquity (2001). Successive chapters discuss the scale of the late Roman gold currency, the economic nature of the aristocracy, the importance of trade, relations between the state and the ruling class, and the problem of continuity into the early Middle Ages. A substantial introduction pulls together the themes of the book into a coherent synopsis, while the preface clarifies the broad aims behind the study. The book as a whole deploys a wide range of sources in various languages and is intended for ancient historians, students of late antiquity, and economic historians more generally.

Contents:

Cover; Half-title; Title page; Copyright information; Dedication; Table of contents; Preface; Acknowledgements; Chapter 1 Mass production, monetary economy and the commercial vitality of the Mediterranean; Part I Mapping the late antique economy; Part II Monetary circulation (rules, rhythms); Part III Aristocracies and estates; Part IV Beyond the Mediterranean and late antiquity; Select bibliography; Index; The Roman economy; Minimalism; The strength of private interests; Economic cycles, institutional continuities; Summary of select themes; Chapter 2 Mickwitz's modernism

Chapter 3 State and aristocracy in the economic evolution of the late empireChapter 4 The economic trajectories of late antiquity; Chapter 5 Discounts, weight standards and the exchange rate between gold and copper; Chapter 6 Precious metal coinages and monetary expansion in late antiquity; Chapter 7 Aristocracies, peasantries and the framing of the early Middle Ages; Chapter 8 Late antique aristocracies; Chapter 9 Late antique legacies and Muslim economic expansion; Chapter 10 'Regions that look seaward'; Introduction; The late empire; The eastern Mediterranean; Aftermaths

Reinstating metrology: the 'minus carats' systemDiscounts; Gold versus copper; Monetary expansion in the fourth to seventh centuries; The solidus vs the drachm?; Introduction; Aristocracies; The agrarian watershed of the seventh century; Critique of Wickham; The east: vulnerability; Three sectors of the aristocracy; Struggles within the ruling class; The naxarars and dynatoi; Epilogue: the biological fragility of a class

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 10 Dec 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-316-48202-2

1-316-48460-2

1-316-48503-X

1-316-48675-3

1-316-48546-3

1-316-48761-X

1-316-18231-2