Trade in the Ancient Mediterranean : Private Order and Public Institutions / Taco Terpstra.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Terpstra, Taco, Author.

Series:

Princeton economic history of the western world.

Princeton scholarship online.

The Princeton Economic History of the Western World ; 89

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mediterranean Region--Commerce--History--To 1500.

Mediterranean Region.

Mediterranean Region--History--To 476.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations (black and white), maps (black and white).

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

How ancient Mediterranean trade thrived through state institutions 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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

1. Introduction

2. Public Institutions and Phoenician Trade

3. King's Men and the Stationary Bandit

4. Civic Order and Contract Enforcement

5. Economic Trust and Religious Violence

6. Epilogue

7. Concluding Remarks

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

THE PRINCETON ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE WESTERN WORLD

A NOTE ON THE TYPE

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2019.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780691189703

0691189706

OCLC:

1086610515