Historians have long argued about the place of trade in classical antiquity: was it the life-blood of a complex, Mediterranean-wide economic system, or a thin veneer on the surface of an underdeveloped agrarian society? Trade underpinned the growth of Athenian and Roman power, helping to supply armies and cities. It furnished the goods that ancient elites needed to maintain their dominance - and yet, those same elites generally regarded trade and traders as a threat to social order. Trade, like the patterns of consumption that determined its development, was implicated in wider debates about politics, morality and the state of society, just as the expansion of trade in the modern world is presented both as the answer to global poverty and as an instrument of exploitation and cultural imperialism. This book explores the nature and importance of ancient trade, considering its ecological and cultural significance as well as its economic aspects.

Table of Contents

1. Trade and the ancient economy; 2. Ecology and economics; 3. Commodities and consumption; 4. Institutions and infrastructure; 5. Markets, merchants and morality; 6. The limits of ancient globalisation.

About the Author

Neville Morley is a Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Bristol. His previous publications include Metropolis and Hinterland: the City of Rome and the Italian Economy (Cambridge University Press, 1996) and Models and Concepts in Ancient History (2004).

Reviews

'At a time when noisy attempts to redraw the battle lines in the field of ancient economic history are being made elsewhere, this short volume provides an invaluable service. ... Neville Morley is a well-qualified and genial guide. His great strength for this kind of task, as he has shown in his previous books, is in his combination of a lucid and engaging style with theoretical sophistication and a healthy dose of sound sense. ... this is an excellent introduction to ancient economic history in general as well as to one specific aspect.' Journal of Hellenic Studies