Trade and the Rise of Ancient Greek City-States

Adamson, Jordan

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3917397

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…An array of innovations that reduced transaction costs and positively affected trade have been proposed, including the polis as a political structure (Ober 2015), the Athenian legal system (Fleck and Hanssen 2012), sailing technology (Bakker et al 2021), the eradication of piracy (Temin 2013), and Roman conquest and political integration (Temin 2013;Harper 2017). Environmental endowments are also thought to have impacted trade as well as political development (Adamson 2021).…”

Section: Pier Paolo Creanzamentioning

confidence: 99%

Institutions, Trade, and Growth: The Ancient Greek Case of Proxenia

Creanza

2024

J. Econ. Hist.

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Recent scholarship contends that ancient Mediterranean economies grew intensively. An explanation is that Smithian growth was spurred by reductions in transaction costs and increased trade flows. This paper argues that an ancient Greek institution, proxenia, was among the key innovations that allowed such growth in the period 500–0 BCE. Proxenia entailed a Greek city-state declaring a foreigner to be its “public friend,” a status that conferred both duties and privileges. The functions performed by “public friends” could facilitate economic transactions between communities. Accordingly, network and regression analyses establish a strong relationship between proxenia grants and trade intensity.

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Section: Pier Paolo Creanzamentioning

confidence: 99%