Athenian Economy and Society (ebook)

Argumento de Athenian Economy and Society (ebook)

In this ground-breaking analysis of the world's first private banks, Edward Cohen convincingly demonstrates the existence and functioning of a market economy in ancient Athens while revising our understanding of the society itself. Challenging the "primitivistic" view, in which bankers are merely pawnbrokers and money-changers, Cohen reveals that fourth-century Athenian bankers pursued sophisticated transactions. These dealings--although technologically far removed from modern procedures--were in financial essence identical with the lending and deposit-taking that separate true "banks" from other businesses. He further explores how the Athenian banks facilitated tax and creditor avoidance among the wealthy, and how women and slaves played important roles in these family businesses--thereby gaining legal rights entirely unexpected in a society supposedly dominated by an elite of male citizens.

Special emphasis is placed on the reflection of Athenian cognitive patterns in financial practices. Cohen shows how transactions were affected by the complementary opposites embedded in the very structure of Athenian language and thought. In turn, his analysis offers great insight into daily Athenian reality and cultural organization.0Preface Acknowledgments Abbreviations Ch. 1 Market Economy - Banking Reality 3 The Athenian Economy 3 The Trapeza as True Bank 8 Currency Exchange 18 False Anachronism: The Modern Invention of the Athenian Pawnshop 22 Ch. 2 A Methodological Alternative to the Misuse of Statistics 26 The Perils of Cliometrics 27 "Forensic Attestation": An Alternative Approach 36 Ch. 3 Financial Context and Concepts 41 Freedom from Regulation and Oligopoly 42 In Lieu of Interest: "Maritime" and "Landed" Yields 44 Ch. 4 Wives, Slaves, and the Athenian Banker 61 A "Strictly Personal" Business 62 Assets, Human and Other 66 Unavailable and Undesirable: Free Citizens as Bank Employees 70 Slaves and Wives 73 The Banking Household: A Traditional Form Transformed 82 Adaptation to Slave Enterprise 90 Women, Law, and Property 101 Ch. 5 Banking Operations: "Risk-Laden Revenues from 'Other People's Money'" 111 Obtaining "Other People's Money" 114 Deploying Other People's Money for Maritime Loans 121 Maritime Finance 136 Denial of the Role of Bankers in Sea Finance 160 The Bankers' Own Money 183 Ch. 6 The Banks' Role in the Economy 190 The "Invisible Economy" 191 The Structure of Credit 207 Bank Failures and Economic History 215 Works Cited 225 Index of Passages Cited 255 General Index 269