num_pages: 298
description: "Technical progress, economic growth, productivity, even efficiency have not been significant goals since the beginning of time," declares M. I. Finley in his classic work. The states of the ancient Mediterranean world had no recognizable real-property market, never fought a commercially inspired war, witnessed no drive to capital formation, and assigned the management of many substantial enterprises to slaves and ex-slaves. In short, to study the economies of the ancient world, one must begin by discarding many premises that seemed self-evident before Finley showed that they were useless or misleading. Available again, with a new foreword by Ian Morris, these sagacious, fertile, and occasionally combative essays are just as electrifying today as when Finley first wrote them.
language: English
title: The Ancient Economy (Volume 43)
titlecomplete: The Ancient Economy (Volume 43) (Sather Classical Lectures)
genres: Reference, Greece, Roman, Science, Nonfiction, Ancient, Ancient History, Classics, Economics, History
ratings_count: 190
series: Sather Classical Lectures
awards: awardedAt: 126259200000
name: Wolfson History Prize
publisher: University of California Press