Athenian Economy and Society

by Cohen, Edward E.

• ISBN13: 9780691015927
• ISBN10: 0691015929
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-01-06
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

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.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix	(6)
Acknowledgments	xv	(2)
Abbreviations	xvii
CHAPTER 1 Market Economy--Banking Reality	3	(23)
The Athenian Economy	3	(5)
The Trapeza as True Bank	8	(10)
Currency Exchange	18	(4)
False Anachronism: The Modern Invention of the Athenian Pawnshop	22	(4)
CHAPTER 2 A Methodological Alternative to the Misuse of Statistics	26	(15)
The Perils of Cliometrics	27	(9)
"Forensic Attestation": An Alternative Approach	36	(5)
CHAPTER 3 Financial Context and Concepts	41	(20)
Freedom from Regulation and Oligopoly	42	(2)
In Lieu of Interest: "Maritime" and "Landed" Yields	44	(17)
CHAPTER 4 Wives, Slaves, and the Athenian Banker	61	(50)
A "Strictly Personal" Business	62	(4)
Assets, Human and Other	66	(4)
Unavailable and Undesirable: Free Citizens as Bank Employees	70	(3)
Slaves and Wives	73	(9)
The Banking Household: A Traditional Form Transformed	82	(8)
Adaptation to Slave Enterprise	90	(11)
Women, Law, and Property	101	(10)
CHAPTER 5
Banking Operations: "Risk-Laden Revenues from `Other People's Money'"	111	(79)
Obtaining "Other People's Money"	114	(7)
Deploying Other People's Money for Maritime Loans	121	(15)
Maritime Finance	136	(24)
Denial of the Role of Bankers in Sea Finance	160	(23)
The Banker's Own Money	183	(7)
CHAPTER 6 The Banks' Role in the Economy	190	(35)
The "Invisible Economy"	191	(16)
The Structure of Credit	207	(8)
Bank Failures and Economic History	215	(10)
Works Cited	225	(30)
Index of Passages Cited	255	(14)
General Index	269