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The Ancient Economy

Moses Finley

The Ancient Economy

"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. These essays are just as electrifying today as when Finley first wrote them.

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Publisher
Univ of California Press
Year
1973
ISBN-13
9780520025646
Genre
History
Topics
Ancient economyClassical antiquityEconomic history

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