Recent work on the ancient economy has tended to concentrate on market exchange, but other forces also caused goods to change hands. Such nonmarket transfers ranged from small private gifts to the wholesale confiscation of cities, lands, and their peoples. The papers presented in this volume examine aspects of this extramercantile economy, particularly benefaction and the role of associations, as well as their impact on the market economy.

This volume brings together ancient historians, New Testament scholars, and classicists to assess critically the New Institutional Economics framework. Combining theoretical approaches with detailed investigations of particular regions and topics, its chapters examine Greek economic thought, the benefits of membership in private associations, and the economic role of civic euergetism from classical Athens to the municipalities of Roman Spain.

The Extramercantile Economies of Greek and Roman Cities will be of use to those interested in the economic context of ancient religions, the role of associations in the economy, theoretical approaches to the study of the ancient economy, labor and politics in the ancient city, as well as how Greek philosophers, from Xenophon to Philodemus, developed ethical ideas about economic behavior.

About the Author

David B. Hollander is Associate Professor of History at Iowa State University, USA.

Thomas R. Blanton IV is Auxiliary Professor in New Testament Studies at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, USA.

John T. Fitzgerald is Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Notre Dame, USA.

Reviews

"Overall, the volume convinces with its thematic coherence and a consistent concept. In all contributions theoretical groundwork is combined with good source work...there is no doubt that the contributions will be an important starting point for any future research on extramercantile and semimercantile economic structures." - The Classical Review

"This book represents a novelty in the context of scholarly studies on the ancient economy...[it] is a volume with a rich variety in methodological approach but tied together by a very well-defined general subject." - C-J Online

Book Information
ISBN 9781032093086
Author David B. Hollander
Format Paperback
Page Count 172
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 320g