Athens Finley The Ancient Economy Analysis

In this essay, I will discuss how advancements in the study of ancient agriculture could potentially illegitimatize Moses Finley’s view of the ancients. Finley’s basic model of the ancient economy has been one of, if not, the most influential factors concerning debates focused on the ancient economy. Such debates typically revolve around two opposing schools of thought; on one side of the spectrum, individuals align themselves with the beliefs of Finley, that premodern people possessed no form of economic thought, and on the other end of the spectrum, there exist individuals who believe that the ancients practiced economic behavior regularly. In recent years, however, students of the ancient economy have begun to focus debates more toward

Moses Finley’s book titled “The Ancient Economy”, published in 1973, laid out his personal beliefs regarding the mechanisms behind how the ancients’ economy functioned. In Finley’s view, the ancients possessed no form of economic thought; the main argument posed by his model being that the ancients “lacked the concept of an ‘economy’” and therefore the existence of both economic behavior and thought was impossible (Finley, 1973). While he acknowledged that there was indeed some sort of

Wealthy individuals who, according to Finley, were already of relatively high social standing would occasionally lease, or temporarily purchase, additional land. If Finley’s model were accurate, then why would these rich citizens be spending money to effectively borrow land? How would this increase their social standing in any regard? It was clearly not the result of a necessity to provide food, as these individuals were likely already the owners of large amounts of land and could easily afford to pursue the simpler option of purchasing agricultural goods from elsewhere. There is also no logical argument for this action leading toward a heightened social standing, and it is therefore necessary to propose an alternative motivation that explains the occurrence of such exchanges. Leopold Migeotte provided a satisfactory explanation in his book “The Economy of the Greek Cities”, published in 2009; he proposed that these individuals rented the additional land in order to increase the volume of agricultural products they were able to produce. These individuals rented such plots in order to “compliment their own patrimony . . . thereby increasing their incomes” (Migeotte, 2009). Here, yet again, it can be seen that at least some of the ancients understood economic principles such as investment return and overall profit margins. While