How Did Solon Change Athenian Economy

The economy of Ancient Athens went through many changes throughout their ancient history. Their economy evolved from a mostly subsistence economy in 7th century B.C. to primarily a trade based economy in 5th century B.C. The Athenian political leader Solon implemented many economic reforms during his reign, many which were intended consolidate the lower and middle class farmers in Athens. Eventually Athens power economy would thrive leading to a high standard of living for Athenian civilians, due in large part to Athen’s strong navy, trade with other civilizations around the Mediterranean, discovery of the Silver mines, and their control of the Delian league. Solon was a political leader that implemented many economic reforms while he was

Solon also encouraged foreign tradesmen to settle in Athens by granting them citizenship, and encouraged parents to have their children learn a trade if they didn’t have enough land to leave to them and in exchange children were obligated to support their parents during old age. He banned the commercialization of all goods except olives, in order to prevent shortages or inflation to help the farmers. Solon also revised the census classifications. Instead of their just being three classes, the knights, the wealthy farmers, and the peasants, Solon made it so the wealthiest of the knights constituted a separate class. The classes were determined by their annual incomes. The purpose of this reform was to distribute the tax burden more evenly. Solon’s reforms were met with incremental success initially. While these reforms created discontent among Athen’s nobility, these reforms helped to alleviate overburdened farmers and did improve the Athenian economy in the long-term, and helped to increase the amount of foreign

Athens would become wealthy thanks to their control of trade along the Mediterranean. Because of all the trade that Athens partook in, Athenians enjoyed both foreign and native products which gave the Athenians a high standard of living. The Athenians used a major port known as Piraeus in the Mediterranean as a huge commercial center to exchange goods. Thanks to this port the Athenians were able to trade with many different civilizations across the Mediterranean including Egypt, Syria, and Libya. In addition to acquiring foreign goods the Athenians also incorporated foreign words in to their language, as well as dresses and