Recent scholarship contends that ancient Mediterranean economies grew intensively, contrary to standard Malthusian predictions. An explanation is Smithian growth spurred by reductions in transaction costs and increased trade flows. This paper argues that an ancient Greek institution, proxenia,...

This book offers a comprehensive overview of the pre-modern economic history of Central Asia and the Silk Road, covering several millennia. By analyzing an abundance of sources and materials, it illustrates the repeated economic heydays of the Silk Road, during which it linked the Orient and...

Preface -- Part I: Greece and European Integration -- Part II: Issues in the Methodology of Economics -- Part III: Institutions and the Free Market Economy -- Part IV: Insights for Today from Ancient Greece -- Part V: Indices -- Author Index -- Subject Index.

Introduction (Martin Lutz and Tanja Skambraks) -- Part 1: Antiquity and Middle Ages -- Chapter 1.The Popular Morality of Ancient Greek Commerce (Moritz Hinsch) -- Chapter 2. Early medieval property transfers in favour of the church between religion and economy (Franziska Quaas) -- Chapter 3....

Did long-distance trade in the Roman world operate on a sufficiently big scale to increase the overall size of markets, enabling specialization of labor and thus Smithian growth? Although the Malthusian model represents the dominant view to describe the economic performance of the ancient world,...