Just thought I’d throw this history book recommendation out there as someone else brought it up on another thread.
If you are interested in the history of trade and the spreading of ideas and civilization this book ought not be ignored:
http://www.amazon.com/Phoenicians-West-Politics-Colonies-Trade/dp/0521795435
“All this leads us to assume that both Tyre and Assyria had evolved towards an economic system in which there are referencesor units of value which operate as equivalent exchange values in silver or gold, in other words, ‘money’. We are faced then with an economic system with units of value (coinge and money), exchange values (prices), defined standards of weight, that is ponderal units and speculation on the value of gold, all features of a market economy with its laws of supply and demand.”
Does this analysis bother anyone else? You don’t need money to have supply and demand. Is supply and demand really just a feature of a market economy or rather an economic law?
As an archaelogist and historian whose focus was on Phoenica’s Western expanison, she has no room to move out of the general theories accepted within her profession, particularly because she is neither an economist or giving an flat out economic history
Besides she goes into detail about the main thoughts of ancient economic theory andstates she doesn’t wish to focus too much on it, right? I don’t have the book on hand as I am sick and in bed
What have the Phoenicians ever done for us?
Well in chapter 4 “Phoenician Trade”, she discusses the Substantivists, such as Polanyi and the Formalists such as Burling (never heard of him), and Belshaw (never head of him either lol). She does seem to devote a lot of time, at least early in the book, to matters of economy and economics and differing views on how to think about ancient economies. She says, for example, on pages 77-78, “No society can fail to consume, nor, by the same token, can it fail to produce and distribute. It follows, then, that economic activitiy as a whole, centering on the production, distribution and consumption of goods, is a dynamic and circular process.”
She seems to have a tendency to think of economies in terms of a system imposed by a government or something. Also, she seems to think governments in ancient times had as much power as they probably liked to think they had. Not only that, but for a long time governments with developed economic policies did not span too much of the world.
Well in any case she contructed the Phoenician world and trade system better than any other scholar who published books and had them translated in English that I am aware of. This is a fast growing and moving field too, it is tough to get a consistent narrative. Once I get better and have access to my books perhaps I’ll be in a better position to discuss specifics.
What have the Phoenicians ever done for us?
other than the spread of wealth, the alphabet, purple dye, and naval technology…brought peace?
Or are you going to be Phoenician hating because your father was a Woman: