Steven Johnstone
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226405094
- eISBN:
- 9780226405117
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226405117.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
An enormous amount of literature exists on Greek law, economics, and political philosophy. Yet no one has written a history of trust, one of the most fundamental aspects of social and economic ...
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An enormous amount of literature exists on Greek law, economics, and political philosophy. Yet no one has written a history of trust, one of the most fundamental aspects of social and economic interaction in the ancient world. This volume explores the way democracy and markets flourished in ancient Greece, not so much through personal relationships as through trust in abstract systems—including money, standardized measurement, rhetoric, and haggling. Focusing on markets and democratic politics, the book draws on speeches given in Athenian courts, histories of Athenian democracy, comic writings, and laws inscribed on stone to examine how these systems worked. It analyzes their potentials and limitations and how the Greeks understood and critiqued them. The book links Greek political, economic, social, and intellectual history and examines contemporary analyses of trust and civil society.Less
An enormous amount of literature exists on Greek law, economics, and political philosophy. Yet no one has written a history of trust, one of the most fundamental aspects of social and economic interaction in the ancient world. This volume explores the way democracy and markets flourished in ancient Greece, not so much through personal relationships as through trust in abstract systems—including money, standardized measurement, rhetoric, and haggling. Focusing on markets and democratic politics, the book draws on speeches given in Athenian courts, histories of Athenian democracy, comic writings, and laws inscribed on stone to examine how these systems worked. It analyzes their potentials and limitations and how the Greeks understood and critiqued them. The book links Greek political, economic, social, and intellectual history and examines contemporary analyses of trust and civil society.
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226405094
- eISBN:
- 9780226405117
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226405117.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume which is about the history of trust in Greece during classical and early Hellenistic periods, roughly the fifth and fourth centuries bce. ...
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This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume which is about the history of trust in Greece during classical and early Hellenistic periods, roughly the fifth and fourth centuries bce. This volume moves from economic practices to politics in the analysis of trust and systems. It examines Greek practices and discourses related to the issues of haggling, valuing, and apportioning liability.Less
This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume which is about the history of trust in Greece during classical and early Hellenistic periods, roughly the fifth and fourth centuries bce. This volume moves from economic practices to politics in the analysis of trust and systems. It examines Greek practices and discourses related to the issues of haggling, valuing, and apportioning liability.
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226405094
- eISBN:
- 9780226405117
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226405117.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
This chapter examines the haggling in ancient Greece as an economic activity and as a cultural practice. It suggests that haggling highlighted the complex relations between trust in abstract systems ...
More
This chapter examines the haggling in ancient Greece as an economic activity and as a cultural practice. It suggests that haggling highlighted the complex relations between trust in abstract systems and trust in persons. It explores the comic representations of haggling in order to understand its procedures and protocols and the ways it encoded conflict. This chapter suggests that Greek marketplace regulations should be understood to be aimed at overcoming or at least compensating for the asymmetric positions of sellers and buyers and at restraining or eliminating haggling.Less
This chapter examines the haggling in ancient Greece as an economic activity and as a cultural practice. It suggests that haggling highlighted the complex relations between trust in abstract systems and trust in persons. It explores the comic representations of haggling in order to understand its procedures and protocols and the ways it encoded conflict. This chapter suggests that Greek marketplace regulations should be understood to be aimed at overcoming or at least compensating for the asymmetric positions of sellers and buyers and at restraining or eliminating haggling.
Michael Murrin
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226071572
- eISBN:
- 9780226071602
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226071602.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
When Camões composed Os Lusíadas, his epic about Vasco da Gama’s voyage to India, he had to face a series of issues. The Portuguese went to India to negotiate a trade treaty, but trade is not a ...
More
When Camões composed Os Lusíadas, his epic about Vasco da Gama’s voyage to India, he had to face a series of issues. The Portuguese went to India to negotiate a trade treaty, but trade is not a heroic activity. His own experience in the East gave him a critical view of Portuguese activity, which he considered corrupt, a view he shared with others, especially Fernão Mendes Pinto and Diogo do Couto.Less
When Camões composed Os Lusíadas, his epic about Vasco da Gama’s voyage to India, he had to face a series of issues. The Portuguese went to India to negotiate a trade treaty, but trade is not a heroic activity. His own experience in the East gave him a critical view of Portuguese activity, which he considered corrupt, a view he shared with others, especially Fernão Mendes Pinto and Diogo do Couto.
