Trading Communities in the Roman World: A Micro-Economic and Institutional Perspective. (= Columbia Studies in the Classical Tradition, Vol. 37).

Terpstra, Taco.

ISBN 10: 9004238603 / ISBN 13: 9789004238602

Published by Brill, Leiden, 2013

About this Item

XIII/244 pp., binding slightly rubbed, else very good and clean, text in English, Sprache: Englisch Gewicht in Gramm: 520 original hardcover (no dust jacket),

Seller Inventory # 23392

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Trading Communities in the Roman World: A Micro-Economic and Institutional Perspective. (= Columbia Studies in the Classical Tradition, Vol. 37).
• Publisher: Brill, Leiden
• Publication Date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9004238603
• ISBN 13: 9789004238602
• Binding: Hardcover
• Weight: 520 grams
• Seller catalogs:
  • Alte Geschichte / Antike

About this title

Synopsis

Ancient Roman trade was severely hampered by slow transportation and by the absence of a state that helped traders enforce their contracts. In Trading Communities in the Roman World: A Micro-Economic and Institutional Perspective Taco Terpstra offers a new explanation of how traders in the Roman Empire overcame these difficulties.

Previous theories have focused heavily on dependent labor, arguing that transactions overseas were conducted through slaves and freedmen. Taco Terpstra shows that this approach is unsatisfactory. Employing economic theory, he convincingly argues that the key to understanding long-distance trade in the Roman Empire is not patron-client or master-slave relationships, but the social bonds between ethnic groups of foreign traders living overseas and the local communities they joined.

About the Author

Taco Terpstra, Ph.D. (2011), Columbia University, specializes in Roman socio-economic history and classical archaeology. He has published articles on Roman long-distance trade and editions of Egyptian papyri, as well as articles resulting from his field work in ancient Stabiae.