Trading Communities in the Roman World: A Micro-economic and Institutional Perspective

Terpstra, Taco T.

ISBN 10: 9004238603 / ISBN 13: 9789004238602

Published by Brill Academic Pub, 2013

About this Item

bilingual edition. 244 pages. Latin language. 9.50x6.25x0.75 inches. In Stock. This item is printed on demand.

Seller Inventory # __9004238603

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Trading Communities in the Roman World: A Micro-economic and Institutional Perspective
• Publisher: Brill Academic Pub
• Publication Date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9004238603
• ISBN 13: 9789004238602
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Brand New
• Weight: 0.55 kilograms

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.