The Business Life Of Ancient Athens Essay free essay sample

The Business Life Of Ancient Athens Essay, Research Paper The Business Life of Ancient Athens is an enlightening book about different facets of Ancient concerns and Ancient ways of covering with money. This book foremost starts out by explicating the agricultural facets of Ancient Athens. Agriculture was non good for Athens, so they had to merchandise a batch. It is recorded every bit early as the sixth century BC that grain was a really large portion of an mean Athenian? s diet. Therefore ; much grain trade was necessary because Greece land was really bad for agricultural intents. Athinais had grown industrially and commercially within clip, and this was besides a job: overpopulation. Besides, many Spartan folk over and over attacked Greece and destroyed any harvests that might turn in the dirt. Peasants were besides sent to work at farms but they lost attention in their farms and found it better to populate in the metropolis, populating off little sums of money that came from making province services. During this clip, many people learned ways of math because they needed to cognize how much grain is needed per individual. Although these computations are non wholly accurate, they are a start in banking and possibly even other ways of mathematics. The Peloponnesian War besides occurred- go forthing Greece ( Attica ) with nil. Attica was forced by dearth to travel under Peloponnesian regulation. By now, trade had come in an tumult. Many people had found it easy to merchandise by sea. So many merchandisers with non adequate money would borrow money from rich people and so purchase cargo infinite on a ship. In most instances the merchandiser went on the ship to acquire the goods to sell. Then on returning, the merchandiser would sell the goods, and so pay off the loaner, with a 22.5 percent involvement rate. In many instances, jobs occurred, sometimes a merchandiser returned tardily, could non pay all of the money back, or something or other. Therefore the thought of a collateral was invented. Besides, tribunals were established to govern these kinds of battles amongst the people. These tribunals weren? T used in the winter because of stormy conditions and so non to disrupt commercial concern. Courts were required to work out a instance within 30 yearss, this process merely applies to instances where and existent legal documented understanding was made between the loaner and the merchandiser. Many merchandisers did non return, therefore the collateral was the loaner? s to maintain. But frequently the merchandiser didn? Ts have anything good to get down with so many loaners lost money. Next, the book talked about Banking and Bankers. Early banking day of the months back all the manner to Sumer and Akkad where many specialized in weighing things and relation of cherished metals. Banking was foremost found where mintage started, in the center of Asia Minor, around the seventh century BC. Coinage was besides thought to hold started with Minoans, but they are non certain. It is thought that the thought of banking may hold started with the priests of Sumer and Akkad, priests were ever the # 8220 ; bankers # 8221 ; of temples and organiser of the money. The Greeks took the information from these past priests and formed a banking system that consisted pecuniary minutess. And they concentrated in covering with strictly money and giving out money. The Romans took this thought farther and made what is similar to modern 1980? s bank state of affairss ( banking has progressed in the last decennary ) . With banking, the Greeks learned economical mode and ways of life with mon ey, and non bartering. Last, this book speaks about Mining in Ancient Athens. Around 500 BC. Mining was introduced in Athens. If the ways of the excavation concern had non come, Athens would hold likely lost an oncoming war with the Persians, but because of the excavation, many new people joined Athens and Persia decided non to occupy. They feared it because it had become much greater in strength. If excavation had non come, there would hold been no Athenian Empire, or an Age of Pericles. So, in the lepidote hills of Laurium, silver struck. Tocopherol veryone was fascinated with this new thought. In present twenty-four hours Laurium, you can still see the remains of the excavation and see everything. Many things were non found out about the excavation, because non excessively many records were kept. But many modern applied scientists and archeologists have looked into the land of Laurium and have found remains of setup, and from analyzation of clinker aggregations. However, it is non known how Ag was extracted from the rocks, how they were crushed and how they finally made silver objects from the mined Ag. The history of this can non be reconstructed. The manner this writer approaches this subject is in a supportive manner. He is really Grecian favoring and provinces many remarks about how many people do NOT give the early Grecian people the recognition they deserve. For case on page 82 the writer provinces? ? # 8221 ; many pupils of economic history have non yet given Grecian banking the attending it deserves [ in banking ] . # 8221 ; and the writer returns in stating of all the fantastic things the Greeks have done about banking and how the Romans simply merely watched the early Greeks. The writer besides thinks of the excavation industry as fantastic. He explained it in such an exciting mode. As a consequence of reading this book, I have formed many new sentiments. For illustration, I neer knew that concern started every bit early as it did [ in the mode of banking ] . I figured that banking likely didn? t semen until at least a twosome of centuries after Christ. Besides, I learned about excavation and all the things that were involved with it. Here once more I was surprised that it had started so early. My mentality on the concern filed has changed. I thought that all these concern people were so great to come up with all these thoughts, but they are genuinely merely taking the rudimentss of early history in concern and using it to modern ways. I think the writer? s intent of composing this book was to do me baffled! No, I truly think that the intent of composing this book was to inform people of the ways of early concern life, and the manner our ascendants were covering with the concern industry back so. Besides, it was a manner to transport on history even further, to province the facts for people even farther down the route of the universe. The writer did non seek to carry the reader in any manner, although he did prefer the Greeks a batch. He [ the writer ] did, nevertheless, comparison and contrast about all of the state of affairss with the modern universe. I think that the writer succeeded in his intent in that he wanted to acquire the Grecian side of the narrative out, and besides state a batch of facts excessively. He kept on, over and over, stating what the Greeks did that others took the recognition for. For illustration, when speaking about mintage, he said that the Lydians were the laminitis of coins. But he left a hint stating that the Greeks excessively, had cognition of coins, but the Lydians developed it faster than them. The writer repeatedly stated facts about the Ancient Businesses, stating of how tribunals developed, how they ran, how they were maintained, how they were working. And he did this similarly to about all the topics he touched upon like Mining, Banking, Agriculture, Trade, the class of economic development. All in all my sentiment of this book is good. I wished at most times that it wasn? Ts so factual and the writer besides used a figure of difficult to grok ways of stating things. The portion of the book that I found the most interesting is the portion about the Grain Trade. The Early Athenians had such a demand for grains and they could non acquire it so they finally had to give up to the Peloponnesians, which they DID battle and went through months of dearth. And I besides enjoyed the portion of the book that talked about early banking. I was really surprised that banking started so early. I think that by reading this book, I learned many things, and it helped me better my cognition of history. 34d