Modern Economics and the Ancient World New

The second volume of the new series "Muziris" assembles 11 contributions on "Modern Economics and the Ancient World". – In an introductory chapter, Sven Günther discusses the applicability of bounded rationality approaches – in particular "New Institutional Economics" (NIE) – to (Ancient) History. For this sake, he links basic pillars of these modern (economic) approaches to the principles of History as outlined by Johann Gustav Droysen in his seminal "Grundriss der Geschichte" and to frames and framing methodology as essential tool for a ‘communicative turn’ in historical studies, in order to link ‘etic’ and ‘emic’ perspectives on historical source material. – Kathryn Kelley's study on "Trouble Brewing in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia" seeks to understand the formulation of § 108 of the Codex Hammurapi from multiple perspectives by tracing the history of the female beer merchant in light of Babylonian legal, literary, and economic traditions. – Thibaud Nicolas tries to explain how Šamaš, the Mesopotamian Sungod, was acting in the economic and financial fields; even if the ancient Mesopotamians probably did not believe in a rational homo oeconomicus, this paper intends to show that the Sungod and his paredra Aya were often acting in a logical and rational way as they were lending silver, bargaining, and supplying the needy. – Daniel Silvermintz argues that close reading of the passage of the “healthy city” described at 369b–372e in Plato’s Republic reveals that all of the significant political proposals have not been determined by Socrates but rather by the acquisitive Adeimantus; while Socrates conceives of the city as a subsistence economy, Adeimantus adopts economic institutions for production and distribution that undermine the citizens’ ability to restrict their consumption to necessities. – Lothar Willms argues that Plato and Adam Smith represent two different modes of economic and social rationality and that Smith’s mode finds no match in ancient Stoics. – Bertram Schefold compares the concepts of land lease in Traditional China and Premodern Europe (particularly Germany). – Roland Ferenczi discusses the ancient South Indian state of the Cēras together with its monarchical features, and its prominent position in the Indo-Roman trade. – Further studies are devoted to economic concepts in Ancient Israelite Jubilee Legislation, the hoarding of wealth in the Ancient Economy and Chinese Qin-Han policies in the framework of New Institutional Economics (NIE).

Acknowledgements

Contributors

Sven Günther: Introduction: Were the Ancients Rational Actors? A View from a Graeco-Roman Historian

Kathryn Kelley: Trouble Brewing in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia

Thibaud Nicolas: A Rational God? Rationality and Religion in the Ebabbar of Sippar, an Old Babylonian Temple

Christian Canu Højgaard: Rational Actors and the Ancient Israelite Jubilee Legislation

Daniel Silvermintz: A City Fit for Business: The Justice of Moneymaking in the Republic’s Healthy City

Lothar Willms: Adam Smith, Plato, and the Stoics. The Birth of Modern Economic Rationality and the Classical Heritage

Michael Leese: Hoarding and Rationality in the Ancient Economy

José Remesal Rodríguez: Old Ideals and Adaptations to a New Reality. Columella’s De Re Rustica, a Survival Handbook for an Elite?

Roland Ferenczi: “The gold-possessing market where flags of the old town cast a shadow”. Some Remarks on Maritime Trade, Markets, and Money in the Early Cēra Panegyrics

Jason Hagler: Are the Moderns Rational? The View from Qin

Bertram Schefold: Land and Credit in the History of Economic Thought. Traditional China and Premodern Europe: Dian and “pactum antichriseos”

Index of Sources