Trade in the ancient Mediterranean: private order and public institutions

290 Pages·21.044 MB·English

by  Terpstra, Taco

Trade in the Ancient
Mediterranean
Terpstra.indb 1 1/7/2019 7:40:49 AM
The Princeton Economic History
of the Western World
Joel Mokyr, Series Editor
A list of titles in this series appears at the back of the book.
Terpstra.indb 2 1/7/2019 7:40:49 AM
Trade in the Ancient
Mediterranean
Private Order and
Public Institutions
Taco Terpstra
Princeton University Press
Princeton & Oxford
Terpstra.indb 3 1/7/2019 7:40:49 AM
Copyright © 2019 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press
41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TR
press.princeton.edu
All Rights Reserved
LCCN 2018957367
ISBN 9780691172088
British Library Cataloging-i n- Publication Data is available
Editorial: Rob Tempio and Matt Rohal
Production Editorial: Natalie Baan
Jacket Design: Carmina Alvarez
Production: Jacquie Poirier
Publicity: Julia Hall, Jodi Price, and Alyssa Sanford
Jacket image courtesy of Shutterstock
This book has been composed in Arno Pro
Printed on acid- free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Terpstra.indb 4 1/7/2019 7:40:49 AM
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
1 Introduction 1
2 Public Institutions and Phoenician Trade 33
3 King’s Men and the Stationary Bandit 83
4 Civic Order and Contract Enforcement 125
5 Economic Trust and Religious Violence 168
6 Epilogue 211
7 Concluding Remarks 226
Bibliography 233
Index 261
v
Terpstra.indb 5 1/7/2019 7:40:49 AM
Terpstra.indb 6 1/7/2019 7:40:49 AM
Acknowledgments
Several organizations have provided me with financial support,
allowing me time away from teaching to dedicate myself entirely to research
and writing. I extend my sincerest gratitude to the Loeb Classical Library
Foundation at Harvard University, the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Hu-
manities at Northwestern University and the Balzan Foundation. Without
their generous support, it would have taken me many years longer to finish
this book. I further thank Northwestern’s Center for Economic History for
the funds to draw the maps and acquire reproduction rights for the images
displayed herein.
I also express my gratitude to the University of Ghent for inviting me as a
visiting fellow for the spring term of 2016. The beautiful scenery of a medieval
“producer city,” the excellent research facilities and, most of all, the intellectual
environment of the History Department have been greatly stimulating to my
work. In particular Wim Broekaert, Koen Verboven and Arjan Zuiderhoek
have been wonderful colleagues and willing sounding boards. I greatly en-
joyed our conversations over Trappist beer and frites about Roman economic
history, medieval economic history, Belgian politics and much else besides. I
am also grateful for the feedback I received from the participants of the “Sin-
ews of Empire” conference at the Norwegian Institute at Athens in Decem-
ber 2015, and thank the organizer, Eivind Seland, for inviting me.
A special word of appreciation should go to Alain Bresson and Dennis
Kehoe for discussing the manuscript with me in May 2017. Our day- long con-
versation has greatly helped me in improving the book, and the end result is
much the better for it. I am also profoundly grateful to Arjan Zuiderhoek for
his willingness to read a large part of the manuscript and give me extensive
feedback. I owe a similar debt of gratitude to Roger Bagnall, Tim Earle and
Vincent Gabrielsen, all of whom have read and commented on individual
chapters. A word of thanks should also go to Alain Bresson, Christelle Fischer-
Bovet, Hannah Friedman, Joe Manning and Andrew Wilson for allowing me
access to some of their (at the time still) unpublished work.
My Northwestern Classics Department colleagues have been a constant
source of support and encouragement. I am grateful to them all for offering
vii
Terpstra.indb 7 1/7/2019 7:40:49 AM
viii Acknowledgments
me their thoughts, and thank in particular Bob Wallace and John Wynne. Mira
Balberg deserves a mention for discussing late-a ntique religion with me, giv-
ing me advice on Biblical texts and providing me with useful reading sugges-
tions. Further, I most warmly thank Joel Mokyr in the Economics Department
for having been an effective and motivating editor. I also thank him for hav-
ing put me in touch with Rob Tempio at Princeton University Press. It has
been a pleasure working with Rob throughout the production process of this
book. I also wish to express my gratitude to the three anonymous Princeton
UP readers, whose comments have been extremely helpful in improving the
manuscript.
On a more personal note, I thank Karel, Sanne and Frits for their support
when I much needed it. Finally, I am grateful to my parents for their warmth
and love. Once again, this book is for them.
Terpstra.indb 8 1/7/2019 7:40:49 AM
Trade in the Ancient
Mediterranean
Terpstra.indb 9 1/7/2019 7:40:49 AM