Economy of ancient Greece
The impact of limited crop production was somewhat offset by Greece's paramount location, as its position in the Mediterranean gave its provinces control over some of Egypt's most crucial seaports and trade routes.
Beginning in the 6th century BC, trade craftsmanship and commerce, principally maritime, became pivotal aspects of Greek economic output.
Sheep and goats were the most common types of livestock, while bees were kept to produce honey, the only source of sugar known to the ancient Greeks.
Thus, weaving and baking, activities so important to the Western late medieval economy, were done only by women before the 6th century BC.
Examples include Cleon and Anytus, noted tannery owners, and Kleophon, whose factory produced lyres.
The potter's work consisted of selecting the clay, fashioning the vase, drying and painting and baking it, and then applying varnish.
Part of the production went to domestic usage (dishes, containers, oil lamps) or for commercial purposes, and the rest served religious or artistic functions.
The heights to which the Greeks brought the art of ceramics is, therefore, due entirely to their artistic sensibilities and not to technical ingenuity.
Imports included grains and pork from Sicily, Arabia, Egypt, Ancient Carthage, and the Bosporan Kingdom.
In 413, Athens ended the collection of tribute from the Delian League and imposed a 5% duty on all the ports of her empire (Thucydides, VII, 28, 4) in the hope of increasing revenues.
The lender bore all the risks of the journey, in exchange for which the borrower committed his cargo and his entire fleet, which were precautionarily seized upon their arrival at the port of Piraeus.
[3] The number of shipwrecks found in the Mediterranean Sea provides valuable evidence of the development of trade in the ancient world.
They were viewed poorly by the general population, and Aristotle labelled their activities as: "a kind of exchange which is justly censured, for it is unnatural, and a mode by which men gain from one another.
"[5] Parallel to the "professional" merchants were those who sold the surplus of their household products such as vegetables, olive oil, or bread.
In other instances, like the burden of outfitting and commanding a trireme, the liturgy functioned more like a mandatory donation (what we would today call a one-time tax), with the prestige of such a position and other elites' social pressure reducing noncompliance.
The technique of minting coins arrived in mainland Greece around 550 BC, beginning with coastal trading cities like Aegina and Athens.
The mines of the Pangaeon hills allowed the cities of Thrace and Macedon to mint a large number of coins.
Laurium's silver mines provided the raw materials for the "Athenian owls",[8] [9] the most famous coins of the ancient Greek world.
They were also a source of revenue as foreigners had to change their money into the local currency at an exchange rate favourable to the State.
They served as a mobile form of metal resources, which explains discoveries of Athenian coins with high levels of silver at great distances from their home city.
Early in Greek history (18th century–8th century BC), free-born citizens would gather in the agora for military duty or to hear statements of the ruling king or council.
