On his book The Origins of Business, Money, and Markets
Cover Interview of August 16, 2011
In a nutshell
This is the first book to trace the genesis of modern business in Western antiquity. The time span stretches from prehistoric times to the late 7th century AD.
The Origins of Business, Money, and Markets focuses on the key civilizations and periods in this story. It is a chronological tour of the major ancient Western civilizations, a survey of much of antiquity’s social, economic, and political history through the lens of business.
The book proceeds in three Parts: the ancient Middle East, the Hellenic world, and Rome.
The circumstances and mentality of prehistoric societies did not include any concept or possibility of selling at a profit. Only with the first civilizations in Egypt and Mesopotamia about 5000 years ago did any such notion appear. As the early states expanded and developed bureaucratic competence, the mentality and skills essential to business operations began to emerge. And, especially in Mesopotamia, so did governmental accomplishments that expanded trade and other business activities. Business remained a marginal activity, however, because the Middle Eastern states used status, rather than purchasing power, as the basis for distributing economic benefits.
In Athens and other Greek city-states after 600 BC, a complex combination of entrepreneurship, coins, and markets gave birth to business recognizable in its modern form. An entrepreneurial market system became central to Greek urban economies, while banking and other forms of business provided an avenue of social advancement. In the 4th century BC, Alexander the Great and the Macedonian rulers who followed him spread this economic system to hundreds of cities throughout the Mediterranean region. In the Hellenistic world that they created, however, the profitability and social status of business sharply declined.
Business reached its most prominent ancient position during a four hundred year period between 200 BC and 200 AD. The Romans favored entrepreneurial market systems in cities throughout the parts of Africa and western Europe, which they conquered. Romans invented multinational business corporations, which attained considerable size and influence.
Meanwhile, in the distant sub-province of Judea, a series of political and religious developments would strongly influence the nature of business for many centuries thereafter: Hillel and Jesus with their humanistic teachings, the Christian Church, and the completion of the Jewish diaspora throughout the Eurasian landmass.
An important part of the Roman story is the explanation of how concentrated wealth played a major role in killing off business in most of Western Europe after 200 AD. From the Eastern half of the Roman Empire, though, the nexus between money, markets, and business would pass intact to succeeding states, most notably the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic caliphates.
In a very brief concluding chapter, I offer thoughts about modern business that arose as I researched and wrote the book. They cover three areas: wealth, morality, and public policy.
[T]he Holocaust transformed our whole way of thinking about war and heroism. War is no longer a proving ground for heroism in the same way it used to be. Instead, war now is something that we must avoid at all costs—because genocides often take place under the cover of war. We are no longer all potential soldiers (though we are that too), but we are all potential victims of the traumas war creates. This, at least, is one important development in the way Western populations envision war, even if it does not always predominate in the thinking of our political leaders.Carolyn J. Dean, Interview of February 01, 2011
The dominant premise in evolution and economics is that a person is being loyal to natural law if he or she attends to self’s interest and welfare before being concerned with the needs and demands of family or community. The public does not realize that this statement is not an established scientific principle but an ethical preference. Nonetheless, this belief has created a moral confusion among North Americans and Europeans because the evolution of our species was accompanied by the disposition to worry about kin and the collectives to which one belongs.Jerome Kagan, Interview of September 17, 2009
In a nutshell
This is the first book to trace the genesis of modern business in Western antiquity. The time span stretches from prehistoric times to the late 7th century AD.
The Origins of Business, Money, and Markets focuses on the key civilizations and periods in this story. It is a chronological tour of the major ancient Western civilizations, a survey of much of antiquity’s social, economic, and political history through the lens of business.
The book proceeds in three Parts: the ancient Middle East, the Hellenic world, and Rome.
The circumstances and mentality of prehistoric societies did not include any concept or possibility of selling at a profit. Only with the first civilizations in Egypt and Mesopotamia about 5000 years ago did any such notion appear. As the early states expanded and developed bureaucratic competence, the mentality and skills essential to business operations began to emerge. And, especially in Mesopotamia, so did governmental accomplishments that expanded trade and other business activities. Business remained a marginal activity, however, because the Middle Eastern states used status, rather than purchasing power, as the basis for distributing economic benefits.
In Athens and other Greek city-states after 600 BC, a complex combination of entrepreneurship, coins, and markets gave birth to business recognizable in its modern form. An entrepreneurial market system became central to Greek urban economies, while banking and other forms of business provided an avenue of social advancement. In the 4th century BC, Alexander the Great and the Macedonian rulers who followed him spread this economic system to hundreds of cities throughout the Mediterranean region. In the Hellenistic world that they created, however, the profitability and social status of business sharply declined.
Business reached its most prominent ancient position during a four hundred year period between 200 BC and 200 AD. The Romans favored entrepreneurial market systems in cities throughout the parts of Africa and western Europe, which they conquered. Romans invented multinational business corporations, which attained considerable size and influence.
Meanwhile, in the distant sub-province of Judea, a series of political and religious developments would strongly influence the nature of business for many centuries thereafter: Hillel and Jesus with their humanistic teachings, the Christian Church, and the completion of the Jewish diaspora throughout the Eurasian landmass.
An important part of the Roman story is the explanation of how concentrated wealth played a major role in killing off business in most of Western Europe after 200 AD. From the Eastern half of the Roman Empire, though, the nexus between money, markets, and business would pass intact to succeeding states, most notably the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic caliphates.
In a very brief concluding chapter, I offer thoughts about modern business that arose as I researched and wrote the book. They cover three areas: wealth, morality, and public policy.