ATHENIAN ECONOMY AND SOCIETY by Edward Cohen ( 9780691015927 )

Item Details

Title:

ATHENIAN ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
A BANKING PERSPECTIVE

By:

Edward Cohen

Format:

Paperback

List price:

£52.00

Our price:

£41.60

Discount:

20% off

You save:

£10.40

ISBN 10:

0691015929

ISBN 13:

9780691015927

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Publisher:

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

6 January, 1997

Pages:

312

Description:

Presenting an analysis of the world's first private banks, this work demonstrates the existence and functioning of a market economy in ancient Athens while revising our understanding of the society itself. It reveals that fourth-century Athenian bankers pursued sophisticated transactions.

Synopsis:

In this ground-breaking analysis of the world's first private banks, Edward Cohen convincingly demonstrates the existence and functioning of a market economy in ancient Athens while revising our understanding of the society itself. Challenging the "primitivistic" view, in which bankers are merely pawnbrokers and money-changers, Cohen reveals that fourth-century Athenian bankers pursued sophisticated transactions. These dealings--although technologically far removed from modern procedures--were in financial essence identical with the lending and deposit-taking that separate true "banks" from other businesses. He further explores how the Athenian banks facilitated tax and creditor avoidance among the wealthy, and how women and slaves played important roles in these family businesses--thereby gaining legal rights entirely unexpected in a society supposedly dominated by an elite of male citizens. Special emphasis is placed on the reflection of Athenian cognitive patterns in financial practices. Cohen shows how transactions were affected by the complementary opposites embedded in the very structure of Athenian language and thought.In turn, his analysis offers great insight into daily Athenian reality and cultural organization.

Publication:

Imprint:

Princeton University Press

Prizes:

Winner of Herbert Feis Award of the American Historical Association 1993 Short-listed for Choice's Outstanding Academic Books 1993 (United States)

Returns:

Returnable

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