Abstract
The Greeks straddled the boundary between voluntary peaceful trade and theft or extortion; Homeric heroes easily switched from traders to raiders, as conditions warranted. Greek philosophers retain an influence over western thought. Greek philosophers raised such questions whether laboring or pursuing material gains were ethical activities. These philosophers valued leisure time for contemplation and for participation in the polis. Because of Athens’ need for imported grain, merchants and traders gained respect over time. Did the philosophers’ opinions reflect those of the typical Greek citizen or resident?
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Although the normal progression of events was for pirates to become traders, sometimes the process was reversed. China dealt with piracy for centuries, but there was an eruption of piracy between 1550 and 1567, when Chinese merchants responded to heavy-handed edicts by resorting to piracy (Kung and Ma 2014, 510–534).
- 3.
Solon’s explanation of virtue arête, contrasted with wealth chremata , disappointed the wealthy Croesus, who wanted Solon to praise him because of his extreme wealth (Herodotus 1987, 45–48).
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Johannes Hasebroek claimed that our knowledge of these small traders was limited, as most were illiterate.
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Karl Polanyi described how satirists ridiculed hucksters. One might imagine Greek audiences laughing at the antics of hucksters getting their comeuppance (Polanyi 1957, 92).
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Leopold Migeotte argued that business participants must have been among the earliest users of writing. “By bestowing a fixed and durable form upon all kinds of documents, writing made it possible not only to create archives but also to produce evidence in the event of disputes” (Migeotte 2009, 9).
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Humfrey Michell described fishmongers as “a rough lot, cheats and cut-throats, and a sharp look-out had to be kept on them by the police and market officials to prevent swindling. One ordinance forbade them watering the salt fish” (Michell 1957, 289).
- 8.
Presumably, the value added of providing a comfortable, safe resting place in an isolated region would be quite significant.
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Similar to the Greek thinkers, the Chinese philosophers expressed a variation of the old Greyhound bus lines slogan, “Go labor and leave the thinking to us.”
- 10.
See Migeotte for a slightly different interpretation (Migeotte 2009, 148).
- 11.
Here’s a brief lesson in economics (no graphs, I promise). Perceived future prices affect both current supply and demand; the differing expectations of future prices create an incentive for speculation. Modern people, who are not familiar with the mechanics of speculation, think speculators are making paper profits and not earning profits through production of useful goods and services or by the sweat of their brows. There is a hilarious depiction of speculators in Trading Places , where Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy’s characters are explaining to Eddie Murphy’s streetwise character how speculation works; alas, they are planning to cheat—by bribing officials—in order to gain an advantage in the futures market. Let me shock or offend you—we are all speculators. If you have ever driven by the local gas station, taken a look at the current price, and muttered, “I think I’ll fill the tank today, since a news report said that a large oil refinery burned down last night,” then you are speculating. You are guessing that gasoline prices would be greater in the near future.
- 12.
If such speculations are successful, the obvious question becomes, why didn’t the ordinary Athenians do the same? In one case, the Athenians gave a group of grain retailers a temporary right to form a cartel to negotiate with the importers—a bi-lateral monopoly (Michell 1957, 272).
- 13.
One ramification of this nascent trade was the possibility of one-shot interactions; the merchant might figure he would never again transact with a party, so opportunistic behavior might have been tempting.
- 14.
Humfrey Michell, too, argued that some of the money changers and bankers must have been honest, since they were used as expert witnesses in currency exchange disputes (Michell 1957, 388).
- 15.
Apollodorus’ demoralization was a bane that all-too-frequently afflicted heirs of wealth, but at least such situations provided inspiration for numerous plays, novels, and motion pictures.
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Surdam, D.G. (2020). Greek Society. In: Business Ethics from Antiquity to the 19th Century. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37165-4_5
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