Bissa, E.M.A.; (2008) Governmental intervention in foreign trade in archaic and classical Greece. Doctoral thesis , University of London.

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Abstract

The thesis discusses the role of the state in archaic and classical Greek trade through the study of four commodities, gold, silver, timber and grain, where the state had reason to intervene. Gold and silver were not only a major source of wealth for the producing states but also their import was a concern for many states, since they were the main coinage metals. In the thesis, both the role of the state in production and export and the situation for coin-minting importers using statistical data for silver and case studies for gold are discussed. The study of timber concentrates on shipbuilding timber, particularly for triremes, since naval warfare played such an important role in the historical developments of the classical period. The two main issues discussed are the intervention through monopoly and the means of acquisition used by the importers, concentrating on coercive diplomacy and military pressure. Grain was the main staple food in antiquity and for many poleis its import, regular and extraordinary, was a matter of life or death. The economic policies of the exporters in normal and famine situations and the intervention of the state in imports through legislation are discussed. The thesis shows that Greek states both intervened and involved themselves rationally in the production, export and import of important commodities disproving the modern orthodoxy on the issue, which argues in favour of minimal extraordinary intervention.

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