Abstract
This book is about a big problem in economic history research: how to study economic development in societies that lack archival records or written sources suitable for cliometric analyses? In the past decades economic archaeology has made huge advances in its abilities to identify, collect, process, and interpret material remains as proxy-data for economic interactions and performance. Ancient economic historians eagerly incorporated these proxy-data in their arguments but found them impossible to translate into familiar economic indicators. Archaeologists in turn struggled to analyse their datasets in the neoclassical and new-institutional framework favoured by economic historians. Making progress in ancient economic history research requires bridging the gap between both disciplines. This book discusses complexity economics as a new framework to integrate proxy-data from the archaeological record into both economic history and archaeology.
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Notes
- 1.
For example, Verboven, “The Knights Who Say NIE”.
- 2.
See for instance Harper, The Fate of Rome.
- 3.
See for instance Verboven and Erdkamp, Structure and Performance in the Roman Economy; Manning and Morris, The Ancient Economy; Scheidel and Von Reden, The Ancient Economy; Remesal Rodríguez, Revilla Calvo, and Bermúdez Lorenzo, Cuantificar las economías antiguas; for an earlier example see Finley, Ancient History.
- 4.
Scheidel, “In Search of Roman Economic Growth”, 50.
- 5.
Verboven, “Ancient Cliometrics”.
- 6.
Hopkins, Conquerors and Slaves, 19–20; Hopkins, “Taxes and Trade”, 43; see the discussion in Verboven, “Ancient Cliometrics”, 347–50.
- 7.
Hopkins, “Models, Ships and Staples”, 85; see also Hopkins, “Taxes and Trade”; Hopkins, “Rome, Taxes, Rents and Trade”; Hopkins, “Rents, Taxes, Trade and the City of Rome”.
- 8.
Wilson, “Approaches to Quantifying Roman Trade”.
- 9.
Cf. Arthur, Complexity and the Economy, 3: “[E]conomics early in its history took a simpler approach, one more amenable to mathematical analysis. It asked not how agents’ behaviors would react to the aggregate patterns these created, but what behaviors (actions, strategies, expectations) would be upheld by—would be consistent with—the aggregate patterns these caused. It asked in other words what patterns would call for no changes in micro-behavior, and would therefore be in stasis, or equilibrium” (emphasis by the author).
- 10.
On the advantages of equilibrium economics and its limits see Arthur, 3–4.
- 11.
North, “Some Fundamental Puzzles in Economic History/Development”, 237.
- 12.
The terminology is revealing. It suggests that equilibrium is really “out there”. It is merely hard to find because life keeps getting in the way.
- 13.
Freeman and Carchedi, Marx and Non-Equilibrium Economics, viii.
- 14.
Beinhocker, The Origin of Wealth.
- 15.
For a more elaborate discussion see the chapters by Verboven.
- 16.
The chapter is useful also to links this book to a previous book in the same research programme: Verboven and Erdkamp, Structure and Performance in the Roman Economy.
- 17.
Temin, The Roman Market Economy; Bang, The Roman Bazaar.
- 18.
Verboven, “Ancient Cliometrics”.
- 19.
By Verboven, Preiser-Kapeller, Brughmans, Van Limbergen and Vermeulen, Willet and Elliot.
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Acknowledgements
Last but no least it is my pleasure here to thank our supporters, collaborators, and funding bodies without whom this book would never have been possible. The work is part of the 2017–2021 research programme of the international network “Structural Determinants of Economic Performance in the Roman World”, generously funded by the Flanders Research Foundation (FWO). Six of the contributionsFootnote 19 originate from discussions at an international workshop held in Sagalassos, Turkey, in 2015 funded by this network and by the Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project. Special thanks are due to Jeroen Poblome, director of the Sagalassos Project for making this possible.
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Verboven, K. (2021). Introduction: Finding a New Approach to Ancient Proxy Data. In: Verboven, K. (eds) Complexity Economics. Palgrave Studies in Ancient Economies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47898-8_1
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