 The Popular Morality of Ancient Greek CommerceMoritz Hinsch ()
Chapter Chapter 2 in Reassessing the Moral Economy, 2023, pp 15-43 from Palgrave Macmillan Abstract: Abstract The concept of moral economy is both absent and present in the study of the economic history of Greco-Roman antiquity. While little use has been made of the catchphrase itself, the economic effects of ethics have long been among the most-debated topics in the field. So far, however, opposing sides in the debate about embeddedness shared a common understanding of ethics as either absent or inhibiting business. This chapter suggests a different understanding of the role of moral norms in profit-oriented economic activity. It sets out to systematically trace the religious roots of the popular morality of ancient Greek commerce. While Greek ritual focused on individual welfare, it was nonetheless guided by beliefs in divinely ordained justice. The reciprocal obligations towards the gods encompassed a collective obligation to enforce justice among humans as a realization of divinely ordained custom. This religious foundation of the moral economy of the Greek marketplace saw gradual changes, but no general decline from the archaic down to the hellenistic period. Keywords: Trade; Markets; Reciprocity; Oaths; Religion; Risk and uncertainty (search for similar items in EconPapers) There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palscp:978-3-031-29834-9_2 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-29834-9_2 Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Palgrave Studies in Economic History from Palgrave Macmillan |
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