Modelling Modes of Production: European 3rd and 2nd Millennium BC Economies

Kristian Kristiansen () and Timothy Earle
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Kristian Kristiansen: University of Gothenburg
Timothy Earle: Northwestern University

A chapter in Ancient Economies in Comparative Perspective, 2022, pp 131-163 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract We plan to synthesize an understanding of the broad regional economies of Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe. This synthesis will consider variation in the economies along three dimensions: variation in the subsistence economies reflecting local conditions of resource availability, technologies, and population densities; variation in exchange reflecting regional comparative advantage in commodity production and trade; and variation in political economies reflecting specific bottlenecks in production and distribution allowing for mobilization and circulation of surpluses in wealth and staples. The goal will be to consider how an emerging world economy, especially involving metals, textiles, weapons, slaves, and other highly valued objects created emerging commodity exchange, market forces, power differentials, and population movements. This will consider structures of craft production, means of transport, and political and symbolic uses of objects. We expect to see the evolution of an integrated economy as more products move distances and become integrated into market-like exchanges. Our focus will be on areas that we know best: Scandinavia, Germany, Hungary, and Italy, but we hope to position these regions within a broader understanding of macro-economic transformations.

Keywords: Marxian economic history; Mode of production; Ancient economic history; Bronze Age; Iron Age (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-08763-9_8

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