Markets in pre-industrial societies:storage in Hellenistic Babylonia in the English mirror

Péter Földvári, Bas van Leeuwen and Reinhard Pirngruber

No 3, Working Papers from Utrecht University, Centre for Global Economic History

Abstract: Recent research has shown early economies to exhibit market behavior by using institutions that reduce price volatility. In this paper we focus on storage as a price stabilizing strategy in Babylon using a recent dataset with agricultural prices for the Late Achaemenid and Hellenistic periods (ca. 400 – 65 BC). This dataset allows us to assess the importance of interannual storage (carry-over) in this economy. Comparing this economy with that of medieval England using a cost-benefit analysis, we find, after correcting for the differential crop structure in both regions, a low level of inter-annual storage. Yet, contrary to the expectations of the cost-benefit analysis, the evidence does not indicate a lower interest rate (i.e. costs) in Babylon. This implies that both social structure as well as access to capital markets played a more important role than traditionally assumed in the question of carry-over.

Keywords: Hellenistic Babylonia; storage; England; Babylon; seasonality; ancient history; medieval history (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2011-07
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