IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ucg/wpaper/0003.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

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

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Foldvari
  • Bas van Leeuwen
  • Reinhard Pirngruber

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Foldvari & Bas van Leeuwen & Reinhard Pirngruber, 2011. "Markets in pre-industrial societies:storage in Hellenistic Babylonia in the English mirror," Working Papers 0003, Utrecht University, Centre for Global Economic History.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucg:wpaper:0003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.cgeh.nl/sites/default/files/WorkingPapers/CGEH.WP_.No3_.vanLeeuwenetal.jan2011_0.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucg:wpaper:0003. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Carmichael (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cgeuunl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.