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The Ancient Athenian Naval Economy

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The Ancient Athenian Naval Economy chapter 11 The Ancient Athenian Naval Economy 1 Economic Growth In recent decades an emerging field of scholarship has focused on estimating the scale and growth of the ancient Greek economy, including attempts at mea- suring classical Athenian GDP.1 This expanding literature on the quantification of the structure of ancient economies, replete with revealing comparisons with other periods in economic history has gathered pace at an impressive rate.2The results of this scholarship have challenged the long-standing consensus on the ancient economy of Greece.3 There is an emerging view that throughout the 5th and 4th centuries ancient Greek living standards were on an upward trend and that by pre-modern standards ancient Greece was well developed.4 There are two types of growth: aggregate or extensive growth, and per capita growth. In the former an increase in population alone can lead to increases in GDP. There is increasing evidence that there was demographic growth in ancient Greece, which has been estimated to have averaged 0.4% for over three centuries.5 Likewise for another leading indicator of economic development, urbanisation, where Greece was up to 30% urbanised,6 compared to 10–12% for Rome,7 with Rome’s 10% figure putting it at the same level as that of pre- modern states such as Britain, France, and Germany in 1600.8 Between 800 and 300 Morris estimates that per capita consumption in Greece increased by between 50% and 95%.9 Based on Morris’ figures Ober has estimated that this is an annual growth rate of 0.15%, a level that was 50% greater than that of Rome three centuries later.10 These are impressive levels of economic growth 1 Manning, Morris 2005; Scheidel et al. 2007; Fleck, Hanssen 2006; Lyttkens 2006; Karayian- nis, Hatzis 2012; Kyriazis 2009; Pitsoulis 2011. 2 Foxhall, 1992, 2002; Milanovic, 2007; Ober, 2010; Osborne, 1992; Kron, 2014; Ober 2008; Scheidel, 2010. 3 Morris 2004, 2005, 2007. 4 Scheidel 2010, 3. 5 Morris 2004, 728. 6 Ober 2010, 11. 7 Scheidel 2009, 11–12. 8 de Vries 1984, 39. 9 Morris 2004, 726. 10 Ober 2010, 8. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004386150_013 264 chapter 11 especially when one considers that Roman economic growth is believed to have been on a par with the levels of growth achieved by early modern European economies.11 Overall, this more recent scholarship has concluded that the ancient econ- omy of Greece outpaced that of the later Roman Empire and bears favourable comparison with some of the more advanced economies of early modern Europe. A significant conclusion of this scholarship is that not only was there economic growth in ancient Greece in absolute terms, but there was relative growth as well because at a time when its population was expanding GDP per capita also increased.12 As the rising economic tide lifted all Greek boats, it is unsurprising that, as the leading polis of the classical period, Athens’ political economy fared par- ticularly well. This has prompted several attempts at quantifying the absolute level of Athenian GDP. Goldsmith, for example, arrives at a GDP figure of 5,000 talents by multiplying the Athenian labour force of 140,000 by the average wage of 1 drachma by 250 working days.13 On a similar basis, but using slightly dif- ferent figures for the labour force and the number of working days and adding a figure for the return on capital, Bergh and Lyttkens calculate Athenian GDP at 7545 talents at a time of peace in the late 4th century.14 Ober has calculated Athenian GDP on an entirely different basis. He divided the Athenian popula- tion into three income groups: low, with a subsistence income of 100 drachmas per annum, middling, 2.4 times subsistence and average-elite, 5 times subsis- tence through which he arrived at a GDP figure of between 5,590–6,660 tal- ents.15 A more pertinent measure of the actual prosperity of an ancient economy like Athens is that of real income. Real income expresses the nominal wages of labourers in terms of their capacity to purchase some basic good such as, in our case, wheat. For most ancient and medieval economies, real income expressed as wheat equivalent has been estimated at 4–6 litres per day. In Athens, how- ever, labourers received wages of 8–9 litres during the late 5th century which rose to 13–16 litres per day by the late 4th century.16 From these figures, wage labourers in classical Athens experienced elevated living standards which, by the end of our period were up to 3 times higher than those of labourers liv- 11 Lo Cascio, Malanima 2009, 392. 12 Morris 2004; 2005. 13 Goldsmith 1987. 14 Bergh, Lyttkens 2011,10. 15 Ober 2010, 16, 27. 16 Scheidel 2010, 455–456. Calculations based on Scheidel’s figures..
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