ABSTRACT

Moses Finley’s highly influential study of the ancient economy allots little importance to the role of urban production and of trade in manufactured goods, in an economy based largely on agrarian production where the towns act as consumers of wealth generated in the countryside (Finley 1985). His analysis has been accepted in broad outline by many historians, although Hopkins (1978; 1980) has argued that the spread of monetary taxation in the first two centuries AD stimulated a growth in long-distance trade, and that the ancient city played a key role in commercializing rural surpluses to enable payment of taxes. Hopkins’ model allows room for a somewhat greater degree of artisan production than does Finley’s, but has not been universally accepted. 1