Class & the Economy

Overview

This research strand carries out a detailed analysis of the occupational structure of the population of the Greek cities, with particular focus on Athens. This work will allow for major gains in our understanding of the material interests of different segments of the population and of the realities and rhythms of their daily and working lives.

The investigation provides the essential underpinning for all other strands of the project, grounding our analysis of class dynamics in concrete economic and social realities.

“Long-term economic growth emerged in lockstep with an ever more complex division of labour at the regional level, with perhaps 180-200 specialised occupations in the Classical Athenian economy.”

The New Economic History

The study of the ancient Greek economy has undergone a revolution since the turn of the millennium. New archaeological approaches have shown the impossibility of the static, stagnant, and overwhelmingly agrarian economy on which earlier scholarship insisted.

Key developments include:

• Economic Growth: Field surveys and studies of proxy data (human remains, shipwrecks, coin-dies, amphoras, ice-cores) have established steady economic growth over several centuries
• Urbanisation: The Copenhagen Polis Centre’s data-collection has shown that the Greek world was highly urbanised
• Labour Specialisation: 180-200 specialised occupations in Classical Athens
• Market Exchange: Artisans, traders, and market-vendors constituted a significant proportion of the citizen population

Research Questions

This strand addresses fundamental questions about the economic basis of class in Greek democracy:

• What was the actual occupational distribution of the citizen population?
• How did different occupational groups relate to the means of production?
• What were the material conditions and daily rhythms of work for different classes?
• How did economic relationships structure social and political identities?