Agrarian Change in Late Antiquity
Gold, Labour, and Aristocratic Dominance
Seiten
2007
|
Updated Edition
Oxford University Press (Verlag)
978-0-19-922603-0 (ISBN)
Oxford University Press (Verlag)
978-0-19-922603-0 (ISBN)
In a critique of Max Weber's influential ideas about the Mediterranean region in late antiquity, Jairus Banaji shows that the fourth to seventh centuries were in fact a period of major social and economic change, bound up with an expanding circulation of gold.
The economy of the late antique Mediterranean is still largely seen through the prism of Weber's influential essay of 1896. Rejecting that orthodoxy, Jairus Banaji argues that the late empire saw substantial economic and social change, propelled by the powerful stimulus of a stable gold coinage that circulated widely. In successive chapters Banaji adduces fresh evidence for the prosperity of the late Roman countryside, the expanding circulation of gold, the restructuring of agrarian élites, and the extensive use of paid labour, above all in the period spanning the fifth to seventh centuries. The papyrological evidence is scrutinized in detail to show that a key development entailed the rise of a new aristocracy whose estates were immune to the devastating fragmentation of partible inheritance, extensively irrigated, and responsive to market opportunities. A concluding chapter defines the more general issue raised by the aristocracy's involvement in the monetary and business economy of the period.
Exploiting a wide range of sources, Agrarian Change in Late Antiquity weaves together different strands of historiography (Weber, Mickwitz, papyrology, agrarian history) into a fascinating interpretation that challenges the minimalist orthodoxies about late antiquity and the ancient economy more generally.
The economy of the late antique Mediterranean is still largely seen through the prism of Weber's influential essay of 1896. Rejecting that orthodoxy, Jairus Banaji argues that the late empire saw substantial economic and social change, propelled by the powerful stimulus of a stable gold coinage that circulated widely. In successive chapters Banaji adduces fresh evidence for the prosperity of the late Roman countryside, the expanding circulation of gold, the restructuring of agrarian élites, and the extensive use of paid labour, above all in the period spanning the fifth to seventh centuries. The papyrological evidence is scrutinized in detail to show that a key development entailed the rise of a new aristocracy whose estates were immune to the devastating fragmentation of partible inheritance, extensively irrigated, and responsive to market opportunities. A concluding chapter defines the more general issue raised by the aristocracy's involvement in the monetary and business economy of the period.
Exploiting a wide range of sources, Agrarian Change in Late Antiquity weaves together different strands of historiography (Weber, Mickwitz, papyrology, agrarian history) into a fascinating interpretation that challenges the minimalist orthodoxies about late antiquity and the ancient economy more generally.
Jairus Banaji is a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
Introduction ; 1. The Rural Landscape of the Late Empire ; 2. Weber, Mickwitz, and the Economic Characterization of Late Antiquity ; 3. The Monetary Economy of the Late Empire and its Social Presuppositions ; 4. Existing Accounts of the Byzantine Large Estate ; 5. The Changing Balance of Rural Power AD 200-400 ; 6. A Late Antique Aristocracy ; 7. Estates ; 8. Wage Labour and the Peasantry ; 9. Conclusion
Erscheint lt. Verlag | 17.5.2007 |
---|---|
Reihe/Serie | Oxford Classical Monographs |
Zusatzinfo | 1 map |
Verlagsort | Oxford |
Sprache | englisch |
Maße | 155 x 234 mm |
Gewicht | 516 g |
Themenwelt | Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte |
Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte | |
Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Wirtschaftsgeschichte | |
ISBN-10 | 0-19-922603-2 / 0199226032 |
ISBN-13 | 978-0-19-922603-0 / 9780199226030 |
Zustand | Neuware |
Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
Mehr entdecken
aus dem Bereich
aus dem Bereich
auf den Spuren der frühen Zivilisationen
Buch | Hardcover (2023)
C.H.Beck (Verlag)
20,00 €
Was Pompeji über uns erzählt
Buch | Hardcover (2023)
Propyläen (Verlag)
32,00 €