The Ancient Greek Economy By Edward Harris

https://www.academia.edu/144227529/The_Ancient_Greek_Economy?email_work_card=title The evidence of coins has much to tell us about markets and trade in the Ancient Greek world. There are primarily two kinds of numismatic evidence relevant to the topic of markets. First, there is the evidence of coin hoards. The presence of coins from one city in a hoard found in another city may reveal trade links between the two cities. Second, a common weight standard shared by two or more cities may reveal commercial ties. A common weight standard makes it easier for merchants from one city to exchange coins in another city and thus facilitates commercial relations and helps to expand markets. 1 Common weight standards may therefore reveal a city's commercial policy. But we must be careful when interpreting numismatic evidence. Coins may travel from one city to another for the purposes of trade, but it is also possible that coins served to pay for mercenaries or for other military purposes. Two or more cities may also have shared a common weight standard to facilitate military fi nances. When interpreting numismatic evidence, therefore, one must always take into account all available literary, epigraphic, numismatic and archaeological evidence. 2 The Greek cities issued their coinages on diff erent standards that either derived from weight standards in use before the invention of coinage, 3 or were created afterwards, sometimes by adopting a reduced version of one of the main monetary standards. 4 During the Archaic and the Classical periods the main monetary standards of the Greek world were the Lydo-Milesian, the Persian, the Euboic, the Aeginetan and the Corinthian. 5 These standards have ..