Maintain, or put the world in order: An aspect of ancient economic thought

Abstract

It is often assumed that the Greeks had but a trivial and unscientific approach of the economic phenomena. This view is partly motivated by what the economist and historian of economic thought J.A. Schumpeter and the historian of ancient Greece M.I. Finley have considered the excessive preoccupation of ancient Greek thinkers for “pointless” domestic considerations on material issues, to the detriment of the scientific analysis of the economic phenomena. Against this interpretation, my claim is that the ancient Greek concern for these material aspects has to do with their concern for the conservation of the goods, an activity that, along with the acquisition and the proper use of the goods, is key to the ancient Greek economic art. My arguments are based on a close examination of the two operations that define this activity of conservation: the arrangement of the material belongings into the house and the polis, and the management of income and expenses.