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Economys of the ancient world (1 Viewer)

128shot

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How did they work? Like back in Roman and ancient greek times. How did one become wealthy? was this truely by just luck and connections?
 
Sorry - I'm not very knowledgeable on the topic. However, I'm guessing that there was a mix of command and free economies. Some things just haven't changed. I remember learning somewhere that real-estate mortgages were invented in babylonia.

A few things have changed though. There was slavery in Rome and Greece. Many ancient societies probably has class structures that today would seem ridiculous. However, I know that there are some examples of people who started down low and rose to the top.
 
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128shot said:
How did they work? Like back in Roman and ancient greek times. How did one become wealthy? was this truely by just luck and connections?

In Ancient Greece, it probably varied from one state to another. Athens had a great meritocratic education system, and Sparta had a great meritocratic military. These probably allowed for some upward mobility.

Rome, from what I understand, had tremendous wealth disparity. There was a middle class, but it was limited to merchants, clergy, and other educated non-politicians. There was very little upward mobility; if you were born a slave, there wasn't much you could do about it.

As far as economic freedom goes, I think the best places would have been ancient China and ancient Iraq. Both were very individualist and had a legal system, so I can only assume that their economies were somewhat open and capitalistic.
 
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