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The evolution of property rights in Hellenistic Greece and the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2019

Emmanouil M. L. Economou  and
Nicholas C. Kyriazis
Emmanouil M. L. Economou*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece
Nicholas C. Kyriazis
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece
*
*Corresponding author. Email: emmoikon@uth.gr
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Abstract

In the present paper we trace the development of property rights during the Hellenistic period (3rd–2nd centuries bce), focusing on Athens, the democratic Hellenistic federations and the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt. Property rights had been already well developed and protected by courts and state laws during the previous Classical period in ancient Greece, but we argue that they further evolved during the Hellenistic period due to the introduction of a series of new political and economic institutions. We found that there was a causal relationship between the evolution of property rights and the further development of economic institutions in Hellenistic Athens and the Hellenistic federations. We finally argue that the development and adoption of market-oriented economic institutions by the Ptolemaic Kingdom should be attributed to the great influence that these institutions had in the entire Hellenistic world, which resulted in their diffusion from the democratic states to kingdoms.

Keywords

Property rightsHellenistic AthensHellenistic democratic federationsPtolemaic Egypt
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 15 , Issue 5 , October 2019 , pp. 827 - 843
Copyright
Copyright © Millennium Economics Ltd 2019 

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References

References

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Economou, E. Μ. L., Kyriazis, N. and Metaxas, T. (2015), ‘The Institutional and Economic Foundations of Regional Proto-federations’, Economics of Governance, 16(3): 251–271.Google Scholar
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Hansen, M. H. and Nielsen, T. H. (2004), An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
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Preaux, C. (1939), L’Économie Royale des Lagides, Brussels: Fondation Égyptologique Reine Elisabeth.Google Scholar
Roberts, H. (2011), The Origins of Business, Money, and Markets, New Work: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Rostovtzeff, M. (1941), The Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schaps, D. M. (1979), Economic Rights of Women, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Schwartzberg, M. (2004), ‘Athenian Democracy and Legal Change’, American Political Science Review, 98(2): 311–325.Google Scholar
Thonemann, P. (2016), The Hellenistic Age, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tracy, S. V. (1995), Athenian Democracy in Transition Attic Letter-Cutters of 340 to 290 bc, Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Tridimas, G. (2018), ‘The Failure of Ancient Greek Growth: Institutions, Culture and Energy Cost’, Journal of Institutional Economics, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744137418000188.Google Scholar
Turner, E. G. (2008), ‘Ptolemaic Egypt’, in Walbank, F. W., Astin, A., Frederiksen, M. W. and Ogilvie, R. M. (eds), Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. VII, part 1: The Hellenistic World. 2, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 118–174.Google Scholar
Vandorpe, K. (2000), The Ptolemaic Epigraphe or Harvest Tax (shemu), APF, 46: 169–232.Google Scholar
Von Reden, S. (2010), Money in Ptolemaic Egypt: From the Macedonian Conquest to the End of the Third Century bc, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Walbank, F. (1993), The Hellenistic World, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Xenophon, ‘Hellenica’ (Xen. Hell.).Google Scholar
Polybius, ‘Histories’ (Polyb. Hist.).Google Scholar
Beck, H. and Funke, P. (2015), ‘An Introduction to Federalism in Greek Antiquity’, in Beck, H. and Funke, P. (eds), Federalism in Greek Antiquity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–29.Google Scholar
Bergh, A. and Lyttkens, C. H. (2014), ‘Measuring Institutional Quality in Ancient Athens’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 10(2): 279–310.Google Scholar
Bitros, G. C. and Karayannis, A. D. (2008), ‘Values and Institutions as Determinants of Entrepreneurship in Ancient Athens’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 4(2): 205–230.Google Scholar
Bresson, A. (2007), L’Économie de la Grèce des Cites. Les Structures et la Production, vol. 1, Paris: Armand-Colin.Google Scholar
Chaniotis, Α. (1999), ‘The Epigraphy of Hellenistic Crete. The Cretan Koinon: New and Old Evidence’, in Atti del XI Congresso Internazionale di Epigrafia Greca a Latina I, Rome: Edizioni Quasar, pp. 278–300.Google Scholar
Cohen, E. E. (1992), Athenian Economy and Society: A Banking Perspective, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Davies, J. K. (2008), ‘Cultural, Social and Economic Features of the Hellenistic World. Classical Greece’, in Walbank, F. W., Austin, A., Frederiksen, M. W. and Ogilvie, R. M. (eds), Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. VII, part 1: The Hellenistic World, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 257–320.Google Scholar
Economou, E. Μ. L. and Kyriazis, N. (2016), ‘The Emergence and the Development of the Achaean Federation. Lessons and Institutional Proposals for Modern Societies’, Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, 13(1): 93–112.Google Scholar
Economou, E. Μ. L. and Kyriazis, N. (2017), ‘The Emergence and the Evolution of Property Rights in Ancient Greece’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 13(1): 53–77.Google Scholar
Economou, E. Μ. L., Kyriazis, N. and Metaxas, T. (2015), ‘The Institutional and Economic Foundations of Regional Proto-federations’, Economics of Governance, 16(3): 251–271.Google Scholar
Finley, M. I. (1973), The Ancient Economy, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Grainger, J. D. (1999), The League of the Aitolians, Leiden and Boston: Brill Academic.Google Scholar
Habicht, C. (1999), Athens from Alexander to Anthony, Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hansen, M. H. and Nielsen, T. H. (2004), An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Harris, W. V. (2008), The Monetary Systems of the Greeks and Romans, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hayek, F. A. (1981), Law Legislation and Liberty. Rules and Order. Vol. 3, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hodgson, G. M. (2015a), Conceptualizing Capitalism: Institutions, Evolution, Future, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hodgson, G. M. (2015b), ‘On Defining Institutions: Rules Versus Equilibria’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 11(3): 497–505.Google Scholar
Hodgson, G. M. (2015c), ‘Much of the “Economics of Property Rights” Devalues Property and Legal Rights’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 11(4): 683–709.Google Scholar
Hodgson, G. M. (2015d), ‘What Humpty Dumpty Might Have Said about Property Rights – and the Need to Put Them Back Together Again: A Response to Critics’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 11(4): 731–747.Google Scholar
Hodgson, G. M. (2017), ‘1688 and All That: Property Rights, the Glorious Revolution and the Rise of British Capitalism’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 13(1): 79–107.Google Scholar
Kyriazis, N. (2009), ‘Financing the Athenian State: Public Choice in the Age of Demosthenes’, European Journal of Law and Economics, 27(2): 109–127.Google Scholar
Larsen, J. A. O. (1971), ‘The Rights of Cities within the Achaean Confederacy’, Classical Philology, 66(2): 81–86.Google Scholar
Lyttkens, C. H. (2010), ‘Institutions, Taxation, and Market Relationships in Ancient Athens’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 6(4): 505–527.Google Scholar
Lyttkens, C. H. (2013), Economic Analysis of Institutional Change in Ancient Greece. Politics, Taxation and Rational Behaviour, Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Mackil, E. (2013), Creating a Common Polity, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Mackil, E. (2015), ‘The Economics of Federation in the Ancient Greek World’, in Beck, H. and Funke, P. (eds), Federalism in Greek Antiquity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 487–502.Google Scholar
Manning, J. G. (2003), Land and Power in Ptolemaic Egypt: The Structure of Land Tenure, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Manning, J. G. (2004), ‘Property Rights and Contracting in Ptolemaic Egypt’, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 160(4): 758–764.Google Scholar
Manning, J. G. (2007), ‘Hellenistic Egypt’ in Scheidel, W., Morris, I. and Seller, R. (eds), The Cambridge History of the Greco–Roman World, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 434–459.Google Scholar
Migeotte, L. (2009), The Economy of the Greek cities. From the Archaic Period to the Early Roman Empire, London: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Ober, J. (2015), The Rise and the Fall of Classical Greece, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Preaux, C. (1939), L’Économie Royale des Lagides, Brussels: Fondation Égyptologique Reine Elisabeth.Google Scholar
Roberts, H. (2011), The Origins of Business, Money, and Markets, New Work: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Rostovtzeff, M. (1941), The Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schaps, D. M. (1979), Economic Rights of Women, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Schwartzberg, M. (2004), ‘Athenian Democracy and Legal Change’, American Political Science Review, 98(2): 311–325.Google Scholar
Thonemann, P. (2016), The Hellenistic Age, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tracy, S. V. (1995), Athenian Democracy in Transition Attic Letter-Cutters of 340 to 290 bc, Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Tridimas, G. (2018), ‘The Failure of Ancient Greek Growth: Institutions, Culture and Energy Cost’, Journal of Institutional Economics, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744137418000188.Google Scholar
Turner, E. G. (2008), ‘Ptolemaic Egypt’, in Walbank, F. W., Astin, A., Frederiksen, M. W. and Ogilvie, R. M. (eds), Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. VII, part 1: The Hellenistic World. 2, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 118–174.Google Scholar
Vandorpe, K. (2000), The Ptolemaic Epigraphe or Harvest Tax (shemu), APF, 46: 169–232.Google Scholar
Von Reden, S. (2010), Money in Ptolemaic Egypt: From the Macedonian Conquest to the End of the Third Century bc, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Walbank, F. (1993), The Hellenistic World, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar