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A History of Market Performance

From Ancient Babylonia to the Modern World

Edited by R.J. Van der Spek, Jan Luiten van Zanden, E.S. van Leeuwen

To Be Published September 1st 2013 by Routledge – 496 pages

Series: Routledge Explorations in Economic History

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  • Hardback: 978-0-415-63544-8: $130.00
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Description

This exciting new volume examines the development of market performance from Antiquity until the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.

Efficient market structures are agreed by most economists to serve as evidence of economic prosperity, and to be prerequisites for further economic growth. However, this is the first study to examine market performance as a whole, over such a large time period. Presenting a hitherto unknown and inaccessible corpus of data from ancient Babylonia, this international set of contributors are for the first time able to offer an in-depth study of market performance over a period of 2,500 years.

The contributions focus on the market of staple crops, as they were crucial goods in these societies. Over this entire period, all papers provide a similar conceptual and methodological framework resting on a common definition of market performance combined with qualitative and quantitative analyses resting on new and improved price data. In this way, the book is able to combine analysis of the Babylonian period with similar work on the Roman, Early-and Late Medieval and Early Modern period.

Bringing together input from assyriologists, ancient historians, economic historians and economists, this volume will be crucial reading for all those with an interest in ancient history, economic history and economics.

Contents

1. Market performance through the ages. From first millennium BC Babylonia to 19th century Europe and China R.J. van der Spek, Bas van Leeuwen and J.L. van Zanden I. METHODOLOGY 2. Market performance in early economies: concepts and empirics.

With an application to Babylon P. Földvári and B. van Leeuwen 3. Statistical analysis of historical time series with messy features: the Babylonian price data S.J. Koopman 4. The welfare effects of market performance: A short outline of the main issues K.G. Persson II. BABYLONIA 5. Market Performance and Market Integration in Babylonia in the "Long Sixth Century" BC M. Jursa 6. International trade in Babylonia in the first millennium BC K. Kleber 7. Climate, war and economic development: the case of Babylonia R. Pirngruber, J.A.M. Huijs and B. van Leeuwen 8. Price data from the Late Achaemenid and Early Hellenistic period J. Hackl and R. Pirngruber III. PRICE VOLATILITY AND MARKETS ELSEWHERE AND LATER 9. Mediterranean grain prices in classical antiquity Sitta von Reden and Dominic Rathbone 10. Price volatility and markets in late medieval and early modern Europe Victoria Bateman 11. Markets and Price Fluctuations in England & Ireland, 1785-1913 L. Kennedy and Peter Solar 12. The organization and scope of grain markets in Qing　China (1644-1911) Carol H. Shiue IV. THE ROLE OF MONEY AND MARKETS 13. Circulation of Coins and Economic History in the Near East 6th – 1st cent. B.C. Frédérique Duyrat 14. A frog’s eye view of the Roman market: the Batavian case J. Aarts, VU University Amsterdam 15. The circulation of money and the behaviour of prices in Medieval and early modern England　Nick Mayhew 16. Money supply and the price mechanism: the interaction of money, prices and wages in Beijing in the long 19th century Peng Kaixiang V. LONG TERM PATTERNS 17. Risk aversion and storage in pre-industrial economies: from Babylonian times until the industrial revolution B. van Leeuwen and P. Földvári 18. Long-run patterns in market performance and the genesis of the market economy: Markets around the Mediterranean from Nebuchadnezzar to Napoleon (580 BC and AD 1800) B. van Leeuwen, P. Földvári, and Jan Luiten van Zanden 19. How much can you buy for silver? Staple crops and silver from antiquity till the industrial revolution R.J. van der Spek, B. van Leeuwen and P. Földvári VI. CONCLUSION 20. Markets – What markets? On price volatility, market performance and the state R.J. van der Spek, B. van Leeuwen, J.L. van Zanden

Author Bio

Prof. dr. R.J. van der Spek is professor of Ancient Mediterranean and West-Asiatic History at the VU University (Vrije Universiteit), Amsterdam.

Prof. dr. J.L. van Zanden is faculty professor of global economic history at Utrecht University, the Netherlands.

Dr. B. van Leeuwen is senior researcher at Warwick University, UK and postdoc researcher at the VU University Amsterdam and Utrecht University, the Netherlands.

Name: A History of Market Performance: From Ancient Babylonia to the Modern World (Hardback) – Routledge 
Description: Edited by R.J. Van der Spek, Jan Luiten van Zanden, E.S. van Leeuwen. This exciting new volume examines the development of market performance from Antiquity until the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Efficient market structures are agreed by most economists to serve as evidence of economic prosperity, and to be...
Categories: Economic History, Ancient Near East, Economic Theory & Philosophy, Macroeconomics, Medieval History 400-1500, Early Modern History 1500-1750, Modern History 1750-1945, Contemporary History 1945-, Economics