Leasing and Lending: The Cash Economy in Fourth-Century BC Athens (BICS Supplement 74)

Leasing and lending proposes a new approach to the cash-based economy of fourth-century Athens.

Focusing on the leases of the silver mines and public land by the state, and the loans horoi set up by private individuals, the book reveals how the public and private, landed and non-landed and urban and rural economies of classical Athens were interconnected. A new methodology, which allows us to make socio-economic comparisons between the individuals involved in these major cash activities, also provides fresh insights into the social configuration of the economy.

The research on which Leasing and lending is based has involved the compilation of new databases, contained in the appendices, which provide a fresh analysis of the silver mine records, the public land leases and the horoi documents. The main text also incorporates a wide range of newly analysed economic data.