DID THE ROMANS RESPOND TO ECONOMIC INCENTIVES? (COMMENT).

DID THE ROMANS RESPOND TO ECONOMIC INCENTIVES? (COMMENT). I posted here on the question “Was there an ancient Roman economy?” Zenpundit commented that “Rome’s population (actually all of Italy’s) could not have been sustained without a vigorous degree of trade and mercantile activity” and continued with an excellent description of Roman economic activity in Italy and the Mediterranean. I believe everything in the comment by Zenpundit is correct. However, it appears that this view of economic history is a minority view, held mainly by economists. The opposing view, called the “Finley/Polanyi orthodoxy”, is apparently still in the ascendant. The orthodoxy is based on THE ANCIENT ECONOMY by Moses I. Finley. According to this review, Finley’s book “unveiled a view of the economic underpinnings of ancient economies in which markets and economic motivations played little if any role. Status and civic ideology governed the allocation of scarce resources.” These issues are hotly contested. The review says, “At present the study of the ancient economy might be compared to a minefield, full of perils for the unsuspecting scholar.”