(c) 2025 Columbia University Press. All Rights reserved.
The Origins of Business, Money, and Markets Page 3 (25 of 380)
Powered by Tizra® |
The Origins of Business, Money, and Markets resources
Extracted Text (may have errors)
I N T R O D U C T I O N 3
takes seriously Douglass North’s injunction to explain the structure and
performance of economies through time.”
Extraordinary individuals also changed the course of history. Given
the times, they were almost all men: kings called “the great,” such as Sar-
gon, Cyrus, and Darius in the Middle East and, of course, Alexander of
Macedonia; thinkers like Solon, Aristotle, and Archimedes; Roman em-
perors, including Augustus, Diocletian, and Constantine. Not many busi-
ness people are known, but we encounter a few: the trader Imdi-ilum of
2000 b . c . e . Assur, the banker Balmonahse of Babylonia, Roman investors
like Pliny the Younger and Cato the Elder, and the greatest ancient tycoon
of all, Marcus Crassus. Th ey all inhabited a world full of murder, cruelty,
villainy, and perversion, as well as love, wisdom, courage, and heroism—
and so, therefore, does this story.
Th ers the ben- e early history of money, markets, and business also off
efi es: “Understand the origins of an institu- t that Niall Ferguson identifi
tion or instrument and you will fi nd its present-day role much easier to
grasp.” By picturing business in earlier, simpler forms, we can better
understand how money and markets work, and the relationship between
business activities like manufacturing, trade, retailing, and fi nance. Busi-
nesses that primarily serve other businesses—shipping, banking, invest-
ment, and wholesaling—also emerge naturally as the story progresses.
Let us begin. Th e real beginning, though, is not with the simpler times
when business originated, but before then. Why, indeed, was there ever a
time before business?
