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History Forum / General / Ancient History / January 2006Ancient Wealth/Security Question
What did wealthy private citizens do with their accumulated wealth to ensure security? For example, assume Herodotus was a very affluent retired trader living in Thurii in 435 BC. What security options would he have had available to protect his hypothetical amassed fortune? > What did wealthy private citizens do with their accumulated wealth to > ensure security? For example, assume Herodotus was a very affluent > retired trader living in Thurii in 435 BC. What security options would > he have had available to protect his hypothetical amassed fortune? But what does 'protect' mean? It depends what this retired trader wants in the long run. (1) Fame, kudos, a pleasant after-life. Then he can present public buildings etc. to Thurii or rich dedications in temples. (2) Riches to pass on to his descendants. Then he doesn't retire after all. He invests the money in other people's trading ventures. Some of the law speeches of Demosthenes and others (Athens, not Thurii, but close!) relate to people who did exactly this. And maybe he buys land: I'm not sure to what extent he would buy land, and to what extent he would gather it via family links. Making family links also becomes easier with more money -- you give a good dowry when women in the family marry, and thus you get links with other rich families. > > What did wealthy private citizens do with their accumulated wealth > > to ensure security? For example, assume Herodotus was a very [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > easier with more money -- you give a good dowry when women in the > family marry, and thus you get links with other rich families. OK, let me put the question another way: could private citizens deposit property (eg gold or gems) is the city treasury for safekeeping? If not, what options were available to secure their liquid assets? >>>What did wealthy private citizens do with their accumulated wealth >>>to ensure security? For example, assume Herodotus was a very [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] >>easier with more money -- you give a good dowry when women in the >>family marry, and thus you get links with other rich families. > OK, let me put the question another way: could private citizens > deposit property (eg gold or gems) is the city treasury for > safekeeping? If not, what options were available to secure their > liquid assets? Some time ago there was a rather long post on the subject of actually protecting gold. I remember a little of it but can't vouch for it. In some cases there was something like a city treasury. In other cases the richest started a "vault" with guards and got richer protecting the gold of others or the rich got together and did the same thing. There was also hiding in house, under floor tiles, buried, dispersed and about anything else you can think of to avoid a simple burglary. Caches of buried coins are often found. The article was much more interesting. Have you googled it? There was on odd tale of a Greek city, perhaps not the only one, where it was illegal for individuals to remove their gold from the city, illegal as in death penalty. As I have not come across a right of a city to use the indivual's wealth as its own I haven't figured out the point of the law.  SignatureThe only legitimate value of a voting public is to hold a government acountable by means other than a revolution. -- The Iron Webmaster, 3568 nizkor http://www.giwersworld.org/nizkook/nizkook.phtml book review http://www.giwersworld.org/israel/willing-executioners.phtml a7 > >>>What did wealthy private citizens do with their accumulated wealth > >>>to ensure security? For example, assume Herodotus was a very [quoted text clipped - 42 lines] > nizkor http://www.giwersworld.org/nizkook/nizkook.phtml > book review http://www.giwersworld.org/israel/willing-executioners.phtml a7 All the gold plate on the statues in the acropolis are often considered to have been a national reserve and to have been intended as such. When the Spartans invaded the Athenians would remove the gold and valuables from the smaller temples that were doing the same thing to the acropolis. The story of the greek city that couldnt remove gold was probably sparta were this was true. Also - spartan coins weighed about a tonne each (literally!) and were not meant to be exchangable. The austerity this resulted in is supposed to have made them run wild with corruption when outside sparta > > >>>What did wealthy private citizens do with their accumulated wealth > > >>>to ensure security? For example, assume Herodotus was a very [quoted text clipped - 54 lines] > The austerity this resulted in is supposed to have made them run wild > with corruption when outside sparta Or is that some islanders somewhere? Anyway it was crap. Made of Iron oor something but the same applied to gold. Sometimes temples held important things, more like wills and contracts. here http://viking.som.yale.edu/will/finciv/chapter1.htm you will get some insight into the very sophisticated financing used in Mesopotamia in the early 2nd century BC. In that stable economy, 30 year loans were made, at rates similar to today's. Persons acted as banks, borrowing at low rates and lending the principal several times over. Syndicates, partnerships, investments in cargo ships, grain futures... Most of the vehicles we have today were available for the investor. Unfortunately the greeks did not understand the usefulness of interest, nor did the moslems or christians, so for several thousand years the security options for the wealthy were more limited. But back in 1700 BC anyway, the options were many. > > What did wealthy private citizens do with their accumulated wealth to > > ensure security? For example, assume Herodotus was a very affluent [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > easier with more money -- you give a good dowry when women in the > family marry, and thus you get links with other rich families. |
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