Agricultural work followed the rhythm of the seasons: harvesting Much of the craftsmanship of ancient Greece was part southern west of the Non-slave workers were paid by assignment since the workshops could not guarantee regular work.
In Classical Athens it has been estimated that there were around 120,000 slaves. Although this is true for the most part, like other aspects of the Finley model, the case is overstated. The former tended to be rather humble, made of unbaked mud brick laid on a stone foundation and covered by a thatched or tiled roof.
If one wanted to produce more, one merely bought a few more slaves. as if they were all governed equally in accordance with the general tenets of the model, despite the fact that, for example, there were significant differences between the values that applied in the landed economy and those that prevailed in overseas trade. But although being a farmer was the social ideal, good land was scarce in Greece and it is estimated that in Athens about a quarter of the male citizens did not own land and had to take up other occupations for their livelihoods. Thebes was in fact an important city in the Mycenean Bronze Age though maybe it was smaller than Athens, Sparta, and Corinth.Thebes was a little north of Athens, in central Greece. These activities have left behind material remains and are described in various contexts scattered throughout the extant writings of the ancient Greeks.Most of our evidence for the ancient Greek economy concerns Athens in the Classical period and includes literary works, such as legal speeches, philosophical dialogues and treatises, historical narratives, and dramas and other poetic writings. Athens had an abundance of silver and we know much about its mining industry from surviving inscriptions of government mine leases to private entrepreneurs. History at your fingertips For instance, the famed Pottery in ancient Greece was most often the work of slaves. Beyond that, the male citizen was expected to devote himself to the wellbeing of the community by participating in the public religious, political, and military life of the On the other hand, ancient Greek values held in low esteem economic activities that were not subordinated to the traditional activities of managing the family farm and obtaining goods for necessary consumption. Thus was the city of Thebes a part of the greater religious and cultural fabric that was ancient Greece. In addition, confusion arose over whether the ancient Greek economy was like a modern economy in quantity (scale) or quality (its organizing principles). From 2500 BCE there is evidence of food and wool production and storage - grinding stones and terracotta loom-weights and spools, and bronze carpentry tools. Given the remoteness of ancient Greek civilization, the evidence is minimal and difficulties of interpretation abound. The fact that they could use the coins independently of their original political context (and for what else besides economic purposes then?) Port and transit taxes affected exchanges in Local trade between countryside and urban center and on the retail level within cities continued largely as it had in the Archaic period. Peasants whose status lay somewhere between slave and free not only worked the king’s lands, but were also often required to labor on other royal projects. Thus, the general scale of economic activities increased as large kingdoms of the Near East and the Greek mainland and islands became more interconnected. Animal husbandry focused on sheep and goats, which could be moved from their winter lowland pasturage to the moister and cooler mountainous regions during the hot summer months. It was much smaller in scale and differed in quality as well, since it generally lacked the productive growth mentality and the interconnected markets that are so characteristic of most of the world economy today.