The Greek Economy

The Greek economy was a result of the combination of slaves, citizens and Metics. The Metic, however, was the driving and most important force behind the Greek economy. The slave was used only when seen fit. The citizen saw work as below the dignity of a free man. He left to others the labors that he was unwilling to perform himself. Firstly, it must be noted that any prejudice against manual labor among the Greeks was of comparatively late origin. Certainly, in the Homeric age, to labor with one’s hands was no disgrace. The prowess of Odysseus comes to mind, who was a mighty worker and built his own house and even his own bedstead. (Hom. Od.13, 31-34) There was no prejudice against manual labor in the time of Solon either, who decreed that a father must see that his son be taught a craft. (Plut. Solon, 22) To what then must be attributed the prejudice against manual labor in the latter part of the fifth and throughout the fourth century B.C.?

Before we go on, it must be noted that most of our evidence on Greek civilization comes from literary works. The majority of which comes from Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato and Aristotle. While they cover all aspects of the Greek world, they concentrate more on political, military and diplomatic history, in particular, that of Athens. This gives us a biased and prejudiced view of both the own author’s opinions and that of the Athenian society. As such, any evidence must be treated with caution, and while we cannot say with complete certainty that what they say is true, through the comparison of multiple works we are able to draw conclusions that are sound and reasonable.

It arose after the Persian wars, when the “Marathon Men” were glorified, and the life of the sold...

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... part of the citizens is easy to find. As the Metics were allowed no political rights whatsoever, nothing was to be feared from them and everything to be gained from having them as numerous and wealthy as possible, as a convenient source of revenue by which the life of the citizen was made easy and pleasant.

It is naïve to generalize that; “Greek civilization itself was based upon and made possible by slavery.” I acknowledge the amount of slaves, if anything the prevention of a creation of a trade union due to the prevalence of slave labor is tantamount to the number of slaves. But as I have shown, Greek economy was not dependant upon them. They were a big factor, especially in the low skilled industries, but by no means were the main feature in Greek economy. If anything, the Greek economy was dependant on the existence, exercise and effluence of Metic trade.