Ancient Economies, Institutions, and Inequality
Paper Session
Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025 10:15 AM - 12:15 PM (PST)
- Chair: Mattia Bertazzini, University of Nottingham
The Dawn of Civilization: Metal Trade and the Rise of Hierarchy
Abstract
In the latter half of the fourth millennium BC, our ancestors witnessed a remarkable transformation, progressing from simple agrarian villages to complex urban civilizations. In regions as far apart as the Nile Valley, Mesopotamia, Central Asia, and the Indus Valley, the first states appeared together with writing, cities with populations exceeding 10,000, and unprecedented socio-economic inequalities. The cause of this “Urban Revolution” remains unclear. We present new empirical evidence suggesting that the discovery of bronze and the ensuing long-distance trade played a crucial role. Using novel panel data and 2SLS techniques, we demonstrate that trade corridors linking metal mines to fertile lands were more likely to experience the Urban Revolution. We propose that transit bottlenecks facilitated the emergence of a new taxing elite. We formally test this appropriability theory and provide several case studies in support.Labor, Land and the Global Dynamics of Economic Inequality
Abstract
Here we assess the extent to which land use relating to food acquisition (farming, herding, foraging) and associated value regimes shaped past wealth inequality. We consider the hypothesis that land use regimes in which production was limited by heritable material wealth (such as land) sustained higher levels of inequality than those limited by (free) human labor. We address this hypothesis using the GINI (Global Dynamics of INequalIty) project database, estimating wealth inequalities based on disparities in residential unit area and storage capacity across sites in different world regions and through time. We find that labor-limited systems were significantly less unequal than land-limited regimes, whether based on residence area or storage capacity, though governance could moderate these differences. Increasing inequality with larger residence and/or site size is associated with underlying shifts from labor- to land-limited economies. Transitions from labor- to land-limited regimes also appear to underlie the development of extended political hierarchies. Increases in inequality with time elapsed since cultivation became common in each hemisphere similarly reflect shifts from labor- to land-limited economies. Land-limited systems in the eastern hemisphere, incorporating animal traction, exhibit an upward trend in inequality over time, while a downward trend in the western hemisphere reflects the lower persistence of land-limited regimes based solely on human labor.The Political Economy of Bread and Circuses: Weather Shocks and Classic Maya Monument Construction
Abstract
In early states, government elites provided both productivity-enhancing infrastructure, such as irrigation systems, as well as seemingly non-productive monumental architecture like temples and pyramids. The nature of this "bread-and-circuses"-tradeoff is not well understood. In this paper, we examine this phenomenon in the Classic Maya civilization (c. 250-950 CE) where city-state elites chose between investing in essential water management infrastructure (reservoirs, canals), and monumental architecture. We analyze information from 870 dated monuments from 110 cities. Correlating this dataset with a proxy record for variations in annual rainfall, we find--perhaps counter-intuitively--that monumental construction activity was more intense during drought years. A text analysis of 2.2 million words from deciphered hieroglyphic inscriptions on monuments, further shows higher frequencies of terms associated with war or violent conflict during periods of drought. We propose that in the Classic Maya setting, with numerous small city-states, monument construction functioned as a costly signaling device about state capacity, designed to attract labor for future control of revenue.JEL Classifications
- D2 - Production and Organizations
- N4 - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation