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Roots of Western Finance

Power, Ethics, and Social Capital in the Ancient World
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In The Roots of Western Finance: Power, Ethics, and Social Capital in the Ancient World, Thomas K. Park and James B. Greenberg take an anthropological approach to credit. They suggest that financial activities occur in a complex milieu, in which specific parties, with particular motives, achieve their goals using a form of social, cultural, or economic agency. They examine the imbrication of finance and hidden interests in Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, classical Greece and Rome, the early Judeo-Christian traditions, and the Islamic world to illuminate the ties between social, ethical, and financial institutions. This unique breadth of research provides new perspectives on Mesopotamian ways of incentivizing production through financial arrangements, the source of Egyptian surpluses, linguistics and usury, metrological influences on finance, and the enduring importance of honor and social capital. This book not only illustrates the particular cultural logics that drove these ancient economies, it also depicts how modern society's financial techniques, ethics, and concerns with justice are attributable to a rich multicultural history.
Introduction Chapter 1: Mesopotamian Roots of the Modern Financial System Chapter 2: Mesopotamian Financial Innovations Chapter 3: Financing Ancient Egypt's Organizational Economy Chapter 4: Finance and Social Capital in Classical Greece and Rome Chapter 5: Justice to Altruism: Early Judeo-Christian Finance Chapter 6: Islamic Finances and the Eastern Mediterranean Conclusion: Hidden Interests and the Anthropology of Credit Appendix: Technologies of Power and the Metrology of Grain Storage in the Ancient Near East
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