ECONOMICS: ANCIENT POLITICO ECONOMIES

Stone Age ,Bronze age ,Iron age. We describe entire epics of humanity by the technology they use - Reed hastings

Evolution of ancient economies: Neolithic age

Around 10000 BC when the last ice age retreated and many Mediterranean and Northern European lands permitted agricultural growth the Neolithic economy started. It occurred first in Middle East but soon spread to Indus Valley,china and Europe. The migrating tribes discovered farming initially of a rudimentary form. Thus seeds of cereals were thrown on land and harvested later when they became ripe. The tribes were still migratory . However as competition for hunting resources became more it was beneficial to stay near fields or lakes with a more assured supply of food. The first settled  villages such as Katal  hyuk in Turkey may have been motivated by religious sites serving as pilgrimages for different nearby tribes. Settling along these temples required food storage vessels and houses made of thatches initially and led to the first villages.The New Stone Age farmers used hoes made of sharp stones. They had arrows and knives of flint . These equipment were insufficient to produce large food surpluses or raiding. Thus the Neolithic age consisted of scattered villages without much contact between them.

    By 4000BC  the number of Neolithic villages had grown in number. Again there was a constraint of land as a resource. There was increasing conflict especially between village farmers and nomads who subsisted on herding  and required new land for grazing. There is evidence ofmass war fare  in 4000BC from Europe when nomadic Indo-European tribes from steppes invaded Europe and even changed the demography and language

  In India Neolithic villages have been found in both Baluchistan and saraswati river valleys. This period probably corresponded to the early Vedic age, which mentions villages ,ashrams with sages and a partly nomadic life.

Bronze Age economy

Around 3500BC in Middle East an alternative economy was discovered based on more intensive farming by invention of bronze tools, Copper is not abundantly found on earth but it’s extraction is easily done by heating and then vessels and equipment can be made from it by casting.

   Bronze allowed better agricultural tools,clearing of forests and surplus food. Food surplus was further increased in villages in river valleys of Mesopotamia,Egypt,Indus and china where  mass labour could now be used to create irrigation . Mass labour cannot be produced in a single village and thus farmers aggregated in cities. The function of construction and maintenance  of dykes was done by a central authority and initially this was again a temple with a local diety. The villagers contributed to the upkeep  of temples and priests by food surplus . The local God was supposed to look after well-being of the city and needed to be clothed and fed regularly. The temple administration in turn coordinated public works and stored and distributed the surplus food. There was no exchange or market and it was a central distributive economy.

    As cities grew in number again there was a competion for resources between neighbours. These led to raid and growth of military and kings as leaders. Initially battles between cities occurred by all inhabitants. Later kings arose who conquered multiple cities and maintained a regular army. Battles were fought with bronze weapons which were sharper and sturdier than stone weapons,

  In parts of the world like Europe where there were no river valleys the Bronze Age led to better farming and food surpluses, but  cities were not possible.In India this corresponded to later Vedic age where cities and trade was present in Indus saraswati river basin. Puranas mention tribal kings with capital cities . They had constant wars and maintained regular armies. The climax of Bronze Age was the Mahabharata war . Here around 1200BC armies of many Kings came in conflict but mainly Kauravas  and Panchal  tribes of Haryana. The Mahabharata war was fought with weapons made of Iron and marked the onset of kaliyug or Iron Age

Iron Age economy

   Iron came in use much later as it is difficult to extract and smelt due to high temperatures required. Moreover it has to be hammered to  purify it and hardened to steel to be of much use.However tools can be made much easily with iron as it can be shaped by hammering unlike bronze. It thus allowed a wide range of tools to be made for crafts ,farming and war. Moreover unlike copper ,iron is available widespread and laypersons can get iron tools easilyThe productivity of farming now  increased due to better hoes .forests could be easily cleared and food surplus grew. Cities grew in population and better tools enabled production of varied goods which could be exchanged in markets.,

   Markets require a medium of exchange and thus arose money. Iron weapons meanwhile are stronger and sharper than bronze weapons . Large armies equipped with lethal weapons now arose as did empires in Persia ,India and China. In India the Iron Age culminated in the second urbanisation, when Janapads or kingdoms arose all over north India. Ultimately the Mauryan empire in third century BC conquered them. In the Mediterranean region the Greek and Romans had formed city states based on Iron Age, Due to the geographical features sea trade in addition to agriculture was a major activity here. The markets and traders thus had a strong voice  here and power of kings were limited by a democracy. However later as Rome became an empire it was the military chiefs who came to wield power  andRome lost it’s senate and democracy

    Ack: European economic history -The ancient world