Associations are popular among scholars at present. This volume makes a welcome contribution to the discussion. V. applies New Institutional Economics (NIE) to the papyri of Roman Egypt, examining associations in their social and economic context. While NIE can no longer be considered ‘new’ and is not without its problems, V. provides an important way of thinking about the limited evidence we have. Essentially, NIE allows us to use formal economic theory to study the economy of a pre-modern society – understanding rules, laws, political institutions and social environments all as factors that underly economic behaviour. The idea is to use these abstract concepts to tease useful information from our evidence. ‘Transaction costs’ have been the recent focus within this. Our imperfect evidence, on the surface of it, appears to offer the ideal medium (i.e. imperfect information) for us to factor in ‘hidden’ costs, the gathering of information and other matters in a flexible way. To some extent it also takes the rationality out of rationality – the hidden costs and actions militate against purely rational behaviour.
The book presents its material in six chapters, wrapped in an introduction, conclusion and indexes of sources and subjects. The introduction succinctly, and traditionally, discusses the pros and cons of papyrological evidence and introduces the modern historiography of contemporary approaches to associations and the economy more broadly. V. presents the ‘bottom-up’ view that only papyri can reveal.
The first two chapters consider the organisation of associations and interaction between them. The first examines associations as economic actors conceived to enhance the profits of individuals and collectives. It examines the membership charters (not only of Egypt, but leaning towards the most interesting ones from Tebtunis), obligations of members and the financial support they afforded individuals. The chapter might have benefited from some attention to the role of oaths and more consideration of the legal basis of associations, but V. nicely brings out the importance of ‘soft’ aspects of joint activity – the sharing of knowledge and contacts. The second chapter considers the issue of trust and the reduction of risk. It sticks admirably to the primary evidence, but perhaps constitutes one point where V. might have applied the theories of NIE profitably. It was the structure and protection that collective action brought to individuals and the association as a whole that offered the environment necessary for trust to exist. Associations also gave individuals the level of protection that they needed to deal with those better off, which is clear in the papyri concerning the Apiones. Thus, the book contributes well to our understanding of the reciprocal ties between different social groups.
Chapters 3 and 4 focus on the presence of associations within wider communities. Is it always correct, though, at village level to separate ‘formal’ associations from collective action within a village? Associations had religious functions, but these created binding links between members, rather than the divine, and, in this respect, it is correct to recognise the economic activities surrounding religion in the Roman world. Divine sanction also helped to augment the legal binds between members and between associations and the communities in which they operated. V. is correct to argue that the religious scope of associations enhanced their reputation and the trust their activities demanded. It is questionable in Chapter 5 that his attempt to frame the discussion around a single case study is successful or that broad significance can be derived from particular circumstances.
The fifth chapter moves on to associations in legal thought and practice. There is no real definition of what an association is; as hinted above in respect of villages, it is often difficult to distinguish collective action from the operation of an association; a particular case is with the state transport of grain, both by land and river, in which we can see collective action, but where ‘guilds’ would have been avoided. There might also have been more discussion of state regulation of associations: fines do receive attention, as does the Gnomon of the Idios Logos, a document of unique importance, oddly neglected by modern scholarship. Indeed, overall, the significant amount of scholarship on legal aspects of associations might have been more thoroughly mined.
The final chapter considers associations in Late Roman Egypt, although late evidence appears throughout the book. A consideration of how the Theodosian Code relates to the Egyptian evidence forms the basis for separate treatment. V. brings out well the disjunction between legal theory and general practice and application, which is what the papyri offer. Understandably the village of Aphrodito figures large in the discussion. It would have been interesting and valuable to continue the treatment of the material into the early Islamic period.
The book makes a welcome contribution to the role of associations in Roman society. It is very well and accurately presented and an interesting read (an important consideration in these days of theory-overload). However, the ambitions of the volume are not quite met. There is a question as to what exactly NIE brings to the table; indeed, it is largely absent from the discussion (perhaps this is why the book is good to read). V., like Herodotus, makes a number of excurses, but perhaps not quite so successfully. He does not therefore do justice to the relationship between Egypt and the city charters of the West, or the associations of Ephesus. But that would take a different book, and one perhaps less widely read than this volume should be. What V. offers is an important and welcome addition to the body of work on associations and brings the Egyptian evidence firmly into the picture, where it belongs.
