Despite its importance to New Institutional Economics (NIE), a theoretical framework that structures much recent work on the ancient economy, the concept of ‘transaction costs’ remains notoriously nebulous. Transaction costs can be broadly defined as the costs associated with exchange, but they are often conceived of primarily as information costs associated with valuing goods and services and with arriving at and enforcing agreements. Such costs are extremely difficult to quantify even where modern economists possess rich data. For antiquity the task is hopeless, but in so far as institutions played a role in determining transaction costs, the concept is potentially useful when thinking more generally about the relationship between economic performance and ancient institutions, including those related to law. That intersection between transaction costs, law and the ancient economy is ostensibly the subject of this well-edited and attractively produced volume, which collects papers stemming from a conference held at the Center for Hellenic Studies in 2009 and more broadly titled ‘Transaction Costs in the Ancient World’.
Such a volume faces potential pitfalls. Not only is the concept of transaction costs slippery, but also among economists there exists (and has existed now for decades) considerable scepticism about its value as an analytical tool. Furthermore, NIE approaches to the ancient economy are still in their infancy, many ancient institutions and their relationships to the economy remain poorly understood, while virtually every facet of the relationship between the economy and law is subject to intense debate. To be fair these problems are acknowledged by many contributors and addressed directly by the editors in their valuable, chapter-length introduction, which offers lucid discussion of the concept of transaction costs, its potential utility for ancient economic historians, and the possible role of legal institutions in determining them. This introduction will be consulted profitably by a wide range of social, economic and legal historians.
The rest of the volume, however, is, when taken as a whole, less successful, and I suspect few readers will see the need or have the fortitude to read it cover to cover. Most chapters open by (re)introducing aspects of transaction cost theory before further introducing the evidence and problems to which the concept will (in theory) be applied. Too many chapters read like a series of introductions or like relatively superficial surveys that tread familiar turf while nodding at transaction costs.
This is not to imply that the absolute value of individual contributions is low or that they are not likely to be useful to many different readers. On the contrary, the contributors are careful, insightful scholars, and a number of chapters constitute valuable studies of important topics. A. Bresson re-examines the Ptolemaic closed currency system and the famous letter from a certain Demetrios to the dioketes Apollonios reporting problems in the mint at Alexandria (P.Cair.Zen. 1 59021). His discussion synthesises a wide range of scholarship related to this document, Ptolemaic coinage and the functioning of the royal mint together with an equally impressive range of medieval and early modern comparative evidence, offering a number of new hypotheses. Bresson's discussion is a useful starting point for anyone interested in this document or Ptolemaic mints.
R. Haensch re-examines the evidence for litigation costs in Late Antiquity in the context of evidence for similar costs during the first two centuries of the Roman Empire, arguing against the orthodox view that such costs were comparatively low or non-existent during the earlier period and prohibitively high in Late Antiquity. This provocative, if at points problematic, thesis is sure to inspire productive debate, and the chapter can be usefully juxtaposed with G. Thür's chapter, ‘Transaction Costs in Athenian Law’, which concerns itself primarily with the evidence (most of it, of course, fourth century b.c.) for court fees at Athens.
The two chapters that address most directly and successfully the volume's intersection of themes are each by one of its editors. R. analyses from a transaction cost perspective the repossession clauses that are sometimes included in apprenticeship and wet-nursing contracts from Roman Egypt. This chapter is valuable as a case study that corrects a number of previous misconceptions and offers some interesting hypotheses but it also offers more general insights into the social and economic contexts of contractual agreements in Roman Egypt. K.’s well-matched chapter addresses the relationships between law and the economy in the Roman Empire by focusing first on contracts and their enforcement and then on the economic role of agency (often arranged through slaves and freedmen) and its relationship to Roman social and legal institutions. The success of these two chapters in illuminating the volume's themes is perhaps not surprising given that they both treat contracts, which by their very nature concern transaction costs, law and economy, and which, unlike most ancient transactions, have left behind some direct evidence. R. and K. demonstrate the degree to which the standard treatments of ancient contracts are long out of date and if this volume encourages the wholesale reappraisal of our evidence for the role of contracts in the ancient economy (a pressing desideratum), it will have served a worthwhile purpose.
Noteworthy too is F. Lerouxel's insightful re-examination of the βιβλιοθήκη ἐγκτήσεων, an official registry of land property established in Egypt by the Romans in the latter half of the first century a.d. Lerouxel suggests that this institution may not have been designed to lower transaction costs related to mortgage agreements but that it nevertheless had that positive economic effect, which in turn may have stimulated growth in credit. The remaining chapters all offer some value. B. Muhs provides a convenient overview of Egyptian practices and institutions related to the recording and enforcement of contracts from the New Kingdom to the end of the Saite period. J. Manning's chapter, ‘Ptolemaic Governance and Transaction Costs’, is synoptic, with the most detailed discussion treating evidence for demotic land contracts. Y.’s survey of evidence for fees related to the recording of contracts in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt will no doubt prove useful even if his most original argument – that the high fees charged for recording transfer of land title were intended to dampen the real estate market – is unconvincing.
Perhaps highlighting the degree to which substantive analysis of transaction costs in the ancient world outside of Egypt is hamstrung by a dearth of useful data, most of these contributions rely primarily on papyrological evidence. An exception is J. Ober's discussion of the famous fourth-century b.c. Athenian inscription recording Nicophon's law on the assaying of silver coinage (SEG 26.72). Although at points thought-provoking, Ober's argument that the law served to lower transaction costs by ensuring the quality of Athenian silver coinage is generally unconvincing. Ober's method of examining counterfactuals is sometimes tedious, potentially even more so for readers already familiar with the arguments, which are largely reprised from the author's Democracy and Knowledge (2008). Indeed many passages are reprinted verbatim, footnotes and all, including the curious claim that a decree from Olbia ‘is modeled on the Nikophon law (a copy of which was found in Olbia)’ (p. 68 n. 19 and 2008: p. 235 n. 36), which can only be explained by positing that the author has somehow confused Nicophon's law with the fifth-century Athenian coinage decree (IG I3 1453).
A final chapter by G. Dari-Mattiacci, an economist with interests in antiquity, comments on the preceding chapters and attempts to draw some general conclusions about the demand and supply of institutions capable of reducing transaction costs in antiquity. Bibliography conveniently accompanies each chapter, and the volume is closed by a general index that helpfully includes entries for Greek and Latin terms as well as documentary and literary sources.
