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12 Cards in this Set
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3. Question 3
Explain howsettled agriculture led to civilization (meaning economic specialization andinterdependence). (2 points)Describe the governmental structure of the earlycivilizations. (5 points) Describe theformation of early writing systems. |
Many things. First it made people settled around land for a longer time than just following the game around the land. This not only allowed people to be able to claim things and bring property rights it also allowed civilizations to pursue interests outside hunting for food.This led to specialization in other areas such as carpentry, tanners, and blacksmiths. Interdependence came about when people depend on each other to perform tasks. For example one would rely on another to produce food who looks to the blacksmith to make a plow. This evolved into bartering and trade. As far as governmental structure of early civilizations the early religious location or temple was also the core of the state. The people of the early civilization traded with the state or temple and in return the temple engaged in activities such as the agriculture, breeding animals. These temples grew in to powerful organizations that employed large staffs and were the governmental structure. equipment that came from agriculture. Two early forms of writing were cuneiform and hieroglyphics. They were both ideographic and pictographic early stages. Later the signs represented syllables as well. Both forms of writing were complex and only used by a small group of highly trained professionals. The majority of people during this age could not write or read. It was left mostly to the religious sect
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1. Question 1
b. List three indicators of economic development other than National Income measures (NI, GDP, or GNP, level, growth rate, or per capita) that are of interest to economists and explain what can be inferred from each of these indicators. |
i. Literacy
1. Human capital ii. Colonization of trade ports (increased trade) 1. Greek city-states extensively colonized Asia Minor and the Italian peninsula, prime source of economic gains. 2. Founding cities did not try to maintain political control over colonies; instead maintained ties of kinship and commercial interaction. 3. Consequences a. Extension of trade (further distances than every before) b. Expansion of production—colonization increased their resources available (land, labor, raw materials) c. Diffusion of technology–spread of agricultural techniques, writing and literacy iii. Coinage 1. Greeks introduced coinage around 600 B.C. to facilitate trade. Huge contribution! a. Standard of account. Using goods (grain) s.t. quality differences. Gives uniform unit of payment b. Medium of exchange. In a barter economy, you have to rely on the “double coincidence of wants” (instead of needed a 3-4 way trade to get what they need for their goods, money gives a medium of exchange) c. Easily transported store of value. * |
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2. Question 2
a. Explain in detail 3 weaknesses of per capita GNP (or GDP) as a measure of economic well-being. |
i. 1. Does not capture all economically important activities
1. Black market / informal market – much larger in less developed countries 2. Agriculture production for own consumption 3. House work ii. 2. Dollar value of a good does not always equal “social” value (e.g., no accounting for pollution costs) 1. Problem of externalities. Debate over the standards of living during the industrial revolution. Wages rose, prices dropped, but other aspects of life deteriorated iii. 4. Does not account for differences in “cost of living” across time and space 1. Even if GDP per capita were a good measure of average income, comparisons across space and time would be hindered by the fact that the “cost of living” – that is, the cost of a certain bundle of goods or a certain lifestyle – is not the same in different societies (prices – housing prices in particular, taxes, etc.) |
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1. Question 2
b. Although this measure has the flaws you just listed (and others) it is the most oft-referenced statistic when considering standard of living differences across countries. Why? |
i. **Despite these caveats, GDP still most oft-referenced measure of countries’ welfare for two main reasons:
1. It is available for most countries for many years (At least 50), back to 1840 for the US. Even further back for Britain and some other European nations. 2. Highly predictability correlated with any other measure. |
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3. Question 3
a. Describe the North and Thomas model explaining the Neolithic Revolution. Specifically, use a graph to illustrate how population growth affected this change. |
1. The value marginal production that man gets from hunting is high and constant until a certain level of increase population (qd), when the return begins to diminish.
2. The value marginal production that man gets from agriculture is constant with increase population, yet lower than hunting up until a certain point, qc. 3. This decrease in returns to scale of hunting is due to decreases in productivity. 4. Hunting will continue until it reaches the population level of qc, which is the intersection of the value marginal production of hunting and agriculture. 5. After this intersection, resources will be allocated to agriculture, as the line is constant with population growth, and more value adding than hunting. 6. In sum, there are three changes that could account for the transition from hunting to ag. Individually or acting in concert, a decline in the productivity of labor in hunting, a rise in the productivity in agriculture or a sustained expansion of the size of the labor-force, could have resulted in the transition of man from being exclusively a hunter to increasingly a farmer. |
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3. Question 3
c. How is this model consistent with what we know about the transformation from Hunter-Gatherers to Settled Agriculturists? |
i. Extinction of mammoths—implications for diminishing Sreturns to hunting.
1. Ice age exogenous shock. Climate change also decreases yield of hunt ii. Establishments in the fertile crescents. Civilization that can support large populations form independently in Mesopotamia, N. China, Meso-America (Central America). Areas best suited to primitive agriculture |
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4. List 4 contributions of the earliest civilizations (those that eventually formed the Babylonian Empire) and explain how each was important to continued economic growth.
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a. Writing
i. Bureaucratic necessity: state needed to keep records of tax collections and tributes ii. Script used to set down other languages besides Sumerian. Phonetic symbols allowed script to be used to write other ancient languages b. Arithmetic. Necessary for keeping track of accounts. c. Weights and measures. Standard units of trade. d. Codes of Law. i. Civilization required the development of law–codified rules to regulated interactions. ii. Many laws dealt with Economic life. Regulation of contracts, specifying irrigation procedures, regulation of lending practices (33 1/3 % interest on loans of grain, 20% on loans of silver), setting of maximum wages. iii. This shows the extent of development of commerce as well the role of the state in the economy |
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5. What were the major contributions to economic development of the Phoenician Empire? (FIND 2)
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i. Phoenicians: the first merchants and colonists. Port empire
1. Phoenicians (from 3,000 B.C.), then Greeks and Romans built their empires along the Mediterranean. ii. Greeks and Romans adopted Phoenician alphabet and other commercial techniques. |
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5. What were the major contributions to economic development of the Greeks? (FIND 3)
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i. Literacy
1. Human capital ii. Colonization of trade ports (increased trade) 1. Greek city-states extensively colonized Asia Minor and the Italian peninsula, prime source of economic gains. a. Motivations. i. To deal with excess population ii. To deal with shortages of foodstuffs in founding cities; to obtain a supply of grain and other agriculture products for founding cities. iii. To develop trading relationships and extend markets 2. Founding cities did not try to maintain political control over colonies; instead maintained ties of kinship and commercial interaction. 3. Consequences a. Extension of trade (further distances than every before) b. Expansion of production—colonization increased their resources available (land, labor, raw materials) c. Diffusion of technology–spread of agricultural techniques, writing and literacy iii. Coinage 1. Greeks introduced coinage around 600 B.C. to facilitate trade. Huge contribution! a. Standard of account. Using goods (grain) s.t. quality differences. Gives uniform unit of payment b. Medium of exchange. In a barter economy, you have to rely on the “double coincidence of wants” (instead of needed a 3-4 way trade to get what they need for their goods, money gives a medium of exchange) c. Easily transported store of value. * |
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5. What were the major contributions to economic development of the Romans? (FIND 3)
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i. Law Order & Justice
1. Social/political structure military focus, not trade. Interestingly, however, the military focus and prowess of Rome contributed to commercial growth during the Roman Empire. 2. 1. Conquest leads to spread of Roman law. Roman law throughout Mediterranean fosters trade expansion–enforcement of contracts over long distances, standardization of weights & measures, currency, etc. Important for the facilitation of trade ii. Peace extended trade 1. 2. pax Romana (31 BCE - 181 CE).The long period of peace during the peak of Roman empire also contributed to the extension of trade (as well as the cultivation of the arts). This peace included a practical elimination of piracy on the Mediterranean Sea. Peace reduced the riskiness of long distance trade. iii. Improved transportation for trade 1. 3. Military infrastructure facilitated commerce Shipping technology, ROADs (built to move troops, were used for trade) |
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What is meant by technological stagnation in the Greek and Roman Empires? How could "an Overdose of Slavery" be the cause? List two flaws of the slavery explanation. Provide and alternative explanations. |
There just wasn't a lot of new products in the 1,500 years of Greek and Roman rule. Also, it was weird because there wasn't many refinements to existing technology. They never thought to use water power...mainly the use of water-mill power using the aqueducts. Essentially that under slavery, labor was relatively cheap, there wasn't any incentive for the elites to replace human power with machine power with labor and capital as substitutes. Also, slaves themselves had no incentive to make labor-saving devices, since their labor would be elsewhere directed. It is weird that the elites would not want to increase the output of each slave (labor and capital as complements). Proponents of this theory attribute the fall of the Roman Empire to the labor shortage as parasitical classes swelled. Some alternatives would be the value system of the great philosopher-scientist-mathematicians which favored theory over practice. There was a great disconnect between the thinkers and the producers in a stratified society. So the practical applications of the new scientific discoveries were mostly in weaponry in response to duress. |
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Explain the developments at the end of the Roman Empire that lead to the rise of the manorial system. What measures did Emporor Diocleatian (284-305) attempt to alleviate the empire's fiscal woes? What measures were attempted by his successors, notably Constantine (306-337) and Theodosius I (379-395)? |
Attempted Measures by Emperor Diocletian started with economic reforms establishing regular contributions to the state rather than uncertain obligations. These were fixed wages and prices. Constantine enacted additional measures like Binding peasants to the land and making offices or occupations hereditary. Theodosius enacted economic measures called the Theodosian Code which sought to lock men in their places and organize population into hereditary classes. Predictably, these measures offered temporary stability. |
