The Agrarian Sociology of Ancient Civilizations
Max Weber
Language: English
Pages: 359
ISBN: B010DTDQ76
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Max Weber, widely recognized as the greatest of the founders of classical sociology, is often associated with the development of capitalism in Western Europe and the analysis of modernity. But he also had a profound scholarly interest in ancient societies and the Near East, and turned the youthful discipline of sociology to the study of these archaic cultures.
The Agrarian Sociology of Ancient Civilizations -- Weber's neglected masterpiece, first published in German in 1897 and reissued in 1909 -- is a fascinating examination of the civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Hebrew society in Israel, the city-states of classical Greece, the Hellenistic world and, finally, Republican and Imperial Rome. The book is infused with the excitement attendant when new intellectual tools are brought to bear on familiar subjects. Throughout the work, Weber blends a description of socio-economic structures with an investigation into mechanisms and causes in the rise and decline of social systems. The volume ends with a magisterial explanatory essay on the underlying reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire.
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Italians also profited from the business enterprises which accompanied Roman expansion, from the settlement of conquered territories, and from the establishment of ‘provinces’. It is of course true that Roman expansion was accompanied by a sharp struggle of interests. There were the ancient class conflicts between peasants and estate owners (possessores) with large cattle and slave properties, and then in addition there was a struggle within the propertied classes. On one side was the.
Especially in the case of lands needing improvement. As early as 111 B.C. an agrarian law set the amount of tax to be raised on African domains let on hereditary lease, and gradually it became the rule that domain lands were let on contract for 100 years or more in return for rent and fees for transfer to heirs. The contractors (mancipes) then either sub-let the land or farmed it themselves as a large enterprise. Despite the objections of Mitteis, I still believe that the system of large-scale.
Suggests) and the mines, that the speculative rearing of slaves and peaceful slave trade were not adequate to meet the demand. At first slave prices increased rapidly, because the market’s supply was insufficient, but then in the Later Roman Empire slave prices were very low, because by then economic organization had altered and demand declined sharply. At one time I overestimated the importance of this change; now I would say that it should not be underestimated. The disappearance of slave.
For the return of a decurio took the form of the ancient claim to ownership of property (vindicatio), so that in effect towns pursued their errant councillors the way a village pursued a runaway bull from the common herd. If this could be done to a decurio, the colonus could not expect any milder treatment. The labour services which he owed his lord were not distinguished from his public duties, since the lord was both estate owner and local authority, and so the colonus who fled his duties was.
Later they were adjusted according to the legal status and the fertility of the land. Other taxes in kind were also levied, and seem to have been rather onerous; mortgage contracts include mention of them, and fragments of cadasters have survived. A poll tax was also levied on free people, or at least on free women; perhaps originally it was levied on all not fit to fight. In addition there were various taxes levied on commercial transactions, such as sale of land and slaves. Where contracts.