• It was decided which cities were to provide money and which were to provide ships
• The first payment (tribute) was 460 talents (today 57 lb.)
• Delos was to serve as treasury
• The assembly of the League met in the Temple at Delos
Category Archives: Economics
[post_grid id="10047"]Nothing More Demoralizing
Is it a deficiency of money that demoralizes man?
Or perhaps an excess? Is money the root of all evil? Or is evil the root of all money?
Ancient Greek Tetradrachm
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- Durable – it must survive the trials and tribulations of daily life, i.e. of being carried around in people’s pockets, purses, or even in the mouths of the newly deceased.
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- Portable – a small item should be of a high value.
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- Divisible – breaking a coin, either figuratively or literally, should not affect its relative value.
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- Fungible – mutually exchangeable i.e. it doesn’t matter which particular coin you have as long as you have one.
- Intrinsically valuable – the coin’s material should be a worthwhile commodity (mint coins from gold not concrete).
Ancient Roman Denarius depicting Titus
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The Golden Rule
At the time of going to press, there are about twenty working theories as to the allegorical significance of the golden fleece story. However, one thing remains clear and constant: gold, even if only metaphorically, has a property of sanctity and deserves our reverence.
Thus by the end of the Classical Age (323 BC) Greek gold mining spanned from the Pillars of Hercules (representing the almost touching tips of Spain and Morocco), across Egypt, and all the way to Asia Minor.
A result of this was that being buried with large amounts of gold was illegal from 450 BC.
Though ancient alchemy’s desire of unlocking the secrets of the philosopher’s stone (that would transform base metals into gold and, perhaps, offer eternal life) proved fruitless, it did lay the foundations upon which all subsequent chemistry was built.
Inflating an Empire
You see, it is a widely held belief that the Ancient Romans didn’t merely let their empire fall… they inflated it until it burst.
The best way to deal with these problems? Expand even further of course!
But how much damage could shaving a sliver of silver off the coin actually do?
However, none of these could compete with the effect left behind by the Huns.
The next 70 years saw defeat after defeat as the various tribes chipped away at Rome’s mighty empire.
“The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight.”
The root of the root of all evil?
A drachma was worth six obols which, though later coins themselves, were originally large metal sticks. An average man could carry six of these valuable stakes in one hand, thus giving etymological rise to the drachma (literally, a fistful).
Plato’s ideas about money were like many of his on other topics i.e. largely theoretical, rhetorical and meant to generate intelligent discussion rather than provide a binding dogma for the state to follow.
“When the inhabitants of one country became more dependent on those of another, and they imported what they needed, and exported what they had too much of, money necessarily came into use”.
“The various necessaries of life are not easily carried about”!
“How can that be wealth of which a man may have a great abundance and yet perish with hunger, like Midas in the fable, whose insatiable prayer turned everything that was set before him into gold”?
- Durable – it must survive the trials and tribulations of daily life, i.e. of being carried around in people’s pockets, purses, or in the case of obols, in people’s mouths (this was in everyday life, not only for funerals)!
- Portable – a small item should be of a high value.
- Divisible – breaking a coin, either figuratively or literally, should not affect its relative value.
- Fungible – mutually exchangeable i.e. it doesn’t matter which particular coin you have as long as you have one.
- Intrinsically valuable – the coin’s material should be a worthwhile commodity.
“Money: There’s nothing in the world so demoralizing as money”.
“I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man, public as well as private”.
The Delian Default
Delos, if you would be willing to be the abode of my son Phoebus Apollo and make him a rich temple -; for no other will touch you, as you will find: and I think you will never be rich in oxen and sheep, nor bear vintage nor yet produce plants abundantly. But if you have the temple of far-shooting Apollo, all men will bring you hecatombs and gather here, and incessant savour of rich sacrifice will always arise, and you will feed those who dwell in you from the hand of strangers; for truly your own soil is not rich.
~ Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo 51-60
And so it was that, for a time, the Temple flourished… until the wealth residing therein became too alluring for the many hands grabbing at it.
In the years following the end of the Persian Wars, a dozen or so municipalities drew loans from the Temple of Delos, the Delian League capital where the vast treasures of the confederation of the Greek city-states were kept. But in 454 B.C., a few of the debtors came up short on their repayments. These defaults cost the temple dearly. So Pericles relocated the treasury to Athens.
“Neither ruthless enough to be feared, nor compassionate enough to be loved, nor competent enough to be respected.”
Payments on the loans ceased in 1843, the same year popular rebellion found its way to the Palace of Athens. Otto’s own story ended in exile and death in the year 1862, 16 years before the loans were eventually repaid and the international capital markets again reopened to the country over which he had once ruled.