Overture: The Secret of Greece
What was the secret of the Greeks and Romans? How was it that in the 5th century B C, Greece produced one of the most remarkable civilizations that the world has ever seen? In the arts and architecture, in the writing of history and philosophy, in the invention of drama, and most of all, in the invention of democracy, Greece produced a civilization that spread over much of Western Europe, and indeed still mesmerizes us today. How did Greece suddenly produce this remarkable outburst of inspiration? Let me tell you a secret. The secret is that the Greeks invented money.
Now don’t run away. We’ve got to have a big think about money and ask ourselves what money really does for us. The fact that Greece discovered money is not really a new discovery but rather a new interpretation. It is a new interpretation not only of money but also of economics, for the Greeks, quite unbeknown to themselves, invented a new way of living. We need to think again about the nature of money. Money is usually thought to be a store of value, or something similarly off-target, but the real importance of money is that it gives you choice. You don’t have to have boring old stew for supper, but you can go down to the market and spice it up. Money gives you choice, and I am offering you a new interpretation of money: choice
One of the most remarkable discoveries of the early twentieth century was in anthropology, where anthropologists went out and observed how primitive pre-money tribes actually worked. There was no growing of crops and then bringing them to the market for sale, instead you brought in your surplus and added it to the general pile, after which it was divided out. The chief got the first part of the division, then the priests; then there are the specialists – those who work flints, make pots or melt metal, and the fishermen who produce fish, and the neighbours from whom you acquire luxuries, and somewhere along the line, there is your family and your relations — and don’t forget your wife’s family and relations.
Everything is done by tradition. There is no incentive to innovate or to change – indeed it is rather naughty to try and do better than your neighbours. There is no concept of profit or loss, indeed there is little choice. Like all totalitarian societies, it is quite a pleasant existence – providing you keep your nose clean and don’t try to innovate or step out of line.
Eventually these primitive societies grow into great empires, we look at one of them, the Minoans who built up a great empire in the island of Crete. Here we can see how a complex society works before money. It was based on palaces, where the ruler lived, and received tribute from the people and redistributed ‘gifts’.
But the Minoan civilization collapsed and was followed by a dark age, after which a new form of society arose in Greece. This was based on small cities, centred not round the palace but around the market place, an open space that became the place for buying and selling, a place for discussion, for education, the centres where the muses were enjoyed, where museums and art galleries sprang up, and which also became the centres of government, where a new form of government sprang up, based not on the ruler, but on the people. It was called democracy.
There were some 90 cities in Greece in all, but our story is a tale of two cities, Athens and Sparta. Athens was the leading city in Greece, and here the marketplace, the Agora has been excavated and the story can be followed. The greatest of Greek temples, the Parthenon was built. We can see how drama arose out of boozy celebrations of the god Dionysus, the God of drink, financed by a sort of tax on the rich. And we can go down into the potter’s quarters to see the wonderful pottery that was produced and exported all over the Mediterranean.
But then there was the other city, Sparta. Sparta was different, and thus it always fascinates modern scholars, but it puzzles them too. But the real reason why Sparta is different is that Sparta is the city that deliberately rejected money. In its early history, Sparta conquered its neighbours, the Messinians and kept them as slaves, called Helots. And in order to keep the Messenians as slaves, the Spartans had to become warriors. They built up a wonderful state educational system based on training for war – much admired by modern champagne socialists. Being super warriors, they helped the rest of Greece defeat the Persians, and when they went to war with Athens, Sparta won.
But when money was being introduced in other cities, they realized that money introduces choice, and choice brings freedom, and freedom would disrupt their concentration on fighting, so they rejected money. This meant they rejected culture too, and thus there is little that is left behind of Spartan achievements except in the stories told by the Athenians. But it is money, or rather the rejection of it, that is the key to understanding the Spartans.
The Greek magic spread widely, and there are few parts of the Mediterranean that were not influenced by the Greeks. The most remarkable expansion came with Alexander the Great, who was the king of Macedonia who thought he was a Greek though the Greeks thought he was a Macedonian. But he conquered the Persian Empire and spread many of the Greek ideals even as far as India.
The Greeks remained as individual city states, often magnificent, always quarrelsome, and it was left to the Romans to build a great empire. The Romans today are much maligned; the trouble is they were imperialists and colonists, and successful ones too. They are compared to the British Empire and since the British Empire is condemned, the Roman Empire is condemned too. Both empires need to be reassessed. The Roman Empire brought peace and prosperity to much of the Mediterranean world and Europe. The armies were concentrated along the frontiers and the countryside was full of villas, prosperous farming estates which were undefended. For much of Europe and the Mediterranean, the Roman empire brought peace and prosperity.
But the success of the Romans was inherited from the Greeks, that is their superior way of organising the countries they took over. In the East, the market economy was well established, but the Roman Empire brought peace, and peace allowed it to flourish. The difference was really seen in the west, where the Romans often took over a tribal society, replaced the chiefs with cities, introduced the market economy, and the west flourished.
I have been arguing that the dark secret that made Greece and Rome different was a new form of society that broke away from the old closed forms of society based on gift exchange and introduced a new form of society based on money; This new form of society gave choice to the individual and this choice is the foundation of civilisation.
Today we have much to learn from the Greeks and Romans. We have been through a revolution even greater than the Greek Revolution, – the Industrial Revolution, which was built on a similar foundations. The Industrial Revolution was not just a revolution in industry, but a revolution in all spheres of life. It was an enormous medical revolution, it was a farming revolution, and a revolution in thought.
I sometimes like to think that archaeology is one of the triumphs of the Industrial Revolution. The principles of stratigraphy, that if there is one layer on top of another, the lower layer is older is later is something that is mere common sense.
But it took a lot of common sense, taking place in many different places until gradually this new method of writing history began to be accepted. It was not always easy. There were many who though that the Bible should be a source of history, believing that the world was created in 4004 BC. But the market is a great debating place, and when the ideas new and old were debated, the new ideas seemed to be the more coherent and eventually won out.
I like to think that the common factor between the Greeks and the Industrial Revolution is that both were based on the principles of the market and freedom. The market is based on money, for money gives us choice. It gives us the freedom to experiment. If what we offer meets with approval, we go ahead. If it flops, we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down, and start all over again. And this entrepreneurial spirit is the basis of freedom. Freedom to think. Freedom to try it out. Freedom to experiment. Freedom to fail. Freedom to succeed. It was the basis of the Greek world and the underlying secret of the Roman world too. Freedom is a secret which we in the West must cherish today.