This study examines the commercial architecture of Athens and Corinth during the Roman period (ca. 200 BCE to ca. 330 CE). Excavated buildings are catalogued, divided into types by their architectural characteristics, and analyzed for differences between building types and across time. The economic impact of each building type is then assessed in a framework inspired by New Institutional Economics by showing how each would have functioned to lessen transaction costs. The patterns which emerge from this analysis are significant for our understanding of economic and social changes in Greece in the Roman period. First, there is a general trend over time for the size of commercial buildings to increase while the footprint of the units within them decreases. The layout of the units shifts as well: units which are wider than they are deep are replaced by units which are deeper than they are wide, thus maximizing the number of units per building which could front onto the street or colonnaded aisle. At the same time, the doorways of the units, where preserved, become wider than they had been in earlier buildings. All of these features denote an increase in economic competition and an attempt to reduce the transaction costs of search and inspection. The smaller, independent buildings in which production and retail once took place also disappear and are replaced by Attached and Terrace Shops, where commerce is incorporated into a larger building. The collapse of these smaller, independent structures in favor of larger establishments parallels the disappearance of small farms in the countryside and their replacement by larger villas or latifundia. In the city as in the country, these trends are evidence for an increasing concentration of wealth in the form of property ownership. Simultaneously, the evidence for craft production within the buildings decreases. Where many of the earlier buildings seem to have been occupied by craftsmen-retailers, the later buildings are more likely to have been dedicated to retail alone. If craft production no longer took place on site, at a minimum retailers would have been more dependent on wider systems of production and distribution to acquire stock for sale. It is possible that this dependency was not merely between city center shops and producers at the edge of the city, but across wider distances – that is, a greater dependency on regional and interregional trade. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Classics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / 2019 / October 7, 2019. / commercial architecture, market, New Institutional Economics, Roman Greece, shops / Includes bibliographical references. / Christopher A. Pfaff, Professor Directing Dissertation; David B. Levenson, University Representative; Trevor S. Luke, Committee Member; James P. Sickinger, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_752374 |
| Contributors | McCleery, Rachel (author), Pfaff, Christopher A. (professor directing dissertation), Levenson, David B. (university representative), Luke, Trevor S. (committee member), Sickinger, James P. (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Arts and Sciences (degree granting college), Department of Classics (degree granting departmentdgg) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text, doctoral thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (499 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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