Real wages in early economies: Evidence for living standards from 1800 BCE to 1300 CE
In this paper, I present a critical survey of pertinent data from antiquity and the early and high Middle Ages.
The monetary systems of the Han and Roman empires
It is not an exaggeration to say that the existing body of research scholarship on Roman coins, money, and the monetary economy greatly exceeds corresponding scholarship on early Chinese money in terms of both volume and sophistication. As a consequence, while the physical characteristics of Roman coins and their distribution have already been studied in very considerable detail and much attention has been paid to their relevance to broader questions of economic history, our knowledge of ancient Chinese money and its uses remains much more limited and fragile and many important questions have barely been addressed at all.
Coin quality, coin quantity, and coin value in early China and the Roman world
How was the valuation of ancient coins related to their quality and quantity? How did ancient economies respond to coin debasement and to sharp increases in the money supply relative to the number of goods and transactions? I argue that the same answer – that the result was a devaluation of the coinage in real terms, most commonly leading to price increases – applies to two ostensibly quite different monetary systems, those of early China and the Roman Empire.
Silk Weaving in Ancient China: From Geometric Figures to Patterns of Pictorial Likeness
The advantages of the silk thread were probably already recognised by Chi- nese stone-age women employed in weaving. If maximum benefit was to be got from its exceptional length, then it was only logical to dress the loom with a warp of silk threads.
Where Was the Western Zhou Capital?
During the pre-dynastic times Zhou changed their living place several times, seeming to hesitate between shepherding or agricultural ways of production.