Ancient trade

In the time of the classical civilizations; in the Bronze Age; in the neolithic. Inner Asia, especially the Silk Road; the Indian Ocean routes. Comparison with Melanesian kula chains.

It's sometimes argued that science, democracy and commerce went together in Ionia and similarly enlightened parts of Greece --- but what about their trading partners, like the Phoenicians?

Cf. my (fairly long) paper "Sing, Ye Countinghouse Muses" on the tangle of music, poetry, myths, commerce and aristocracy in ancient and archaic Greece (roughly, from Homer to Aristotle).

M. I. Finley, The Ancient Economy
George Hourani, Arab Seafaring in the Indian Ocean in Ancient and Early Medieval Times
Polanyi, The Great Transformation

Philip D. Curtin, Cross-Cultural Trade in World History [blurb]
John Keay, The Spice Route: A History [Blurb]
Philiip L. Kohl, The Making of Bronze Age Eurasia [blurb]
Bronislaw Malinowski, Argonauts of the Pacific
Marcel Mauss, The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies
Polanyi et al., Trade and Markets in Early Empires

Notebooks

Ancient trade