Trade+and+Business+of+Ancient+Greece

By Andrew Fackler
 * __BUSINESS AND TRADE IN ANCIENT GREECE__**


 * __Summary__**


 * Trade and business in ancient Greece consisted of the exchange of many different products. Trade was most important in the ancient world. The world practically revolved around trade because it brought in goods, money, food, and many other things. The things that were mostly traded in Ancient Greece were olives, olive oil, grapes, wine, wool, meat, barley, spices, honey and wheat. All of these things were huge resources in ancient Greece.**


 * __Outline__**
 * 1) **Farming**
 * 2) **Olives**
 * i.** **Olive oil**
 * 1) **Grapes**
 * i.** **Wine**
 * 1) **Wheat and Barley**
 * 2) **Honey and Spices**
 * i.** **Mead and Bread**


 * 1) **Animal Husbandry**
 * 2) **Used goats and sheep**
 * i.** **Rocky, hilly, countryside**
 * 1) **Shepherds required**
 * 2) **Provided meat, milk, cheese and wool**


 * 1) **Weaving and cloth Dying**
 * 2) **Wool carpets and rugs**
 * 3) **Clothing and Tunics**


 * 1) **Jewelry**
 * 2) **Mostly all jewelry was silver or gold.**
 * i.** **All of this jewelry was worn by women.**
 * ii.** **Often, jewelry was curved into a snake for a bracelet.**
 * iii.** **Hairpins were usually leaves or flowers.**
 * 1) **Pottery**
 * 2) **Greece** **had plenty of clay**
 * i.** **Athens** **clay is a reddish orange color**
 * ii.** **Corinth** **clay is a creamy whitish color.**
 * 1) **Most pottery was made by wheel method and some was made by the rope method.**
 * i.** **Shape of pot determined its function**
 * ii.** **Pottery in ancient Greece was always glazed with a black metallic glaze.**
 * 1) **Slave Trade**
 * 2) **Slaves were used for dirty work that nobody wanted to do.**
 * i.** **Slaves that weren’t bought were sold to the mining company.**
 * 1) **Slaves that were bought were usually used on rich people’s farms and did all the work.**


 * __Report__**


 * Business and trade in ancient Greece was different than today’s trade. They used different products to barter. Some of the products traded were olive oil, grapes, wine, meat, wool, jewelry, pottery and slaves.**
 * One of the main sources of the products for trade came from farms. Farms best selling products were grapes, to make wine, and olives to make olive oil. Other successful crops were wheat, barley, and spices. Additionally, people kept bees to produce honey. All of these things were ingredients for things such as mead and bread.**
 * Farmers used animal husbandry, which is raising farm animals. Even though the Greeks didn’t raise cattle because the landscape was steep, rocky and hilly. They raised sheep and goats instead. Sheep and goats can climb the steeper hillside and get the grass up there. Also for the sheep and goats they had to hire shepherds. This cost money but provided some profit. The goats produce dairy products such as milk and cheese, and the sheep provided wool and meat for the farmers. Some of the things they used the wool for were carpets, blankets, mats, and lots of other fabric articles. Although all of these articles were woven they were one of the most comfortable things they owned.**
 * Most of the Jewelry was made of gold and silver. Most of the bracelets there were formed into snakes or different things that wove down your forearm onto your wrist. This was in style then. All of the jewelry was worn by the women. Also, the hairpins that were worn were usually either leaves or flowers.**
 * Another one of the great trades was pottery. The reason this was one of the successful trades was because Greece had plenty of clay. Greece had two major types of clay. Athens produced a reddish orange color, Corinth produced a clay that was a creamy whitish color. Most of the pottery was made by a wheel and sometimes with the rope method. The shape of the pot determined the function of it and what job it fulfilled. Also pottery in ancient Greece was glazed with a black metallic glaze. Historians have been able to trace different era’s of art based on the art on the pottery, and this has been a key to discovering some Greek art styles.**
 * One of the most successful trades of all was slave trading. The people that did most of the work in any house and helped to build ancient Greece were the slaves. As horrible as this sounds, slave trading was a major trade in ancient Greece. Slaves did all of the dirty work, such as cleaning, picking up animal waste, and much more. Almost every household had a slave, even the poorest farmers had 1 or 2 slaves. The slaves that weren’t bought were sold to the mining companies. The slaves that were bought by rich people worked on their farms where there were around 50 or more slaves. These slaves all lived on the farm doing all of the hard work and labor.**

__10 Need To Know Facts__ 1. Greece’s main trades were Olives and Olive oil. 2. Greece has a rocky, hilly countryside which influenced what crops and animals the locals would raise. 3. People utilized goats and sheep for their dairy, meat and wool. 4. Grape vines grew well in Greece, contributing to the country’s popular wine export trade. 5. Wool was spun and weaved to produce clothing and carpets. 6. Metals such as gold and silver was formed and cast into jewelry for women to wear. 7. Pottery was made out of local clay, pottery styles depended on function of container. 8. Greek art history has been traced partly through found pottery artifacts. 9. Beekeeping was a popular business; honey was the Greeks only form of sugar. 10. Slave trade was a huge business.

__Web Resources__ 1. [|www.greeka.com] 2. [|www.wikipedia.org]. 3. [|www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/economy/index.htm] 4. http://community.middlebury.edu/~harris/Classics/EconomicsinGreece.html 5. [|www.teacheroz.com/greeks.html] 6. http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_1741501460/Ancient_Greece.html 7. http://www.museum.upenn.edu/Greek_World/trade.html 8. http://www.geocities.com/prionesse777/greektrade.html 9. http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/engen.greece 10. http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/greekevttimelines/p/archiacgreece.htm

__Book Resources__

__The Greek News__ by Anton Powell and Philip Steele __The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Ancient Greece__ by Eric D. Nelson, Ph.D., and Susan K. Allard-Nelson, Ph.D.

__Athletes and Actors and Other Jobs for Ancient Greece__ by Anita Ganeri

__Trade and Warfare__ by Robert Hull

__What Life Was Like at the Dawn of Democracy__ by the Editors of Time Life Books, Alexandria, Virginia