INDUSTRY STRUCTURE AND INCOME OPPORTUNITIES 163
The framework adumbrated in this chapter provides an important missing
piece in the puzzle of why the sizes of different enterprises in classical Athens
varied. It shows that firm size responded to the same basic rules of microeco-
nomics that determine firm size today, albeit with very different results, owing
to very different levels of technology. A depiction of how the Athenians lived
that takes full account of what they consumed and how they earned an income
would probably look more like a painting by Hieronymous Bosch than by
Raphael: streets humming with the noise, filth and smells of large, busy factories
and crammed with carts transporting their raw materials and finished goods. In
the more salubrious areas small workshops of skilled craftsmen, (metics, freed-
men and citizens), would seek superior returns for their superior skills.
In all these industries, technology has changed the dynamics of competition;
craft potters cannot compete against Wedgwood’s successors, textiles are made
on massive machines and by third world labour, and computer controlled
design and manufacturing has transformed metalwork. It is hard to participate
in manufacturing except on a full-time basis. The implications for social and
political structures have been immense.
NOTES
1 Kron 2011.
2 Clark 2002 : 830–48; Kron 2005 ; Ober 2010a: 9–16.
3 See van Alfen, Chapter 12 in this volume.
4 See Davies 2007 : 352. On slave imports, see Lewis, Chapter 14 in this volume.
5 See Morris 2010 : 30–50.
Potential for
Differentiation
High
Low
Ownership
Labour Slaves
Citizens, metics, freed slaves
Ib. Undifferentiated
Industry
Tanning
Ore processing
Primary food processing
lIb. Undifferentiated Craft
Commodity pottery
General metal work
Secondary food processing
Te xtiles
Ia. Differentiated Industry
Shields
Knives
Luxury Furniture
Cosmetics and
Perfumes
YesNo
Barriers to Entry
Owner + slave(s)
lIa. Differentiated Craft
Bronze armour
Fine textiles
Shoemaking
Decorative pottery
6.6 Competitive Advantage and Industry Structure (P. Acton).