70 MARK wOOLMER
buildings, the rope used to bring the men from the agora to the Pnyx for the
assembly, and the hulls of triremes – it is unclear why the Athenians were so
keen to regulate the trade in this particular commodity. Although the motiva-
tion for these regulations is uncertain, what the inscription does reveal is that
Athenian policy makers were knowledgeable about other commodities and
were willing to use the mechanisms of state to secure them. The final indica-
tion that the Athenians were concerned with a range of commodities is their
concerted and sustained efforts to lower the transaction costs incurred by all
merchants irrespective of the goods in which they dealt (see discussion later
in the chapter for further details). If, as Lambert and Engen posit, Athens was
simply concerned with securing shipments of grain and timber, it could have
achieved this objective simply by offering tax breaks or favorable commercial
terms to men dealing in these commodities. However, a full analysis of the
literary and epigraphic evidence indicates that Athenian trade policy was con-
siderably more inclusive than previously believed.Markets as a Source of Revenue
Athenian awareness that commercial taxes and duties were lucrative reveals
that the introduction of commercial institutions during the Classical period
was aimed at more than just securing a supply of imports. Prior to the outbreak
of the Peloponnesian War, the standard Athenian tax on trade had been levied
at 1 percent ad valorem, a rate that remained unchanged until 413 BCE when
Athens implemented an emergency 5 percent tax on all maritime trade con-
ducted in the harbors of the empire. At the beginning of the fourth century,
the Athenians introduced the pentekoste (one-fiftieth) tax, an import/export
duty levied at 2 percent ad valorem, which remained in use until the Roman
period. The substantial amount of revenue that could be generated from these
types of duties and taxes was highlighted in c. 402/1 BCE when Agyrrhius, the
proposer of the subsequent Grain Tax Law in 374/3 BCE, leased the collection
of the pentekoste for 30 talents. In 399 BCE, Andocides secured the pentekoste
for 36 talents, indicating an expected turnover of commodities valuing in
excess of 2,000 talents: this is an exceptional figure at a time when Athens was
still recovering from the effects of the Peloponnesian War.^17 During the fourth
century BCE, Amemiya calculates that the 2 percent tax on grain would have
raised eight to sixteen talents a year, a figure that is likely to have been dwarfed
by the annual revenues from harbor taxes and import/export duties.^18 There
were other types of commercial charges that could also prove lucrative. In
410 BCE, while still in control of the Hellespont, Alcibiades is said to have
introduced a 10 percent tax on all merchant ships that passed through the
Bosporus strait.^19 Although this tax was abandoned after Aegospotami, it was
reintroduced by Thrasybulus in 389 before being finally abolished by the Peace