M. Rostovtseff et le « capitalisme » antique vu de Russie

Translated by C. Depretto, introduced by J. Andreau, this article first appeared in 1900 in Russia, but has never been published in any Western language. It held against Karl Bücher, the thesis of a certain modernity in the economy of the antique world. Owing to the level of agricultural and «industrial» output, owing to the techniques of financial and fiscal administration implemented by the state, the antique world experienced a dynamic form of capitalism. This development reached its peak under the Ptolemaic monarchy in Egypt and generally speaking in the Eastern Mediterranean world of the Hellenistic era : in this light, Alexandria can be compared to eighteenth century Paris. The Roman world fell victim to its too rapid success and to the inordinate development of the slave system at the end of the Republic. It was never to know any similar success in spite of a few brilliant achievements under the High Roman Empire

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