Restraints of Trade in Ancient Athens
DOI | 10.1177/0003603X18780555 |
Date | 01 September 2018 |
Published date | 01 September 2018 |
Article
Restraints of Trade
in Ancient Athens
Asher T. Lowenstein*
Abstract
Ancient Athens enacted what can be considered an early form of competition law in which grain
retailers were banned from certain activities. The conventional understanding is that Athens was
attempting to prevent grain hoarding. Careful analysis of the Athenian sources, however, suggests that
the ban did not involve hoarding and addressed only the act of buying large quantities of grain. Athens
may have been motivated to enact such a ban for a couple of reasons: 1) a perception that retailers
violated moral concerns by raising prices and 2) pressure from more powerful groups to reduce the
capabilities of the retailers. Grain storage was an important method of managing the city’s food supply,
so Athens may not have wanted to ban hoarding. This resembles the modern notion that commercial
behavior should not be banned if doing so will impede beneficial activities.
Keywords
Ancient Greek history, ancient Athens, ancient commercial law, earliest competition law , earliest
antitrust law
I. Banned Business Practices in Ancient Athens
Early in the fourth century before the common era (BCE), a group of merchants were accused of
exploiting conditions in Athens’ grain market. Charged with violating a law banning certain practices,
the grain dealers faced potential death sentences. The relevant law has been understood as an early
form of competition regulation.
1
Our sole source of knowledge for the law is a speech the orator Lysias prepared for an unnamed
individual (the “speaker”) to deliver at a public trial (Speech 22). Beyond the vague accusations in the
speech, however, the details are obscure. Both the law and the activity that allegedly violated it remain
unclear.We also do not know whether the prosecutionwas successful or what punishmentmay have been
*Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, New York, NY, USA
Corresponding Author:
Asher T. Lowenstein, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, 425 Lexington Ave., New York, NY 10017, USA.
Email: Asher.Lowenstein@stblaw.com
1. Lambros E. Kotsiris, An Antitrust Case in Ancient Greek Law,22INT’LLAWYER451 (1988) (calling the proceeding over the
merchants’ actions “the first recorded antitrust case”). See also Wayne R. Dunham, Cold Case Files: The Athenian Grain
Merchants 386 B.C. (EAG 07-2, Jan. 2007), http://www.justice.gov/atr/public/eag/221241.pdf.
The Antitrust Bulletin
2018, Vol. 63(3) 305-315
ªThe Author(s) 2018
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