[Market Economy Guide] Capitalism That Evolves on Its Own

Athens’s “Agora” Was Always Bustling as the Central Market

Markets Are the Driving Force of Civilization, Generating Culture and Information

The ancient Greek city-state of Athens established itself as the greatest city-state and the center of Greek civilization, achieving politically direct democracy, socially economic prosperity, and culturally outstanding accomplishments in scholarship and the arts. Behind Athens’s prosperity was its distinctive plaza culture, and at the very center of it was the Agora.

Greek Democracy and the Agora

The Agora was originally Athens’s central market, and its etymological root is “agorazo,” meaning “to come to market” or “to buy.” Much like our traditional marketplaces, the Agora was always crowded and full of energy, with people buying and selling a wide variety of goods.

The Agora, moreover, was not simply a marketplace; it was also the center of the political, economic, social, cultural, and everyday life of Athenian citizens. Athletic competitions, political assemblies, theatrical performances, religious festivals, civic trials, and philosophical debates were all held in the Agora. Athenian citizens gathered there to exchange information, engage in political and social discussion, and participate in civic trials. In this way, the Agora played a role far beyond that of a marketplace. As a venue for various public assemblies, it led the development of Athenian politics, economy, society, and culture, while shaping Greece’s plaza culture.

And this was not true only of the Agora in ancient Athens. Looking at human history, the development of civilization has always gone hand in hand with the development of markets. The reason writing was invented in the Fertile Crescent some 5,000 years ago was the need for a means to record economic information, and the reason mathematics was devised was to calculate various costs and prices in commerce.

Consider also the Silk Road, which linked ancient China with the Western Regions. The Silk Road began as a transportation route for trade goods such as silk, lacquerware, ceramics, paper, pepper, and glass, but it was far more than a channel for exchanging goods. As a political, economic, and cultural route, it had an enormous impact on East-West cultural exchange. In particular, Buddhism was transmitted from India to China through the Silk Road, helping Buddhist culture flourish in China, Korea, and Japan. Conversely, papermaking technology transmitted from China to the Western Regions promoted the development of printing and the knowledge industry, leading to a further advance in Western civilization.

Markets and Civilization

Predating the Silk Road by some 2,000 years, the Tea Horse Road, along which Chinese tea and Tibetan horses were exchanged, was likewise one of the oldest trade routes in human history and a pathway of civilization. Through the Tea Horse Road, different cultures and religions, including Chinese tea culture and Tibetan Buddhism, were transmitted and blended, stimulating the development of new civilizations.

Thus, at the center of cultural exchange and development, there has always been commerce. The paths people traveled to buy and sell the goods they needed became trade routes and channels of culture, while the places where people gathered became markets and the birthplace of culture. As trade became more active, more and more people gathered to buy and sell, the volume of goods increased, and markets expanded. Naturally, derivative services that facilitated smooth commerce developed as well. At the same time, as interaction among people became more vibrant, more information was exchanged, different cultures mixed, and through their own processes of fusion and innovation, the birth of new culture—and thus the progress of civilization—became possible. That is precisely the power of voluntary exchange through the market.

Markets exerted a profound influence not only on the development of the economy, culture, and the arts, but also on the development of ideas. Medieval Europe was a feudal society made up of local autonomous units centered on lords’ castles. Markets formed around each castle, and merchants flowed in along the roads connecting one castle to another, bringing with them not only trade goods but also a wide range of information and culture. This developed, after the Middle Ages, into the growth of cities, the rise of a bourgeois class composed of wealthy merchants, and the establishment of individual freedom and property rights.

In this way, the market that began in the Agora—the public square—of ancient Greece has continually expanded through the post-medieval city, the modern nation-state, and today’s global economy, driving technological innovation and the progress of civilization.

The Evolution of Markets

What, then, of today? Today’s market, supported by advances in information and communications technology, has expanded into the internet—that is, into the real-time online market. Now, with just a click on a website, free commercial exchange is possible anywhere in the world. In particular, online markets, which operate freely anytime and anywhere beyond the constraints of time and space, are no longer limited to specific physical goods but have expanded to include diverse cultural and artistic content such as music and video. As a result, they inevitably accompany innovation in technological services aimed at enabling broad commercial exchange across the globe and enhancing convenience for countless consumers. In turn, this ultimately promotes the development of advanced technological civilization and the fusion of new cultures in the internet age.

● Please remember

Looking at human history, the development of civilization has always gone hand in hand with the development of markets. The reason writing was invented in the Fertile Crescent some 5,000 years ago was the need for a means to record economic information, and the reason mathematics was devised was to calculate various costs and prices in commerce.

Sung-no Choi

President, Center for Free Enterprise (CFE)

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Original title: [시장경제 길라잡이] 스스로 진화하는 자본주의

Author: Sung-no Choi

Date: 2019-11-18

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=column&pn=11&idx=22060