Western and Central Eurasia

Abstract

This chapter explores the effects of empire-building on both local economies and global connectivity, and the impact imperial expansion may have had on what one might call economic growth and complexity. It deals with agriculture and its development under imperial conditions. The chapter considers the impact of governance structures and taxation on ancient economies. By financing flood control and irrigation, and maintaining the bureaucracy to implement the projects, the dynasty benefited through taxation and power, but it also fostered agrarian development and social prosperity. The use of limited-purpose money in some spheres of exchange preceded all monetary systems of the Afro-Eurasian world of the mid-first millennium and helps to explain monetization as a path-dependent process. Taxation was one of the most important means of asserting and maintaining empire both financially and symbolically. Democracy was not long-lasting, but with the Macedonian conquest of the Persian Empire, including Egypt, Greek urban culture, centered on civic interaction spread toward Central Asia and Egypt.

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