The colonies provided the “mother cities” with raw resources such as supplies of grain and other agricultural products. They also served as “markets or trade centers for good manufactures by the mother city, thus introducing the neighboring populations to civilization by means of the market system”.

The barter system was no longer efficient for the market system. Therefore, minor technical innovation, which was of a great economic importance was introduced – the coined money. The money was not identical, but the Athenian silver coins were mostly acceptable since Athens was the major state at the time.

Figure 3. These modern photos of what’s left of Athens remind us of the great power that state had in the days of the Ancient Greece.

The Greek world laid the foundations of the economic development. Although many technological discoveries were made before or later that time, the Greek cities have developed major economic breakthroughs in trade as well as money. At the end, they have “exhausted themselves from the conquests of Alexander the Great” and gave way for the Roman Empire.

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