The Athenian Agora and the Port of Piraeus

This chapter explains how the famous Athenian Agora (the Athenian marketplace) was organized. It explains that two key elements of its success have been the protection of consumers from abusive behavior and profiteering phenomena. The Agora operated, to a lesser or greater extent, on the (modern) logic, that prices are determined by the forces of demand and supply. Furthermore, the chapter describes the important infrastructure and the way of operation of the famous commercial port of Piraeus, which became the global transit center of the time, a global entrepôt.