Technical progress, economic growth, productivity, even efficiency have not been significant goals since the beginning of time, "declares M.I. Finley in his classic work. The states of the ancient Mediterranean world had not recognizable real-property market, never fought a commercially inspired war, witnessed no drive to capital formation, and assigned the management of many substantial enterprise to slaves and ex-slaves. In short, to study the economies of the ancient world, one must begin by discarding many premises that seemed self-evident before Finley showed that they were useless or misleading.