Agriculture formed the basis of the ancient economy, and initially served the purpose of self-sufficiency. Even the prosperous were, in their own view, not merchants or shopkeepers, but farmers and landowners. The ancient polis was, as Max Weber described it, a ‘warriors’ guild’, its citizen hence a soldier who equipped and provided for himself; the city did not embody a centre of production and commerce, but rather served ‘consumer interests’. For the citizens, agriculture represented the primary economic sector, so that no contradiction arose between town and countryside.

Ancient agriculture demonstrated great continuity: there was neither any revolutionary technological innovation in agriculture nor any mechanisation, only some improvements in the tools and the methods of cultivation. No large-scale enterprises came into being in the area of the skilled crafts, and mass production hardly emerged at all. In terms of forms of property and means of production, there were major differences in agriculture depending on location – ‘from the highly developed Egyptian channel and irrigation system to simple pasturing and hunting economies’.