Public policy, amidships
Pebbles on Solon the Lawmaker, equality, finance – also featuring, an underrated economic historian
Take thy seat amidships, the pilot's task is thine;
Perform it, many in Athens are thine allies.
The Oracle of Delphi, to Solon
Plutarch, a scholar of 1st-2nd century AD, in Solon (chapters 13-15) accounts the riven mess that was Athens in early 6th century BC, and how the titular sage conducted as an archon to quench economic woes. Political strife and peak disparity between the haves and have-nots - for “all the common people were in debt to the rich” - called for decisive action. Enter Solon. “The wisest of the Athenians” saw that
[H]e was the one man least implicated in the errors of the time; that he was neither associated with the rich in their injustice, nor involved in the necessities of the poor.
A reluctant candidate, fearful of arrogance and greed as expressed by the opposing sides, he was chosen archon and
[m]ade mediator and legislator for the crisis, the rich accepting him readily because he was well-to-do, and the poor because he was honest.
The sage had argued pre-election that equality bred no war; and this
pleased both the men of substance and those who had none; the former expecting to have equality based on worth and excellence, the latter on measure and count.
(So, equality - amidships - yeah sure, but it depends on whom you ask, as scales always lie beneath. A subtle, timeless point.)
His popularity induced calls to ascend as a tyrant, in order to swiftly press forward his reform agenda. He staunchly resisted, but still
he did not administer affairs in the mildest possible manner, nor in the enactment of his laws did he show a feeble spirit, nor make concessions to the powerful, nor consult the pleasure of his electors.
Thus, through “force and justice”, he gave the Athenians “the best [laws] they would receive”.
On the economic front, where the wounds run deepest, the score was of note, but still lingers unsettled among scholars. He may or may have not promised honor of contracts (to the rich) and land redistribution (to the poor), but he indeed treaded on a fine line, amidships again, half-screwing, half-propping up both classes: He offered material relief, but also respected existing land property rights.
First, some bullshitting the ancient Athenian way:
Now later writers observe that the ancient Athenians used to cover up the ugliness of things with auspicious and kindly terms, giving them polite and endearing names. Thus they called harlots ‘companions,’ taxes ‘contributions,’ the garrison of a city its ‘guard,’ and the prison a ‘chamber.’ But Solon was the first, it would seem, to use this device, when he called his cancelling of debts a ‘disburdenment.’
This “disburdenment”, also known as “seisactheia”, is his most prominent initiative, and a contested one by ancient and modern writers alike. A blanket debt cancellation fits the sage’s own claims (he was a skilled poet-propagandist), and bodes well with Plutarch’s account that, upon hearing that a debt remit – not a land redistribution – was in the pipeline, three of Solon’s closest friends borrowed their asses off, binge-bought real estate and then told their rich creditors to suck it. Solon got entangled in this dubious affair, but was cleared as a net lender himself, who incurred losses from his own policy (he still, in good faith, dropped the ball in terms of confidentiality, giving his friends the chance to front-run the market and set an early example of taking advantage of state regulations).
Plutarch, though seemingly accepts the debt cancellation view, mentions that different accounts of the act’s gist existed, among them that of Androtion, a historian of 4th century BC. The fact that the relevant passage in Plutarch’s text is confusing, plus Aristotle’s own take in his monumental The Athenian Constitution, plus the benign-but-actually-fuck-you attitude of archaeologists and numismatists, makes for a case a bit dodgy to follow.
A modern scholar does some justice to Androtion:
The key to the famous Seisachtheia, the removal of burdens, is summarily and lucidly stated by Androtion, the sole ancient chronicler who shows a grasp of economic principles: it consisted not in the cancelling of debts, but in lowering the rate of interest; and this was effected by paying the interest in the same number of drachmas, but in drachmas of less weight.
A debt cancellation would create bad blood in intercity money-markets! And he elaborates further:
the silver coins issued by different states and accounted by them as drachmas varied considerably in metal content… If an Attic farmer had raised a loan and received the cash -in Aeginetan drachmas, and the bond had not been specifically stated to be for drachmas of a particular standard, it would presumably have been quite legal for him to pay the interest or repay the principal in Chalcidian or Corinthian drachmas of less weight… Solon may well have been the first financial expert to perceive how foreign exchange could be exploited.
Athens was yet to become the well-known powerhouse, and at the time was far behind its neighboring Aegina, Chalcis and Corinth. Solon probably got the economics right – an economic clean-slate and exports need a depreciation to start with - and engineered trade diversions in order to attract the lighter coins (while getting to set the Athenian ones at the same standard) and crowd-out the heavier ones, essentially putting Athens in a “trade zone” with either Chalcis (or Corinth, depending on who scholar you ask).
Then Plutarch drops another hit:
by paying the same amount of money, but money of a lesser value, those who had debts to discharge were greatly benefited, and those who accepted such payments were no losers.
That is, a “money illusion” of sorts and nominalism were indeed at play and upheld credit relationships.
Economics aside, the consensus accepts that Solon ended debt-bondage/ serfdom, “a normal step in the development of personal rights”, forbade the practice of borrowing on pledge of one’s freedom, and possibly removed property enclosures. From latter sources we know that he did not instate some cap for interest rates, however.
Solon’s legacy also includes the written publication of laws, a political amnesty and a profound reorganization of the city’s power structure - geared towards an income- ranked, but more inclusive polity.
He surely helped pave the way to growth via trade, and democracy.
This revisit of Solon was prompted by a recent piece at a Greek outlet. I also located another fresh take on seisactheia, here.
Sources:
Solon (early 2nd century AD) - Plutarch