Degree Of Specialization Within The City example essay topic

Economic Systems Throughout history there has been a common theme of progression towards more complex societies. The advent of agriculture enabled population sizes to increase, and allowed permanent settlements to arise. As extensive cultivation of farmland progressed, a surplus of food was created that enabled some people within a society to be non-food producers. These people who no longer were required to farm in order to survive were able to develop marketable goods that they could exchange for food. This transition towards interdependence, (craftsmen depending on exchanging their goods for food), brought with it an opportunity for the government within each society to exact some tribute for monitoring the economy, and making sure that exchanges went smoothly. This led to societies with a well-defined hierarchy and slowly led to the abolition of the egalitarian societies where everyone engages in the same means of production.

Within these aforementioned egalitarian societies there is some occupational specialization, but it is based on the skill of the craftsmen, and no one is a full time specialist. The differences in the economies of Copan, Teotihuacan, and ancient Rome, can illustrate why and how economies increase in complexity, and what criteria are necessary for large-scale economic specialization. More specifically, what factors limited Copan and Teotihuacan, preventing them from attaining the population size, and economic complexity of ancient Rome. Teotihuacan was a huge metropolis in what is now southern Mexico.

It became a large city before 100 CE and reached the height of its size from about 600-650 CE. At its height it was home to roughly 125,000 inhabitants. There is a permanent springs nearby the ancient city, and satellite photos have indicated the presence of a possible irrigation system with canals used to water farm sites. Although the age of the irrigation canals has yet to be established it seems to be highly probable that this canal system was created concurrently with the development of the city.

This conclusion is also supported by a lack of rural population, which would have been necessary to provide food for such a large population if there wasn't agriculture within the city. Because the food was not brought in from a great distance, the travel expenditure to get the food to the population would have been low. This allowed there to be a dense population concentration within the urban area. The expense of moving goods in the new world seems to have been a factor that limited the size of cities. Because of a lack of domestic animals, or even of wheeled vehicles, all goods were transported on the backs of porters, or in boats that weren't as technologically advanced as most of those in the old world. Despite these obstacles to the development of a city, the degree of specialization within the city seems to have been relatively high.

In two-fifths of the settlements that have been excavated, there is evidence of specialized craft production. There is also evidence for specialization within a particular craft. There have been sites of production unearthed where a particular pot size and shape is manufactured exclusively. An example of this type of find is seen at the site Tiajnga 33.

At this site only one type of pottery has been manufactured. The shapes of the pottery are restricted, and there is evidence that this site sat in a specialized pottery district, because other sites nearby exhibited similar specialization. An analysis of the economy at nearby Copan allows for a comparison between the 2 civilizations. At the height of Copan from 750-800 CE there were approximately 27,000 people living in an area of 450 square kilometers. Based on this smaller population size and relative lack of density compared to Teotihuacan it would be expected that the economy would not be as complex. This theory seems to be accurate based on the observable data and excavations that have been performed at Copan.

Out of the 1425 sites at Copan that have been excavated, only 13 show signs of occupational specialization. This number is a sharp contrast to the frequency of occupational specialization seen in Teotihuacan. Without an irrigation system to allow for abundant crop growth within the city, and because of the high cost of transport, it makes sense that the population of Copan would be much smaller and less dense. While it appears likely that farmers who were relegated to less productive land supplemented their income by manufacturing other goods, there is no evidence for full-time occupational specialization. This presence of a city without any full time specialists lies in sharp contrast to one of the most highly specialized societies of the ancient world.

In Rome around 200 CE there was a population of approximately 500,000 people. This huge population and relatively high population density would be expected to have a more complex economy than either Teotihuacan or Copan. In Ostia, a port that was a trading hub for the Roman Empire, nearly everyone within the city was an occupational specialist. One of the factors that allowed for such extensive specialization within the economy of the Roman Empire was an efficient means of transportation. In contrast to the cities of Copan and Teotihuacan, Rome had access to less expensive goods from a larger area. This less expensive means of transport was crucial.

Rome relied on merchant vessels to bring in goods from overseas, and also had domesticated animals that could haul much larger items over inland routes. While there is evidence of sub-specialists within certain specialties at Teotihuacan, the specialization at Teotihuacan doesn't seem to be as prevalent as in ancient Rome. Within the Roman society there was an extreme amount of interdependence, as a result of this reliance on other workers craftsmen formed their own guilds. These guilds attempted to protect the interests of the workers within that certain subspecialty, and maintain or increase the wages and political influence of the guild members.

The differences between the economies in the 3 cities discussed seem to be brought about by the ease of transport of goods within the city, and from outside the city. Teotihuacan and Copan were both clearly limited by a lack of efficient transport. Teotihuacan seems to have circumvented this problem by creating an irrigation system to allow for farming within the city limits, while Copan lacked a similar system and still had inefficient transportation methods. Everyone in Copan, sans a few elites, seems to have engaged in food production at least part of the time.

Extensive agricultural cultivation, and an efficient way to transport the crop, or large-scale food production within the city, appear to be the necessary components that allow for the creation of a city.