This selection of essays by key names in the field of ancient economies in the ''Hellenistic'' age (c.330-30BCE), provides essential reading for anyone interested in the evolutionary building blocks of economic history in the eastern Mediterranean and neighbouring regions. Case studies look at management and institutions; human mobility and natural resources; the role of different agents - temples and cities, as well as rulers - in enhancing resources and circulatingwealth; the levers exerted by monopolies and by disparate status groups, including slaves. An introductory essay summarizes the operational elements that drove the engines of these economies.