Restraints of Trade in Ancient Athens

Ancient Athens enacted what can be considered an early form of competition law in which grain retailers were banned from certain activities. The conventional understanding is that Athens was attempting to prevent grain hoarding. Careful analysis of the Athenian sources, however, suggests that the ban did not involve hoarding and addressed only the act of buying large quantities of grain. Athens may have been motivated to enact such a ban for a couple of reasons: 1) a perception that retailers violated moral concerns by raising prices and 2) pressure from more powerful groups to reduce the capabilities of the retailers. Grain storage was an important method of managing the city’s food supply, so Athens may not have wanted to ban hoarding. This resembles the modern notion that commercial behavior should not be banned if doing so will impede beneficial activities