[Pen-l] The Beauty of Markets and Markets of Beauty

[michael perelman <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In looking through William Stanley Jevons’ Principles of Economics, 
mostly a collection of unpublished fragments, Jevons concluded a section 
on negative value with a fascinating story from Herodotus on auctions in 
the Babylonian marriage market. The story speaks for itself and requires 
no commentary on my part.

137: “According to Herodotus the Babylonians managed to find husbands 
for all their young women. They collected together whatever maidens 
might be of marriageable years and sold them by auction, beginning with 
those esteemed the most beautiful. They gradually proceeded downwards in 
the scale of comeliness until some damsel equidistant between beauty and 
plainness had to be given away gratis. Then the plain and the ugly and 
the deformed were brought out by degrees, and the bidding went on; but 
in the other way, the premiums obtained for beauty being spent as 
dowries for the less favoured. All the women found husbands, and all the 
husbands found what they desired.”

--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA
95929

530 898 5321
fax 530 898 5901
_______________________________________________
pen-l mailing list
pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l