Bronze Manufacturing

Manufacturing absorbed small numbers of workers who operated with little mechanical assistance. Of these, a significant number must have been slaves, since no free man worked for wages unless driven to it by poverty. It has been estimated that only about 500 potters and painters were active in 5th century Athens at a time when the city supplied most of the luxury tableware for the entire Greek world. Manufacturing, transport and food production demanded a broad range of skills. The stone, clay and metal trades needed quarrymen, masons, sculptors, potters, painters and foundry workers; the clothing industry, weavers, dyers and fullers; the leather trade, tanners and cobblers; construction, stone cutters, carpenters and architects; maritime transport, ship-builders, dock-loaders and sailors; food production, anything from farmers, herdsmen, bee-keepers and fishermen to bakers and cooks. Economy, (Univ. Penn.)