| | Philip A. Harland: The Economy of First-Century Palestine (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02) |
 | | Part of the difficulty in assessing the role of trade in Palestine, as with other aspects of the economy, deriving from the fact that our sources lack the qualitative and quantitative information necessary to evaluate the extent and level of trade on a local or "international" scale. |
| | Applebaum (1976:633-38, 660-61), Freyne (1980:165) and, above all, Fiensy (1991:21-73) convincingly argue that large estates were prominent and on the increase in the years preceding the 1st century and that they included both royal lands, some of which were given to loyal aristocrats as gifts, and aristocrats' large estates. |
| | The fragmentary nature of the evidence when it comes to quantifiable estimations of taxation, rents and other expenses helps to explain the difficulty in assessing the economic situation of the peasantry and the varying results of scholars on the extent of the tax burden. |
| www.philipharland.com /articlehandbook22.html (7110 words) |
