The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics Online

There were many ‘economies’ rather than a single ‘economy’ in ancient Greece (a culturally interlinked world, c. 800–300 BCE, stretching across the Mediterranean basin and around the Black Sea). Except in Athens, agriculture (cereals, olives, grapevines, and the raising of small-stock animals – sheep, goats, pigs) predominated over trade and industry as an economic driver. The Greeks did not invent coinage but spread it and embedded it, and although they were thoroughly familiar with the idea of markets and market prices, they did not develop a market economy.