After the treacherous flight and some minor complications I was relieved, to say the least, to finally settle down in Florence. The city was beautiful and we were lucky enough to arrive in time to enjoy the last few days of Christmas lights decorating the streets. On our tour of the city we were able to cover a lot of ground. We started at the Duomo and continued through Florence as I got my first look at Italy’s amazing collection of grand architecture as well as it’s thriving market. The streets and squares were lively and full of things to be bought, even considering we are visiting during the off-season. I got to thinking about how the markets have evolved overtime in Florence and from what I have learned it was quite a unique system in ancient times compared to classic theories of economics. While Florence in ancient times seemed to be a perfectly competitive market with many different companies and industries participating and supplying equally I have found that in some cases even today in Italy many industries cannot be defined with such black and white ideas. I noticed a perfect example of this was a small sheep farm we visited in the hills of Tuscana. The farm was very successful in revenue but with such small supply and little demand it was hard to believe it survived in that industry. Our tour guide commented on the fact that they allocated their resources smartly and with this they were able to do well in their market. He told us this idea did not fall appropriately into the common theories of “neoclassical economics” and to analyze the reasons for their success it you would have to look outside the box just the same as the case in ancient Florence.
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