N.J. Theocarakis writes: "the actual contribution of the ancient greek,
roman, rabbinical, islamic,
byzantine and scholastic authors on economic theory was not important.
Aristotle, Cicero, Averroes, Maimonides and Aquinas were intellectual giants
but they were not economists. Political economy is very much a European 18th
century thing."

There are scholars who hold the wisdom of ancient rulers in high regard.
See  Urbanization and Land Ownership in the Ancient Near East, ed. Michael
Hudson and Baruch Levine (Cambridge, Mass: Peabody Museum [Harvard] 1999),
and Privatization in the Ancient Near East and Classical Antiquity, ed.
Michael Hudson and Baruch Levine (Cambridge, Mass: Peabody Museum 1996).
Both volumes deal with debt and monetary issues, and provide a relevant
bibliography. The most relevant colloquium for the present is from the
Peabody Museum (2000): Debt and Clean Slates in the Ancient Near East, ed.
Michael Hudson and Mark Van De Mieroop.

Hudson, especially, praises the "clean slate" idea, as expressed in
Leviticus' year of the Jubilee, and the modern bankruptcy laws that only
recently our Congress has weakened for individuals while strengthening for
corporations.

Mason Gaffney