Oil trading, arbitrage and options...in ancient Greece

Here is a little piece of useless olive oil related info useable during a rainy day winter chat. Having a penchant for economics myself, lately I stumbled into an article about economy theories. There was a reference to Thales of Miletus - if at school you listened to your math teacher, this was the guy who measured the pyramids height with a stick on a sunny day. A practical, clever person one would imagine.

In this days of general malcontent with anything related to the financial world and their instruments, it is interesting to observe that similar techniques were employed in the early days of our civilization. As a necessary intro, it is worth mentioning that at the time olive oil had the same (if not larger) economic importance that crude oil has now for our society.

Thales, the story goes, predicted a generous olive harvest for the next season and negotiated a deal with the region's mills whereas he'd have a right to use the mills for a fixed sum. Harvest time come, Thales excercised his option and, if we trust the old story, made himself quite a fortune on the delta.

I bet his philosophy classes had a surge in attendances when the news spread out...