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Auctions: A Journey in the Past!

While browsing through the internet, you can come across numerous articles on auctions which explain the mechanism and the types. Some of them speak about the bad effects and some about the good. Some say about the rules and guidelines while others speak about the terminologies used in auction.

But a question lingers! When did this method of exchange start? What was its origin? Hardly anyone of us have the answers! In an attempt to find the answer, if we follow the faded footsteps and enter the lost time, we can trace the history of auction and to our utter surprise; it started somewhere around 500 B.C. According to the ancient history of Greece, the first auction took place in Babylon in 500 B.C. Held annually; these auctions were meant to sell women. A beautiful woman was sold at a high price but a woman without beauty had a negative price, i.e. a dowry was to be offered to sell a woman who was not beautiful. It was illegal to sell a daughter outside the method of auction.

The Roman Empire was never out of the clutches of auction. The Romans made use of the auction method to liquidate the seized items of war and also their personal property. The legendary 193 A.D. auctions remains the biggest ever in the entire history of mankind. Emperor Pertinax was first assassinated by Praetorian Guard and the entire Roman Empire was put on auction. The highest bidder was Didius Julianus. He gave a bid of 6,250 drachmas for each guard. He then owned the entire Roman Empire but, soon after two months, Septimius Severus invaded Rome and beheaded Didius.

The earliest references of auction in Great Britain could be traced in the Oxford Dictionary of 1595 but, the link broke and there was no trace of any auction being held between the period of late 15th century and late 17th century.

Soon after the great French Revolution in the 18th Century, auctions were held in the coffeehouses and taverns. There auctions were held for selling art. Held on a daily basis, these auctions featured the printing of catalogue having a vivid description of whatever items were available for sale.

The American Army during the American Civil War seized many goods, all of which were sold at an auction by the Colonel of the army division.

Thus, we can see that auction is not a recent phenomenon. A travel in time shows that today's modernized auctions which has to follow a set of rules and procedures. This is not our credit. We have just succeeded in building upon our inheritance that was long ago built and use by our forefathers who remain immortal in the pages of history.

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