Why were the economies of Greece and Rome in the classical era based on small-scale peasant economies?

We know that geographical factors had a very important impact on economic and political factors in ancient times. There is even a theory called geographical determinism.

Although we cannot say whether geographical determinism is right or wrong, it is enough to illustrate the important influence of geographical factors on history. In the classical era, Greece and Rome were both in Western Europe. Their land was relatively small and scattered. It was divided by the ocean and was not conducive to the formation of centralized rule. Therefore, their geographical environment factors determine that their country cannot implement a centralized and unified management system like ancient my country. It does not say that democracy or centralism is definitely better or worse, but the overall politics in ancient Greece, Athens, and Rome were more democratic than in ancient my country. They are the birthplace of democracy.

In ancient Greece and Rome, their people did not have a large amount of land for farming, so the state form of a small country with few people determined the characteristics of their people's self-care and self-control. To be precise, in ancient Greece and Rome, those who could rule and influence others were generally nobles, because only nobles could spare so much money for management. Only nobles can participate in politics in their free time without doing housework, so most of the people are autonomous. On the one hand, it is because the land is dispersed, the country is small, and the people are scarce, making it difficult to achieve unified and centralized management. On the other hand, because they are close to the sea, and the conditions of the Korean Sea are very favorable, so people often do not settle in a certain place. The land is then passed down from generation to generation, and more and more people choose to explore overseas, trade with people in other places and exchange products.

So although the ordinary people in Athens and Rome were relatively small farmers, their small farmer economy was more open than the small farmer economy in ancient my country, because they had markets and they were more willing to exchange and trade. , and the small-scale peasant economy in ancient my country is a more pure small-scale peasant economy, because most of them are self-sufficient and relatively closed.