Babylonia, as we have seen, was essentially an industrial country. In
spite of its agricultural basis and the vast army of slaves with which it
was filled, it was essentially a land of trades and manufactures. Its
manufacturing fame was remembered into classical days. One of the rooms in
the palace of Nero was hung with Babylonian tapestries, which had cost
four millions of sesterces, or more than £32,000, and Cato, it is said,
sold a Babylonian mantle because it was too costly and splendid for a
Roman to wear. The wool of which the cloths and rugs of Babylonia were
made was derived from the flocks which fed on the banks of the Euphrates,
and a large body of artisans was employed in weaving it into tapestries
and curtains, robes and carpets. They were woven in bright and
vari-colored patterns; the figures of men and animals were depicted upon
them and the bas-relief or fresco could be replaced upon the wall by a
picture in tapestry. The dyes were mainly vegetable, though the kermes or
cochineal-insect, out of which the precious scarlet dye was extracted, was
brought from the neighborhood of the Indus. So at least Ktesias states in
the age of the Persian empire; and since teak was found by Mr. Taylor
among the ruins of Ur, it is probable that intercourse with the western
coast of India went back to an early date. Indeed an old bilingual list of
clothing gives _sindhu_ as the name of a material which is explained to be
“vegetable wool;” in this we must see the cotton which in the classical
epoch was imported from the island of Tylos, in the Persian Gulf, but
which, as its name declares, must have originally been “the Indian” plant.
The looms and weavers of Babylonia are, as is natural, repeatedly referred
to in the contracts, many of which, moreover, relate to the sale and
purchase of wool. One of them even shows us Belshazzar, the son and
heir-apparent of the King Nabonidos, as a wool-merchant on a considerable
scale. “The sum of 20 manehs for wool,” it says, “the property of
Belshazzar, the son of the king, which has been handed over to
Iddin-Merodach, the son of Basa, the son of Nur-Sin, through the agency of
Nebo-zabit, the servant of the house of Belshazzar, the son of the king,
and the secretaries of the son of the king. In the month Adar (February)
of the eleventh year (of Nabonidos) the debtor shall pay the money, 20
manehs. The house of —— the Persian and all the property of Iddin-Merodach
in town and country shall be the security of Belshazzar, the son of the
king, until he shall pay in full the money aforesaid. The money which
shall (meanwhile) accrue upon (the wool) he shall pay as interest.” Then
follow the names of five witnesses and a priest, as well as the date and
the place of registration. This was Babylon, and the priest,
Bel-akhi-iddin, who helped to witness the deed was a brother of Nabonidos
and consequently the uncle of Belshazzar.
The weight of the wool that was sold is unfortunately not stated. But
considering that 20 manehs, or £180, was paid for it, there must have been
a considerable amount of it. In the reign of Cambyses the amount of wool
needed for the robe of the image of the Sun-goddess  was as much as 5
manehs 5 shekels in weight. Wealthy land-owners kept large flocks of
sheep, chiefly for the sake of their wool. Their prices varied greatly.
Thus in the fourth year of Nabonidos, 6 shekels, or 18s., were given for a
sheep, while in the thirteenth year of the same King, 18 sheep fetched
only 35 shekels, or less than 6s., each. In the first year of Cyrus, 6
lambs were sold for 8¼ shekels, and 5 other lambs for 7¼ shekels, while 1
sheep cost only one shekel and a quarter; in his sixth year the price of a
single sheep had risen to 4 shekels (12s.). Under Cambyses we find sheep
selling for 7 and 7¼ shekels apiece. In the eighth year of Nabonidos, 100
sheep were sold for 50 shekels after they had been slaughtered; it is
clear, therefore, that the dead animal was considered less valuable than
the living one.
On the other hand, sheep cost a good deal to feed when the grazing season
was over, and they had to be fed “in the stall.” A document dated in the
seventh year of Cyrus states that 32 sheep required each day 1 _pi_ 28
_qas_ (or about 95 quarts) of grain, while 160 full-grown animals consumed
daily 4 _pi_ 16 _qas_, or more than 240 quarts. In the reign of Cambyses 1
_pi_ 4 _qas_ of fodder were needed daily for 20 old sheep, 100 _qas_ for
100 younger sheep, and the same amount also for 200 lambs. At this time 2
_pi_ of grain cost 6½ shekels; consequently the cost of keeping the 20 old
sheep alone was about 10s 6d. a day. To this had to be added the wages of
the shepherds, who were free Bedâwin. Hence, it is not wonderful that the
owner demanded 7 shekels, or 21s., for the sheep he had to sell.
In the _Edin_ or “field,” however, their keep came to but little. The
pasturage was common property, and it was only the wages of the Aramean
shepherds who looked after the flock which involved an outlay. The five
shepherds who, in the tenth year of Nabonidos, were paid for their
services by the overseer of the royal flocks in the town of Ruzabu
received 30 shekels of silver and a _gur_ of grain. The _gur_ contained
180 _qas_, and since in the first year of Cyrus two men received 2 _pi_ 30
_qas_, or 102 _qas_, of grain for their support during a month of thirty
days, we may, perhaps, infer that the wages were intended to cover the
third part of a month. In this case each man would have been paid at the
rate of 9 shekels, or 37s., a month. It is, however, possible that the
wages were really intended for the full month. The ancient Greeks
considered a quart of wheat a sufficient daily allowance for a grown man,
and 180 _qas_ would mean about 1⅗ of a quart a day for each man.
We may gather from a contract dated the 5th of Sivan in the eighteenth
year of Darius that it was not customary to pay for any sheep that were
sold until they had been driven into the city, the cost of doing so being
included in the price. The contract is as follows: “One hundred sheep of
the house of Akhabtum, the mother of Sa-Bel-iddin, the servant of
Bel-sunu, that have been sold to La-Bel, the son of Khabdiya, on the 10th
day of the month Ab in the eighteenth year of Darius the king: The sheep,
200 in number, must be brought into Babylon and delivered to Supêsu, the
servant of Sa-Bel-iddin. If 15 manehs of silver are not paid for the sheep
on the 10th of Ab, they must be paid on 20th of the month. If the money,
amounting to 15 manehs, is not paid, then interest shall be paid according
to this agreement at the rate of one shekel for each maneh per month.”
Then come the names of eight witnesses and a priest, the date, and the
place of registration, which was a town called Tsikhu.
The contract is interesting from several points of view. The sheep, it
will be seen, belonged to a woman, and not to her son, who was “the
servant” of a Babylonian gentleman and had another “servant” who acted as
his agent at Babylon. The father of the purchaser of the sheep bears the
Hebrew name of ’Abdî, which is transcribed into Babylonian in the usual
fashion, and the name of the purchaser himself, which may be translated
“(There is) no Bel,” may imply that he was a Jew. Akhabtum and her son
were doubtless Arameans, and it is noticeable that the latter is termed a
“servant” and not a “slave.”
Before entering the city an _octroi_ duty had to be paid upon the sheep as
upon other produce of the country. The custom-house was at the gate, and
the duty is accordingly called “gate-money” in the contracts. In front of
the gate was an open space, the _rébit_, such as may still be seen at the
entrance to an Oriental town, and which was used as a market-place. The
_rébit_ of Nineveh lay on the north side of the city, in the direction
where Sargon built his palace, the ruins of which are now known as
Khorsabad. But besides the market-place outside the walls there were also
open spaces inside them where markets could be held and sheep and cattle
sold. Babylon, it would seem, was full of such public “squares,” and so,
too, was Nineveh. The _suqi_ or “streets” led into them, long, narrow
lanes through which a chariot or cart could be driven with difficulty.
Here and there, however, there were streets of a broader and better
character, called _suli_, which originally denoted the raised and paved
ascents which led to a temple. It was along these that the religious
processions were conducted, and the King and his generals passed over them
in triumph after a victory. One of these main streets, called Â-ibur-sabu,
intersected Babylon; it was constructed of brick by Nebuchadnezzar, paved
with large slabs of stone, and raised to a considerable height. It started
from the principal gate of the city, and after passing Ê-Saggil, the great
temple of Bel-Merodach, was carried as far as the sanctuary of Istar. When
Assur-bani-pal’s army captured Babylon, after a long siege, the
“mercy-seats” of the gods and the paved roads were “cleansed” by order of
the Assyrian King and the advice of “the prophets,” while the ordinary
streets and lanes were left to themselves.
It was in these latter streets, however, that the shops and bazaars were
situated. Here the trade of the country was carried on in shops which
possessed no windows, but were sheltered from the sun by awnings that were
stretched across the street. Behind the shops were magazines and
store-houses, as well as the rooms in which the larger industries, like
that of weaving, were carried on. The scavengers of the streets were
probably dogs. As early as the time of Khammurabi, however, there were
officers termed _rabiani_, whose duty it was to look after “the city, the
walls, and the streets.” The streets, moreover, had separate names.
Here and there “beer-houses” were to be found, answering to the
public-houses of to-day, as well as regular inns. The beer-houses are not
infrequently alluded to in the texts, and a deed relating to the purchase
of a house in Sippara, of the age of Khammurabi, mentions one that was in
a sort of underground cellar, like some of the beer-houses of modern
Germany.
Sippara lay on both sides of the Euphrates, like Babylon, and its two
halves were probably connected by a pontoon-bridge, as we know was the
case at Babylon. Tolls were levied for passing over the latter, and
probably also for passing under it in boats. At all events a document
translated by Mr. Pinches shows that the quay-duties were paid into the
same department of the government as the tolls derived from the bridge.
The document, which is dated in the twenty-sixth year of Darius, is so
interesting that it may be quoted in full: “The revenue derived from the
bridge and the quays, and the guard-house, which is under the control of
Guzanu, the captain of Babylon, of which Sirku, the son of Iddinâ, has
charge, besides the amount derived from the tolls levied at the bridge of
Guzanu, the captain of Babylon, of which Muranu, the son of Nebo-kin-abli,
and Nebo-bullidhsu, the son of Guzanu, have charge: Kharitsanu and Iqubu
(Jacob) and Nergal-ibni are the watchmen of the bridge. Sirku, the son of
Iddinâ, the son of Egibi, and Muranu, the son of Nebo-kin-abli, the son of
the watchman of the pontoon, have paid to Bel-asûa, the son of
Nergal-yubal-lidh, the son of Mudammiq-Rimmon, and Ubaru, the son of
Bel-akhi-erba, the son of the watchman of the pontoon, as dues for a
month, 15 shekels of white silver, in one-shekel pieces and coined.
Bel-asûa and Ubaru shall guard the ships which are moored under the
bridge. Muranu and his trustees, Bel-asûa and Ubaru, shall not pay the
money derived from the tolls levied at the bridge, which is due each month
from Sirku in the absence of the latter. All the traffic over the bridge
shall be reported by Bel-asûa and Ubaru to Sirku and the watchmen of the
bridge.”
House-property was valuable, especially if it included shops. As far back
as the reign of Eri-Aku, or Arisch, 2¼ shekels were given for one which
stood on a piece of ground only 1⅚ _sar_ in area, the _sar_, if Dr.
Reisner is right, being the eighteen-hundredths part of the _feddan_ or
acre. In the twentieth year of Assur-bani-pal, just after a war which had
desolated Babylonia, a house was sold in the provincial town of Erech for
75 shekels (£11 5s.), and in the beginning of the reign of Nabonidos a
carpenter’s shop in Borsippa, the suburb of Babylon, which was not more
than 7 rods, 5 cubits, and 18 inches in length, was bought by the agent of
the Syrian Ben-Hadad-nathan and his wife for 11½ manehs, or £103 10s. On
the other hand, in the reign of Cambyses, we hear of smaller prices being
given for houses in Babylon, 4½ manehs for a house with a piece of land
attached to it, and 2 manehs for one that had been the joint property of a
man and his wife; while in the ninth year of Nergal-sharezer a house was
sold for only 52½ shekels.
Houses, however, were more frequently let than sold. Already, in the age
of Khammurabi, we have the record of the lease of a house for eight years.
At a later date contracts relating to the renting of houses are numerous.
Thus in the sixth year of Cyrus a house was let at a yearly rent of 10
shekels, part of which was to be paid at the beginning of the year and the
rest in the middle of it. The tenant was to renew the fences when
necessary and repair all dilapidations. He was also expected to send a
present to his landlord thrice a year in the months of Nisan, Tammuz, and
Kisleu. Other houses in Babylon in the Persian age were let at yearly
rents of 5 shekels, 5½ shekels, 7½ shekels, 9 shekels, 15 shekels, 20
shekels, 23 shekels, and 35 shekels, the leases running for two, three,
five, and more years. The tenant usually undertook to keep the property in
repair and to make good all dilapidations. Loss in case of fire or other
accidents also fell upon him. Most of the houses seem to have been
inhabited by single families; but there were tenements or flats as well,
the rent of which was naturally lower than that of a whole house. Thus we
find a woman paying only 2 shekels, or 6s., a year for a tenement in the
reign of Cambyses.
Any violation of the lease involved a fine, the amount of which was stated
in the contract. A house, for instance, was let at Babylon in the first
year of Cambyses for 5 shekels a year, the rent to be paid in two halves
“at the beginning and in the middle of the year.” In this case a breach of
the contract was to be punished by a fine of 10 shekels, or double the
amount of the rent. In other cases the fine was as much as a maneh of
silver.
Occasionally the primitive custom was retained of paying the rent in kind
instead of in coin. We even hear of “six overcoats” being taken in lieu of
rent. The rent of a house might also take the place of interest upon a
loan, and the property be handed over to the creditor as security for a
debt. Thus in the second and last year of the reign of Evil-Merodach (560
B.C.), and on the fourth of the month Ab, the following agreement was
drawn up at Babylon: “Four manehs of silver belonging to Nadin-akhi, the
son of Nur-Ea, the son of Masdukku, received from Sapik-zeri, the son of
Merodach-nazir, the son of Liu-Merodach. The house of Sapik-zeri, which is
in the street Khuburru, and adjoins the houses of Rimut-Bel, the son of
Zeriya, the son of the Egyptian, and of Zeriya, the son of Bel-edheru,
shall be handed over as security to Nadin-akhi. No rent shall be paid for
it, and no interest demanded for the debt. Sapik-zeri shall have it for
three years. He must renew the fences and repair all injuries to the
walls. At the end of the three years Sapik-zeri shall repay the
money—namely, four manehs—to Nadin-akhi, and the latter shall vacate the
house. The rent of the warehouse of the eunuch is included, of which
Sapik-zeri enjoys the use. Whatever doors Nadin-akhi may have added to the
house during his tenancy he shall take away.” Then come the names of three
witnesses, one of them being the brother of the creditor, as well as of
the clerk who drew up the document.
A few years later, in the fifth year of Nabonidos (551 B.C.), we find the
heir-apparent, Belshazzar, receiving house-property on similar terms. “The
house of Nebo-akhi-iddin, the son of Sula, the son of Egibi,” we read,
“which adjoins the house of Bel-iddin, the son of Birrut, the son of the
life-guardsman, is handed over for three years as security for a loan of
1½ manehs to Nebo-kin-akhi, the agent of Belshazzar, the son of the king,
on the following conditions: no rent shall be paid for the house, and no
interest paid on the debt. The tenant shall renew the fences and make good
all dilapidations. At the end of three years the 1½ manehs shall be paid
by Nebo-akhi-iddin to Nebo-kin-akhi, and Nebo-kin-akhi shall vacate the
house of Nebo-akhi-iddin. Witnessed by Kab-tiya, the son of Talnea, the
son of Egibi; by Sapik-zeri, the son of Nergal-yukin, the son of
Sin-karab-seme; by Nebo-zer-ibni, the son of Ardia, and the clerk,
Bel-akhi-iqisa, the son of Nebo-balasu-ikbi, at Babylon, the 21st day of
Nisam (March) and the fifth year of Nabonidos, King of Babylon.”
This was not the only transaction of the kind in which Belshazzar appears,
though it is true that his business was carried on by means of agents. Six
years later we have another contract relating to his commercial dealings
which has already been quoted above. It illustrates the intensely
commercial spirit of the Babylonians, and we may form some idea of the
high estimation in which trade was held when we see the eldest son of the
reigning King acting as a wool merchant and carrying on business like an
ordinary merchant.
An interesting document, drawn up in Babylonia in the eleventh year of
Sargon (710 B.C.), shortly after the overthrow of Merodach-Baladan,
contains an account of a lawsuit which resulted from the purchase of two
“ruined houses” in Dur-ilu, a town on the frontier of Elam. They had been
purchased by a certain Nebo-liu for 85 shekels, with the intention of
pulling them down and erecting new buildings on the site. In order to pay
the purchase money Nebo-liu demanded back from “Bel-usatu, the son of
Ipunu,” the sum of 30 shekels which he claimed to have lent him. Bel-usatu
at first denied the claim, and the matter was brought into court. There
judgment was given in favor of the plaintiff, and the defendant was
ordered to pay him 45 shekels, 15, or half the amount claimed, being for
“costs.” Thereupon Bel-usatu proposed:
“ ‘Instead of the money, take my houses, which are in the town of Der.’
The title-deeds of these houses, the longer side of which was bounded to
the east by the house of Bea, the son of Sulâ, and to the west by the
entrance to a field which partly belonged to the property, while the
shorter side was bounded to the north by the house of Ittabsi, and to the
south by the house of Likimmâ, were signed and sealed by Nebo-usatu, who
pledged himself not to retract the deed or make any subsequent claim, and
they were then handed over to Nebo-liu.” The troubles of the latter,
however, were not yet at an end. “Ilu-rabu-bel-sanât, Sennacherib, and
Labasu, the sons of Rakhaz the [priest] of the great god, said to
Nebo-liu: ‘Seventy-three shekels of your money you have received from our
father. Give us, therefore, 50 shekels and we will deliver to you the
house and its garden which belonged to our father.’ The house, which was
fit only to be pulled down and rebuilt, along with a grove of forty
date-bearing palms, was situated on the bank of the canal of Dûtu in
Dur-ilu, its longer side adjoining on the north the house of Edheru, the
son of Baniya, the priest of Â, and on the south the canal of Dûtu, while
its shorter side was bounded on the east by the house of Nergal-epus, and
on the west by the street Mutaqutu. Nebo-liu agreed, and looked out and
gave Rakhaz and his sons 50 shekels of silver, together with an overcoat
and two shekels by way of a _bakshish_ to bind the bargain, the whole
amounting to 52 shekels, paid in full.” The custom of adding a _bakshish_
or “present” to the purchase-money at the conclusion of a bargain is still
characteristic of the East. Other examples of it are met with in the
Babylonian contracts, and prove how immemorially old it is. Thus in the
second year of Darius, when the three sons of a “smith” sold a house near
the Gate of Zamama, at Babylon, to the grandson of another “smith,”
besides the purchase money for the house, which amounted to 67½ shekels,
the buyer gave in addition a _bakshish_ of 2½ shekels (7s. 6d.) as well as
“a dress for the lady of the house.” Three shekels were further given as
“a present” for sealing the deed. So too, the negotiations for the sale of
some land in the second year of Evil-Merodach were accompanied by a
_bakshish_ of 5 shekels.
Lawsuits connected with the sale or lease of houses do not seem to have
been uncommon. One of the documents which have come down to us from the
ancient records of Babylon is a list of “the judges before whom
Sapik-zeri, the son of Zirutu, and Baladhu, the son of Nasikatum, the
slave of the secretary for the Marshlands,” were called upon to appear in
a suit relating to “the house and deed which Zirutu, the father of
Sapik-zeri, had sealed and given to Baladhu,” who had afterward handed
both of them over to Sapik-zeri. Among the judges we find the governor of
the Marshlands, who acted as president, the sub-governor, the mayor of
Erech, the priest of Ur, and one of the governors of the district “beyond”
the Euphrates. The list is dated the 6th of Nisan or March, in the
seventeenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.
The value of land was proportionate to that of house-property. In the
early days of Babylonia its value was fixed by the amount of grain that
could be grown upon it, and it was accordingly in grain that the owner was
paid by the purchaser or lessee. Gradually, however, a metal currency took
the place of the grain, and in the later age of Babylonian history even
the rent was but rarely paid in kind. We learn from a lawsuit decided in
the reign of Samsu-iluna, the son of Khammurabi, that it was customary for
an estate to be “paced round” by the _rabianum_ or “magistrates” of the
city. The ceremony was equivalent to “beating the bounds” of a parish in
modern England, and it is probable that it was performed every year. Such
at least is the custom in Egypt, where the limits of a piece of property
are measured and fixed annually. The Babylonian document in which the
custom is referred to relates to a dispute about a plantation of acacias
which grew in the neighborhood of the modern Tel Sifr. The magistrates,
before whom it was brought, are described as looking after not only the
city but also “the walls and streets,” from which we may gather that
municipal commissioners already existed in the Babylonian towns. The
plaintiff made oath before them over the copper libation-bowl of the god
of Boundaries, which thus took the place of the Bible in an English court
of law.
A few years later, in the reign of Ammi-zadok, three men rented a field
for three years on terms of partnership, agreeing to give the owner during
the first two years 1 _gur_ of grain upon each _feddan_ or acre. The whole
of the third harvest was to go to the lessees, and the partners were to
divide the crop in equal shares “on the day of the harvest.”
When we come to the twelfth century B.C., however, the maneh and shekel
have been substituted for the crops of the field. Thus we hear of 704
shekels and a fraction being paid for a field which was calculated to
produce 3 _gur_ of corn, and of 110 shekels being given for another estate
which contained a grove of date-palms and on which 2 _gur_ of grain were
sown. How much grain could be grown on a piece of land we can gather from
the official reports of the cadastral survey. In the sixth year of Cyrus,
for example, the following report was drawn up of the “measurement of a
corn-field and of the corn in the ear” belonging to a Babylonian taxpayer:
Length of Length of Amount of Value in Tenant.
the field on the field on crop. grain.
its longer its narrower
side. side.
1020 395 13 _gur_, 18 Each 25 Nadbanu.
_qa_, of _gur_ is
which 1 worth 300
_gur_, 18 _gur_ of
_qa_, are grain.
destroyed.
540 550 10 _gur_, 2 Each 20 Arad-Bel.
_pi_, 29 _gur_ is
_qa_, of worth 130
which 3 _gur_.
_gur_ are
destroyed.
The cadastral survey for purposes of taxation went back to an early period
of Babylonian history. It was already at work in the age of Sargon of
Akkad. The survey of the district or principality of Lagas (now Tello)
which was drawn up in that remote epoch of history is in our hands, and is
interesting on account of its reference to a “governor” of the land of the
Amorites, or Canaan, who bears the Canaanitish name of Urimelech. The
survey states that the district in question contained 39,694 acres, 1,325
_sar_, as well as 17 large towns and 8 subdivisions.
Another cadastral survey from Lagas, but of the period of Khammurabi,
which has recently been published by Dr. Scheil, tells us that the towns
on the lower banks of “the canal of Lagas” had to pay the treasury each
year 35⅚ shekels of silver according to the assessment of the
tax-collector Sin-mustal. One of the towns was that of the Aramean tribe
of Pekod. Another is called the town of the Brewers, and another is
described as “the Copper-Foundry.” Most of the towns were assessed at half
a shekel, though there were some which had to pay a shekel and more. Among
the latter was the town of Ninâ, which gave its name to the more famous
Nineveh on the Tigris. The surveyor, it should be added, was an important
personage in Babylonian society, and the contract tablets of the second
Babylonian empire not unfrequently mention him.
Assyria, like Babylonia, has yielded us a good many deeds relating to the
sale and lease of houses and landed estate. We can estimate from them the
average value of house-property in Nineveh in the time of the second
Assyrian empire, when the wealth of the Eastern world was being poured
into it and the Assyrian kings were striving to divert the trade of
Phœnicia into their own hands. Thus, in 694 B.C., a house with two doors
was sold for 3 manehs 20 shekels, and two years subsequently another which
adjoined it was purchased for 1 maneh “according to the royal standard.”
The contract for the sale is a good example of what an Assyrian deed of
sale in such a case was like. “The nail-marks of Sar-ludari, Akhassuru,
and Amat-Suhla, the wife of Bel-suri, the official, the son of the priest,
and owner of the house which is sold. The house, which is in thorough
repair, with its woodwork, doors, and court, situated in the city of
Nineveh and adjoining the houses of Mannu-ki-akhi and Ilu-ittiya and the
street _Sipru_, has been negotiated for by Zil-Assur, the Egyptian
secretary. He has bought it for 1 maneh of silver according to the royal
standard from Sar-ludari, Akhassuru, and Amat-Suhla, the wife of Bel-duri.
The money has been paid in full, and the house received as bought.
Withdrawal from the contract, lawsuits, and claims are hereby excluded.
Whoever hereafter at any time, whether these men or others, shall bring an
action and claims against Zil-Assur, shall be fined 10 manehs of silver.
Witnessed by Susanqu-khatna-nis, Murmaza the official, Rasuh the sailor,
Nebo-dur-uzur the champion, Murmaza the naval captain, Sin-sar-uzur, and
Zidqa (Zedekiah). The sixteenth of Sivan during the year of office of
Zaza, the governor of Arpad (692 B.C.).” It is noticeable that the first
witness has a Syrian name.
One of the characteristics of the Assyrian deeds is that so few of the
parties who appear in them are able to write their names. Nail-marks take
the place of seals even in the case of persons who hold official positions
and who are shown by the contracts to have been men of property. In this
respect Assyria offers a striking contrast to Babylonia, where “the
nail-mark” seldom makes its appearance. Closely connected with this
inability to write is the absence of the seal-cylinder, which was part of
the ordinary dress of the Babylonian gentleman. In the Assyrian contracts,
on the other hand, it is conspicuous by its absence. The use of it in
Assyria was an imitation of Babylonian manners, and was confined for the
most part to the scribes and higher official class, who had received a
literary education.
Land in Assyria was measured by homers rather than by _feddans_ or acres
as in Babylonia. In 674 B.C. an estate of 35 homers, in the town of Sairi,
was sold for 5 manehs, any infringement of the contract being punished by
a fine of 10 manehs of silver or one of gold, to be paid into the treasury
of the temple of Istar. We learn incidentally from this that the value of
gold to silver at the time was as one to ten. Five years previously 6
homers of land in another small Assyrian town had been let at an annual
rent of 1 maneh of silver “according to the standard of Carchemish.” In
the reign of Assur-bani-pal a homer of corn-land was rented for six years
for 10 shekels a year. The land was calculated to produce 9 _qas_ of
grain, and at the end of the first three years it was stipulated that
there should be a rotation of crops. About the same time two fields,
enclosing an area of 3⅔ homers, were leased by a certain Rimu-ana-Bel of
Beth-Abimelech, whose father’s name, Yatanael, shows that he was of Syrian
origin. The steward of “the son of a king” took them for six years at an
annual rent of 12 shekels. One of the fields contained a well, and yielded
15 _qas_ of grain to each homer. It is stated in the contract that the
fields had no mortgage upon them, and that the lessee had a right to the
whole of the crop which they produced.
It was not in Assyria only that plots of ground could be leased and sold
in accordance with the provisions of Assyrian law. Conquest had brought
landed property into the hands of Assyrians in other parts of the Eastern
world, and it could be put up to auction at Nineveh, where the proprietors
lived. About 660 B.C., for instance, a considerable estate was thus sold
in the oasis of Singara, in the centre of Mesopotamia. It lay within the
precincts of the temple of Istar, and contained a grove of 1,000 young
palms. It included, moreover, a field of 2 homers planted with terebinths,
house-property extending over 6 homers, a house with a corn-field attached
to it, and another house which stood in the grove of Yarkhu, the Moon-god.
The whole was sold for 4 shekels of silver “according to the standard of
Carchemish,” and the penalty for any infringement of the contract was
again to be the payment of a maneh of gold (£90) to the treasury of the
goddess Istar. When one of the parties to the contract was of Aramean
descent, it was usual to add an explanatory docket in Aramaic to the deed
of sale. Indeed, this seems to have been sometimes done even where there
were no Arameans in the case, so thoroughly had Aramaic become the common
language of trade. Thus in the year of Sennacherib’s office as eponym (687
B.C.) we hear of the sale of three shops in Nineveh on the part of a
certain Dain-kurban, whose name is written in Aramaic letters on the outer
envelope of the deed of sale. Thirty shekels were paid for them, and a
fine of 10 manehs imposed upon anyone who should attempt to invalidate the
sale. The shops seem to have been situated in the Syrian quarter of the
city, as we are told that they were opposite the tenement of Nakharau,
“the man of Nahor.”
It will have been noticed how frequently it is stated that a “plantation”
or grove of palms is attached to the house or field which is rented and
sold. In Babylonia, in fact, an estate was not considered complete without
its garden, which almost invariably included a clump of palms. The
date-palm was the staple of the country. It was almost the only tree which
grew there, and it grew in marvellous abundance. Stem, leaves, and fruit
were all alike turned to use. The columns and roofing-beams of the temples
and houses were made of its stem, which was also employed for bonding the
brick walls of the cities. Its fibres were twisted into ropes, its leaves
woven into baskets. The fruit it bore was utilized in many ways. Sometimes
the dates were eaten fresh, at other times they were dried and exported to
foreign lands; out of some of them wine was made, out of others a rich and
luscious sugar. It was little wonder that the Babylonian regarded the palm
as the best gift that Nature had bestowed upon him. Palm-land necessarily
fetched a higher price than corn-land, and we may conclude, from a
contract of the third year of Cyrus, that its valuation was seven and
one-half times greater.
Trade partnerships were common, and even commercial companies were not
unknown. The great banking and money-lending firm which was known in
Babylonia under the name of its founder, Egibi, and from which so many of
the contract-tablets have been derived, was an example of the latter. It
lasted through several generations and seems to have been but little
affected by the political revolutions and changes which took place at
Babylon. It saw the rise and fall of the empire of Nebuchadnezzar, and
flourished quite as much under the Persian as under the native kings.
As far back as the reign of Samsu-iluna we find women entering into
partnership with men for business purposes on a footing of absolute
equality. A certain Amat-Samas, for instance, a devotee of the Sun-god,
did so with two men in order to trade with a maneh of silver which had
been borrowed from the treasury of the god. It was stipulated in the deed
which was indentured when the partnership was made that in case of
disagreement the capital and interest accruing from it were to be divided
in equal shares among the three partners.
In the later Babylonian period the contract was drawn up in much the same
form, though with a little more detail. In the report of a trial dated the
eighth day of Sebat or January, in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar
II., we have the following reference to one that had been made twenty-one
years before: “A partnership was entered into between Nebo-yukin-abla and
his son Nebo-bel-sunu on the one side and Musezib-Bel on the other, which
lasted from the eighteenth year of Nabopolassar, King of Babylon, to the
eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. The contract was produced before the
judge of the judges. Fifty shekels of silver were adjudged to
Nebo-bel-sunu and his father Nebo-yukin-abla. No further agreement or
partnership exists between the two parties.… They have ended their
contract with one another. All former obligations in their names are
rescinded.”
One of the latest Babylonian deeds of partnership that have come down to
us is dated in the fifth year of Xerxes. It begins with the statement that
“Bel-edheru, son of Nergal-edheru and Ribâta, son of Kasmani, have entered
into partnership with one another, contributing severally toward it 2½
manehs of silver in stamped shekel-pieces and half a maneh of silver, also
in stamped shekel-pieces. Whatever profits Ribâta shall make on the
capital—namely, the 3 manehs in stamped shekel-pieces—whether in town or
country, [he shall divide with] Bel-edheru proportionally to the share of
the latter in the business. When the partnership is dissolved he shall
repay to Bel-edheru the [2½] manehs contributed by him. Ribâta, son of
Kasmani, undertakes all responsibility for the money.” Then come the names
of six witnesses.
Money, however, was not the only subject of a deed of partnership. Houses
and other property could be bought and sold and traded with in common.
Thus we hear of Itti-Merodach-baladh, the grandson of “the Egyptian,” and
Merodach-sapik-zeri starting as partners with a capital of 5 manehs of
silver and 130 empty barrels, two slaves acting as agents, and on another
occasion we find it stipulated that “200 barrels full of good beer, 20
empty barrels, 10 cups and saucers, 90 _gur_ of dates in the storehouse,
15 _gur_ of chickpease (?), and 14 sheep, besides the profits from the
shop and whatever else Bel-sunu has accumulated, shall be shared between
him” and his partner.
The partners usually contributed in equal parts to the business, and the
profits were divided equally among them. Where this was not the case,
provision was made for a proportionate distribution of profit and loss.
All profits were included, whether made, to use the language of Babylonian
law, “in town or country.” The partnership was generally entered into for
a fixed term of years, but could be terminated sooner by death or by
agreement. One of the partners could be represented by an agent, who was
often a slave; in some instances we hear of the wife taking the place of
her husband or other relation during his absence from home. Thus in a deed
dated in the second year of Nergal-sharezer (559 B.C.) we read: “As long
as Pani-Nebo-dhemi, the brother of Ili-qanua, does not return from his
travels, Burasu, the wife of Ili-qanua, shall share in the business of
Ili-qanua, in the place of Pani-Nebo-dhemi. When Pani-Nebo-dhemi returns
she shall leave Ili-qanua and hand over the share to Pani-Nebo-dhemi.” As
one of the witnesses to the document is a “minister of the king” who bears
the Syrian name of Salammanu, or Solomon the son of Baal-tammuh, it is
possible that Pani-Nebo-dhemi was a Syrian merchant whose business obliged
him to reside in a foreign country.
That partnerships in Babylonia were originally made for the sake of
foreign trade seems probable from the name given to them. This is
_kharran_, which properly means a “road” or “caravan.” The earliest
partners in trade would have been the members of a caravan, who clubbed
together to travel and traffic in foreign lands and to defend themselves
in common from the perils of the journey.
The products of the Babylonian looms must have been among the first
objects which were thus sent abroad. We have already described the
extensive industry which brought wealth into Babylonia and made it from
the earliest ages the centre of the trade in rugs and tapestries, cloths
and clothing. A large part of the industrial population of the country
must have been employed in the factories and shops where the woven and
embroidered fabrics were produced and made ready for sale. Long lists
exist giving the names of the various articles of dress which were thus
manufactured. The goodly “Babylonish garment” carried off by Achan from
the sack of Jericho was but one of the many which found their way each
year to the shores of the Mediterranean.
The trades of the dyer and the fuller flourished by the side of that of
the cloth-maker. So, too, did the trade of the tanner, leather being much
used and finely worked. The shoes of the Babylonian ladies were famous;
and the saddles of the horses were made with elaborate care.
The smith, too, occupied an honorable position. In the earlier period of
Babylonian history, gold, silver, copper, and bronze were the metals which
he manufactured into arms, utensils, and ornaments. At a later date,
however, iron also came to be extensively used, though probably not before
the sixteenth century B.C. The use of bronze, moreover, does not seem to
go back much beyond the age of Sargon of Akkad; at all events, the oldest
metal tools and weapons found at Tello are of copper, without any
admixture of tin. Most of the copper came from the mines of the Sinaitic
Peninsula, though the metal was also found in Cyprus, to which reference
appears to be made in the annals of Sargon. The tin was brought from a
much greater distance. Indeed, it would seem that the nearest sources for
it—at any rate in sufficient quantities for the bronze of the Oriental
world—were India and the Malayan Peninsula on the one hand, and the
southern extremity of Cornwall on the other. It is not surprising,
therefore, that it should have been rare and expensive, and that
consequently it was long before copper was superseded by the harder
bronze. Means, however, were found for hardening the copper when it was
used, and copper tools were employed to cut even the hardest of stones.
The metal, after being melted, was run into moulds of stone or clay. It
was in this way that most of the gold and silver ornaments were
manufactured which we see represented in the sculptures. Stone moulds for
ear-rings have been found on the site of Nineveh, and the inscriptions
contain many references to jewelry. The gold was also worked by the hand
into beaded patterns, or incised like the silver seals, some of which have
come down to us. Most of the gold was originally brought from the north;
in the fifteenth century before our era the gold mines in the desert on
the eastern side of Egypt provided the precious metal for the nations of
Western Asia.
A document found among the records of the trading firm of Murasu at
Nippur, in the fifth century B.C., shows that the goldsmith was required
to warrant the excellence of his work before handing it over to the
customer, and it may be presumed that the same rule held good for other
trades also. The document in question is a guarantee that an emerald has
been so well set in a ring as not to drop out for twenty years, and has
been translated as follows by Professor Hilprecht: “Bel-akh-iddina and
Bel-sunu, the sons of Bel, and Khatin, the son of Bazuzu, have made the
following declaration to Bel-nadin-sumu, the son of Murasu: As to the gold
ring set with an emerald, we guarantee that for twenty years the emerald
will not fall out of the ring. If it should fall out before the end of
twenty years, Bel-akh-iddina [and the two others] shall pay Bel-nadin-sumu
an indemnity of ten manehs of silver.” Then come the names of seven
witnesses and of the clerk who drew up the deed, and the artisans add
their nail-marks in place of seals.
Many of the articles of daily use in the houses of the people, such as
knives, tools of all kinds, bowls, dishes, and the like, were made of
copper or bronze. They were, however, somewhat expensive, and as late as
the reign of Cambyses we find that a copper libation-bowl and cup cost as
much as 4 manehs 9 shekels, (£37 7s.), and about the same time 22 shekels
(£3 3s.) were paid for two copper bowls 7½ manehs in weight. If the weight
in this case were equivalent to that of the silver maneh the cost would
have been nearly 4d. per ounce. It must be remembered that, as in the
modern East, the workman expected the metal to be furnished by his
customer; and accordingly we hear of 3 manehs of iron being given to a
smith to be made into rods for bows. Three manehs of iron were also
considered sufficient for the manufacture of six swords, two oboe-rings,
and two bolts. All this, of course, belongs to the age of the second
Babylonian empire, when iron had taken the place of bronze.
The carpenter’s trade is another handicraft to which there is frequent
allusion in the texts. Already, before the days of Sargon of Akkad, beams
of wood were fetched from distant lands for the temples and palaces of
Chaldea. Cedar was brought from the mountains of Amanus and Lebanon, and
other trees from Elam. The palm could be used for purely architectural
purposes, for boarding the crude bricks of the walls together, or to serve
as the rafters of the roof, but it was unsuitable for doors or for the
wooden panels with which the chambers of the temple or palace were often
lined. For such purposes the cedar was considered best, and burnt panels
of it have been found in the sanctuary of Ingurisa at Tello. Down to the
latest days panels of wood were valuable in Babylonia, and we find it
stipulated in the leases of houses that the lessee shall be allowed to
remove the doors he has put up at his own expense.
But the carpenter’s trade was not confined to inartistic work. From the
earliest age of Babylonian history he was skilled in making household
furniture, which was often of a highly artistic description. On a
seal-cylinder, now in the British Museum, the King is represented as
seated on a chair which, like those of ancient Egypt, rested on the feet
of oxen, and similarly artistic couches and chests, inlaid with ivory or
gold, were often to be met with in the houses of the rich. The Assyrian
sculptures show to what perfection the art of the joiner had attained at
the time when Nineveh was the mistress of the civilized world.
The art of the stone-cutter had attained an even higher perfection at a
very remote date. Indeed, the seal-cylinders of the time of Sargon of
Akkad display a degree of excellence and finish which was never surpassed
at any subsequent time. The same may be said of the bas-relief of
Naram-Sin discovered at Diarbekr. The combination of realism and artistic
finish displayed in it was never equalled even by the bas-reliefs of
Assyria, admirable as they are from many points of view.
The early stone-cutters of Chaldea tried their skill upon the hardest
materials, and engraved upon them the minutest and most delicate designs.
Hæmatite was a favorite material for the seal-cylinder; the statues of
Tello are carved out of diorite, which was brought from the Sinaitic
Peninsula, and stones of similar hardness were manufactured into vases.
That such work should have been attempted in an age when iron and steel
were as yet unknown seems to us astonishing. Even bronze was scarce, and
the majority of the tools employed by the workmen were made of copper,
which was artificially hardened when in use. Emery powder or sand was also
used, and the lathe had long been known. When iron was first introduced
into the workshops of Babylonia is doubtful. That the metal had been
recognized at a very early period is clear from the fact that in the
primitive picture-writing of the country, out of which the cuneiform
syllabary developed, it was denoted by two characters, representing
respectively “heaven” and “metal.” It would seem, therefore, that the
first iron with which the inhabitants of the Babylonian plain were
acquainted was of meteoric origin.
In the age of the Egyptian empire in Asia, at the beginning of the
seventeenth century B.C., iron was passing into general use. Objects of
iron are referred to in the inscriptions, and a couple of centuries later
we hear of iron chariots among the Canaanites, and of ironsmiths in
Palestine, who repair the shattered vehicles of Egyptian travellers in
that country. It must have been at this time that the bronzesmith in
Babylonia became transformed into an ironsmith.
Carving in ivory was another trade followed in Babylonia and Assyria. The
carved ivories found on the site of Nineveh are of great beauty, and from
a very early epoch ivory was used for the handles of sceptres, or for the
inlaid work of wooden furniture. The “ivory couches” of Babylonia made
their way to the West along with the other products of Babylonian culture,
and Amos (vi. 4) denounces the wealthy nobles of Israel who “lie upon beds
of ivory.” Thothmes III. of Egypt, in the sixteenth century B.C., hunted
the elephant on the banks of the Euphrates, not far from Carchemish, and,
as late as about 1100 B.C., Tiglath-pileser I. of Assyria speaks of doing
the same. In the older period of Babylonian history, therefore, the
elephant would have lived on the northern frontier of Babylonian
domination, and its tusks would have been carried down the Euphrates along
with other articles of northern trade.
Quite as old as the trade of the carver in ivory was that of the
porcelain-maker. The walls of the palaces and temples of Babylonia and
Assyria were adorned with glazed and enamelled tiles on which figures and
other designs were drawn in brilliant colors; they were then covered with
a metallic glaze and fired. Babylonia, in fact, seems to have been the
original home of the enamelled tile and therewith of the manufacture of
porcelain. It was a land of clay and not of stone, and while it thus
became necessary to ornament the plain mud wall of the house, the clay
brick itself, when painted and protected by a glaze, was made into the
best and most enduring of ornaments. The enamelled bricks of Chaldea and
Assyria are among the most beautiful relics of Babylonian civilization
that have survived to us, and those which adorned the Persian palace of
Susa, and are now in the Museum of the Louvre, are unsurpassed by the most
elaborate productions of modern skill.
Our enumeration of Babylonian trades would not be complete without mention
being made of that of the brick-maker. The manufacture of bricks was
indeed one of the chief industries of the country, and the brick-maker
took the position which would be taken by the mason elsewhere. He erected
all the buildings of Babylonia. The walls of the temples themselves were
of brick. Even in Assyria the slavish imitation of Babylonian models
caused brick to remain the chief building material of a kingdom where
stone was plentiful and clay comparatively scarce. The brick-yards stood
on the outskirts of the cities, where the ground was low and where a thick
bed of reeds grew in a pond or marsh. These reeds were an important
requisite for the brick-maker’s art; when dried they formed a bed on which
the bricks rested while they were being baked by the sun; cut into small
pieces they were mixed with the clay in order to bind it together; and if
the bricks were burnt in a kiln the reeds were used as fuel. They were
accordingly artificially cultivated, and fetched high prices. Thus, in the
fourteenth year of Nabonidos, we hear of 2 shekels being given for 200
bundles of reeds for building a bridge across a canal, and a shekel for
100 bundles to be made into torches. At the same time 55 shekels were paid
for 8,000 loads of brick. The possession of a bed of reeds added to the
value of an estate, and it is, therefore, always specified in deeds
relating to the sale of property. One, situated at Sippara, was owned by a
scribe, Arad-Bel, who has drawn up several contracts, as we learn
incidentally from a document dated in the seventh year of Cyrus, in which
Ardi, the grandson of “the brick-maker,” agrees to pay two-thirds of the
bricks he makes to Arad-Bel, on condition of being allowed to manufacture
them in the reed-bed of the latter. This is described as adjoining “the
reed-bed of Bel-baladan and the plantation of the Sun-god.”
The brick-maker was also a potter, and the manifold products of the
potter’s skill, for which Babylonia was celebrated, were manufactured in
the corner of the brick-field. Here also were made the tablets, which were
handed to the professional scribe or the ordinary citizen to be written
upon, and so take the place of the papyrus of ancient Egypt or the paper
of to-day. The brick-maker was thus not only a potter, but the provider of
literary materials as well. He might even be compared with the printer of
the modern world, since texts were occasionally cut in wood and so
impressed upon moulds of clay, which, after being hardened, were used as
stamps, by means of which the texts could be multiplied, impressions of
them being mechanically reproduced on other tablets or cylinders of clay.
Another Babylonian trade which must be noticed was that of the vintner.
Wine was made from dates as well as from grapes, while beer, called
_sikaru_, was also manufactured, probably from some cereal grain. Mention
is found of a “wine” that was made from sesame. The vine was not a native
of Babylonia, but must have been introduced into it from the highlands of
Armenia at a very early date, as it was known there long before the days
of Sargon of Akkad. Large quantities of wine and beer were drunk in both
Babylonia and Assyria, and reference has already been made to the
bas-relief in which the Assyrian King, Assur-bani-pal, and his Queen are
depicted drinking wine in the gardens of his palace, while the head of his
vanquished foe, the King of Elam, hangs from the branch of a neighboring
tree. A receipt, dated the eleventh day of Iyyar, in the first year of
Nabonidos, is for the conveyance of “75 _qas_ of meal and 63 _qas_ of beer
for the sustenance of the artisans;” and in the thirty-eighth year of
Nebuchadnezzar 20 shekels were paid for “beer,” the amount of which,
however, is unfortunately not stated. But two “large” casks of new wine
cost 11 shekels, and five other smaller casks 10 shekels. Moreover, the
inventory of goods to be handed over to the slave Khunnatu, in the sixth
year of Cambyses, includes fifty casks of “good beer,” which, together
with the cup with which it was drawn, was valued at 60 shekels (£9).
Whether any grape-wine was made in Babylonia itself was questionable; at
any rate, the greater part of that which was drunk there was imported from
abroad, more especially from Armenia and Syria. The wines of the Lebanon
were specially prized, the wine of Khilbunu, or Helbon, holding a chief
place among them. The wines, some of which were described as “white,” were
distinguished by the names of the localities where they were made or in
which the vines were grown, and Nebuchadnezzar gives the following list of
them: The wine of Izalla, in Armenia; of Tuhimmu, of Zimmini, of Helbon,
of Amabanu, of the Shuhites, of Bit-Kubati, in Elam; of Opis and of
Bitati, in Armenia. To these another list adds: “The wine reserved for the
king’s drinking,” and the wines of Nazahzê, of Lahû, and of the Khabur.
The wine was kept in wine-cellars, and among the Assyrian letters that
have come down to us are some from the cellarers of the King. In one of
them it is stated that the wine received in the month Tebet had been
bottled, and that there was no room in the royal cellars in which it could
be stored. The King is therefore asked to allow new cellars to be made.
The various trades formed guilds or corporations, and those who wished to
enter one of these had to be apprenticed for a fixed number of years in
order to learn the craft. As we have seen, slaves could be thus
apprenticed by their owners and in this way become members of a guild.
What the exact relation was between the slave and the free members of a
trading guild we do not know, but it is probable that the slave was
regarded as the representative of his master or mistress, who accordingly
became, instead of himself, the real member of the corporation. We perhaps
have a parallel in modern England, where a person can be elected a member
of one of the “city companies,” or trade guilds, without being in any way
connected with the trade himself. Since women in Babylonia were able to
carry on a business, there would be no obstacle to a slave being
apprenticed to a trade by his mistress. Hence it is that we find a
Babylonian lady named Nubtâ, in the second year of Cyrus, apprenticing a
slave to a weaver for five years. Nubtâ engaged to provide the apprentice
with clothing and 1 _qa_ (nearly 2 quarts) of grain each day. As in
ancient Greece a quart of grain was considered a sufficient daily
allowance for a man, the slave’s allowance would seem to have been ample.
The teacher was to be heavily fined if he failed to teach the trade, or
overworked the apprentice and so made him unable to learn it, the fine
being fixed at 6 _qas_ (about 10 quarts) _per diem_. Any infringement of
the contract on either side was further to be visited with a penalty of 30
shekels of silver.
As 30 shekels of silver were equivalent to £4 10s., 6 _qas_ of wheat at
the time when the contract was drawn up would have cost about 1s. 3d.
Under Nebuchadnezzar we find 12 _qas_, or the third part of an ardeb, of
sesame sold for half a shekel, which would make the cost of a single quart
a little more than a penny. In the twelfth year of Nabonidos 60 shekels,
or £9, were paid for 6 _gur_ of sesame, and since the _gur_ contained 5
ardebs, according to Dr. Oppert’s calculation, the quart of sesame would
have been a little less than 1½d. When we come to the reign of Cambyses we
hear of 6½ shekels being paid for 2 ardebs, or about 100 quarts, of wheat;
that would give 2½d. as the approximate value of a single _qa_. It would
therefore have cost Nubtâ about 2½d. a day to feed a slave.
It must, however, be remembered that the price of grain varied from year
to year. In years of scarcity the price rose; when the crops were
plentiful it necessarily fell. To a certain extent the annual value was
equalized by the large exportation of grain to foreign countries, to which
reference is made in many of the contract-tablets; the institution of
royal or public store-houses, moreover, called _sutummê_, tended to keep
the price of it steady and uniform. Nevertheless, bad seasons sometimes
occurred, and there were consequent fluctuations in prices. This was more
especially the case as regards the second staple of Babylonian food and
standard of value—dates. These seem to have been mostly consumed in
Babylonia itself, and, though large quantities of them were accumulated in
the royal storehouses, it was upon a smaller scale than in the case of the
grain. Hence we need not be surprised if we find that while in the seventh
year of Nebuchadnezzar a shekel was paid for 1-1/3 ardebs of dates, or
about a halfpenny a quart, in the thirtieth year of the same reign the
price had fallen to one-twenty-fifth of a penny per quart. A little later,
in the first year of Cambyses, 100 _gur_ of dates was valued at 2½ shekels
(7s. 6d.), the _gur_ containing 180 _qas_, which gives 2d. per each _qa_,
and in the second year of Cyrus a receipt for the payment of “the workmen
of the overseer” states that the following amount of dates had been given
from “the royal store-house” for their “food” during the month Tebet:
“Fifty _gur_ for the 50 workmen, 10 _gur_ for 10 shield-bearers, 2 _gur_
for the overseer, 1 _gur_ for the chief overseer; in all, 63 _gurs_ of
dates.” It was consequently calculated that a workman would consume a
_gur_ of dates a month, the month consisting of thirty days.
About the same period, in the first year of Cyrus, after his conquest of
Babylon, we hear of two men receiving 2 _pi_ 30 _qas_ (102 _qas_) of grain
for the month Tammuz. Each man accordingly received a little over a _qa_ a
day, the wage being practically the same as that paid by Nubtâ to the
slave. On the other hand, a receipt dated in the fifteenth year of
Nabonidos is for 2 _pi_ (72 _qas_) of grain, and 54 _qas_ of dates were
paid to the captain of a boat for the conveyance of mortar, to serve as
“food” during the month Tebet. As “salt and vegetables” were also added,
it is probable that the captain was expected to share the food with his
crew. A week previously 8 shekels had been given for 91 _gur_ of dates
owed by the city of Pallukkatum, on the Pallacopas canal, to the temple of
Uru at Sippara, but the money was probably paid for porterage only. At all
events, five years earlier a shekel and a quarter had been paid for the
hire of a boat which conveyed three oxen and twenty-four sheep, the
offering made by Belshazzar “in the month Nisan to Samas and the gods of
Sippara,” while 60 _qas_ of dates were assigned to the two boatmen for
food. This would have been a _qa_ of dates _per diem_ for each boatman,
supposing the voyage was intended to last a month. In the ninth year of
Nabonidos 2 _gur_ of dates were given to a man as his nourishment for two
months, which would have been at the rate of 6 _qas_ a day. In the
thirty-second year of the same reign 36 _qas_ of dates were valued at a
shekel, or a penny a _qa_.
In the older period of Babylonian history prices were reckoned in grain,
and, as might be expected, payment was made in kind rather than in coin.
In the reign of Ammi-zadok, for instance, 3 homers 24⅔ _qas_ of oil,
though valued at 20⅔ shekels of silver, were actually bought with “white
Kurdish slaves,” it being stipulated that if the slaves were not
forthcoming the purchaser would have to pay for the oil in cash. A
thousand years later, under Merodach-nadin-akhi, cash had become the
necessary medium of exchange. A cart and harness were sold for 100
shekels, six riding-horses for 300 shekels, one “ass from the West” for
130 shekels, one steer for 30 shekels, 34 _gur_ 56 _qas_ of grain for 137
shekels, 2 homers 40 _qas_ of oil for 16 shekels, two long-sleeved robes
for 12 shekels, and nine shawls for 18 shekels.
From this time forward we hear no more of payment in kind, except where
wages were paid in food, or where tithes and other offerings were made to
the temples. Though the current price of wheat continued to fix the market
standard of value, business was conducted by means of stamped money. The
shekel and the maneh were the only medium of exchange.
There are numerous materials for ascertaining the average prices of
commodities in the later days of Babylonian history. We have already seen
what prices were given for sheep and wool, as well as the cost of some of
the articles of household use. In the thirty-eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar
100 _gur_ of wheat were valued at only 1 maneh—that is to say, the _qa_ of
wheat was worth only the hundredth part of a shilling—while at the same
time the price of dates was exactly one-half that amount. On the other
hand, in the fourth year of Cambyses 72 _qas_ of sesame were sold at
Sippara for 6½ shekels, or 19s. 6d. This would make the cereal worth
approximately 1½d. a quart, the same price as that at which it was sold in
the twelfth year of Nabonidos. In the second year of Nergal-sharezer
twenty-one strings of onions fetched as much as 10 shekels, and a year
later 96 shekels were given for onion bulbs for planting. Sheep in the
reign of Cambyses fetched 7 and 7¼ shekels each, while 10 shekels were
given for an ox, and 22½ shekels for a steer two years old. In the
twenty-fourth year of Nebuchadnezzar 13 shekels had been paid for a
full-grown ox, and as much as 67 shekels in the fourth year of Nabonidos,
while in the first year of Evil-Merodach a cow was sold for 15 shekels.
The ass was in more request, especially if it was of “Western” breed. In
the reign of Merodach-nadin-akhi, it will be remembered, as much as 130
shekels had been paid for one of these, as compared with 30 shekels given
for an ox, and though at a subsequent period the prices were lower, the
animal was still valued highly. In the year of the death of Cyrus a
Babylonian gentleman bought “a mouse-colored ass, eight years old, without
blemish,” for 50 shekels (£7 10s.), and shortly afterward another was
purchased for 32 shekels. At the same time, however, an ass of inferior
quality went for only 13 shekels. When we consider that only three years
later a shekel was considered sufficient wages for a butcher for a month’s
work, we can better estimate what these prices signify. Nevertheless, the
value of the ass seems to have been steadily going down in Babylonia; at
all events, in the fourth year of Nabonidos, 1 maneh, or 60 shekels, was
demanded for one, and the animal does not seem to have been in any way
superior to another which was sold for 50 shekels a few years afterward.
Clothes and woven stuffs were naturally of all prices. In the time of
Nebuchadnezzar a cloak or overcoat used by the mountaineers cost only 4½
shekels, though under Cambyses we hear of 58 shekels being charged for
eight of the same articles of dress, which were supplied to the “bowmen”
of the army. Three years earlier 7½ shekels had been paid for two of these
cloaks. About the same time ten sleeved gowns cost 35 shekels.
Metal was more expensive. As has already been noticed, a copper
libation-bowl and cup were sold for 4 manehs 9 shekels (£37 7s.), and two
copper dishes, weighing 7½ manehs (19 pounds 8 ounces. troy), were valued
at 22 shekels. The skilled labor expended upon the work was the least part
of the cost. The workman was supplied with his materials by the customer,
and received only the value of his labor. What this was can be gathered
from a receipt dated the 11th day of Chisleu, in the fourteenth year of
Nabonidos, recording the payment of 4 shekels to “the ironsmith,” Suqâ,
for making certain objects out of 3⅚ manehs of iron which had been handed
over to him.
The cost of bricks and reeds has already been described. Bitumen was more
valuable. In the fourteenth year of Nabonidos a contract was made to
supply five hundred loads of it for 50 shekels, while at the same time the
wooden handle of an ax was estimated at one shekel. Five years previously
only 2 shekels had been given for three hundred wooden handles, but they
were doubtless intended for knives. In the sixth year of Nabonidos the
grandson of the priest of Sippara undertook to supply “bricks, reeds,
beams, doors, and chopped straw for building the house of Rimut” for 12
manehs of silver, or £108. The wages of the workmen were not included in
the contract.
With these prices it is instructive to compare those recorded on
contract-tablets of the age of the third dynasty of Ur, which preceded
that under which Abraham was born. These tablets, though very numerous,
have as yet been but little examined, and the system of weights and
measures which they contain is still but imperfectly known. We learn from
them that bitumen could be purchased at the time at the rate of half a
shekel of silver for each talent of 60 manehs, and that logs of wood
imported from abroad were sold at the rate of eight, ten, twelve, and
sixty logs a shekel, the price varying according to the nature of the
wood. Prices, however, as might be expected, are usually calculated in
grain, oil, and the like, and the exact relation of these to the shekel
and maneh has still to be determined.
The average wages of the workmen can be more easily fixed. Contracts dated
in the reign of Khammurabi, the Amraphel of Genesis, and found at Sippara,
show that it was at the rate of about 4 shekels a year, the laborer’s food
being usually thrown in as well. Thus in one of these contracts we read:
“Rimmon-bani has hired Sumi-izzitim for his brother, as a laborer, for
three months, his wages to be one shekel and a half of silver, three
measures of flour, and 1 _qa_ and a half of oil. There shall be no
withdrawal from the agreement. Ibni-amurru and Sikni-Anunit have endorsed
it. Rimmon-bani has hired the laborer in the presence of Abum-ilu
(Abimael), the son of Ibni-samas, of Ili-su-ibni, the son of Igas-Rimmon;
and Arad-Bel, the son of Akhuwam.”(7) Then follows the date. Another
contract of the same age is of much the same tenor. “Nur-Rimmon has taken
Idiyatum, the son of Ili-kamma, from Naram-bani, to work for him for a
year at a yearly wage of 4½ shekels of silver. At the beginning of the
month Sebat, Idiyatum shall enter upon his service, and in the month Iyyar
it shall come to an end and he shall quit it. Witnessed by Beltani, the
daughter of Araz-za; by Beltani, the daughter of Mudadum; by Amat-Samas,
the daughter of Asarid-ili; by Arad-izzitim, the son of Samas-mutasi; and
by Amat-Bau, the priestess (?); the year when the Temple of the Abundance
of Rimmon (was built by Khammurabi).” It will be noticed that with one
exception the witnesses to this document are all women.
There was but little rise in wages in subsequent centuries. A butcher was
paid only 1 shekel for a month’s work in the third year of Cambyses, as
has been noticed above, and even skilled labor was not much better
remunerated. In the first year of Cambyses, for instance, only half a
shekel was paid for painting the stucco of a wall, though in the same year
67 shekels (£10 1s.) were given to a seal-cutter for a month’s labor.
Slavery prevented wages from rising by flooding the labor market, and the
free artisan had to compete with a vast body of slaves. Hence it was that
unskilled work was still so commonly paid in kind rather than in coin, and
that the workman was content if his employer provided him with food. Thus
in the second year of Nabonidos we are told that the “coppersmith,”
Libludh, received 7 _qas_ (about 8½ quarts) of flour for overlaying a
chariot with copper, and in the seventeenth year of the same reign half a
shekel of silver and 1 _gur_ of wheat from the royal storehouse were paid
to five men who had brought a flock of sheep to the King’s administrator
in the city of Ruzabu. The following laconic letter also tells the same
tale: “Letter from Tabik-zeri to Gula-ibni, my brother. Give 54 _qas_ of
meal to the men who have dug the canal. The 9th of Nisan, fifth year of
Cyrus, King of Eridu, King of the World.” The employer had a right to the
workman’s labor so long as he furnished him with food and clothing.