THE MARKET, THE MONEY-LENDER, AND THE TENANT
In the tenth chapter of Genesis[19] mention is made by the side of
Nineveh of ‘the city Rehoboth,’ which should rather be translated ‘the
public square of the city.’ It represented, in fact, the great open
square on the north-eastern side of Nineveh in which the market was
held. Every city of Assyria and Babylonia was provided with a similar
market-place; here were the magazines of the corn-merchants, the booths
of the vendors of country produce, and the stalls in which cattle,
horses, and camels were sold. It thus differed from the _suqu_, or
‘street’—the ‘bazaar’ of a modern Oriental city—which contained only the
regular shops.
Most commodities had to pay a duty, corresponding to the continental
_octroi_, before they were allowed to pass the gates of the city and be
exposed to sale. It was accordingly to the interest of the purchaser to
contract that country goods should be delivered to him within the walls
of the city before they were paid for. Thus, in the eighteenth year of
Darius, we hear of a lady named Akhabtu[20] selling 200 sheep on her
property in the country, and agreeing to send them into Babylon before
receiving for them the stipulated price of fifteen manehs of silver (or
£135). The purchaser was allowed ten days within which to pay the money;
if he failed to do so, he was to be charged twenty per cent. interest
upon the whole amount.
Prices naturally varied, according to the quality or scarcity of what
was to be sold. In the twenty-fourth year of Nebuchadnezzar we find one
full-grown ox, which was required for the service of the temple of the
Sun-god at Sippara, costing thirteen shekels, or about £2. In the time
of Cambyses ten shekels (£1 10_s._) are given for an ox, and fifty-eight
shekels (£8 14_s._) for eight ‘fine sheep’—that is to say, about a
guinea apiece. The price, however, included the ‘bakshish’ paid to ‘an
Arabian’ who looked after them. In the same reign a ‘mouse-coloured ass,
seven years old,’ was sold for fifty shekels (or £7 10_s._), though we
also hear of an ass of inferior quality whose price was only thirteen
shekels (about £2). It is rather surprising, after this, to learn that
a copper libation-bowl and cup together cost as much as four manehs
nine shekels (or £37 7_s._); at the same period a good-sized house,
with field attached, could be had for only four and a half manehs (£40
10_s._), while the rent of another house, with the use of the water in
its neighbourhood, amounted to one maneh. In the first year of Cambyses,
one maneh seven shekels of silver were paid for a month’s work to a
seal-cutter, and half a shekel (1_s._ 6_d._) for painting the stucco of
a wall. The work alone seems to have been paid for, the materials being
furnished to the workmen, as is still the custom in the East. This at
all events was the case as regards metal work; thus, in one instance,
three manehs of iron were handed over to an ‘ironsmith’ to be made into
rods for bows. Three manehs of iron, it may be added, were considered
sufficient for the manufacture of six swords, two door-rings, and two
bolts.
In the fourteenth year of Nabonidos (B.C. 542) a contract was made by a
builder which included two shekels (or 6_s._) for 200 bundles of reeds
for constructing a bridge across a canal, one shekel for 100 bundles of
reeds for torches, fifty shekels (£7 10_s._) for 500 loads of bitumen for
building a tower, fifty-five shekels for 8000 loads of brick, and one
shekel for a piece of wood for the handle of an axe. In the same year
skins for covering a boat or coracle cost one maneh (£9), while in the
previous year eighteen sheep were sold for thirty-five shekels (not quite
6_s._ each), and twelve shekels derived from the rent of a house were
expended upon digging a trench or canal. In the fourth year of Nabonidos
one maneh was demanded for an ass; and in the following year one maneh
seven shekels were paid for an ox, and six shekels (or 18_s._) for a
sheep.
The price of wine varied according to its quality. Thus, at one and
the same time, two ‘large’ casks of new wine were purchased for eleven
shekels, and five other casks for ten shekels. Wine was chiefly imported
from Armenia and Syria, the wines of the Lebanon being especially prized.
Nebuchadnezzar has left us a list of several of the best, among which we
find the wine of Helbon, mentioned by Ezekiel[21].
Clothes were comparatively inexpensive. In the time of Nebuchadnezzar,
for example, a ‘mountain-cloak’ cost four and a half shekels (13_s._
6_d._), though doubtless this particular article of dress was made of
cheap materials. Half a maneh of silver, together with a _gur_ of corn
from the royal granary, were given in the seventeenth year of Nabonidos
to five men for work performed in the city of Ruzabu, in the presence of
the superintendent of the clothing department, from which we may infer
that they were working tailors. Wages, however, were low, partly in
consequence of the employment of slave labour. Even a porter of the royal
granary received only half a shekel a month by way of pay.
On the other hand, grain was correspondingly cheap. In the reign of
Cambyses, two artabs (or about 100 quarts) of corn cost six and a
half shekels, and as a quart of corn was considered in ancient Greece
a sufficient daily allowance for a man, we may calculate that the
Babylonian could manage to live on 2½_d._ a day. Under Nebuchadnezzar
twelve _qas_, or the third part of an artab, of sesame were sold for
half a shekel—that is to say, the quart of sesame cost a little over a
penny. Similarly, in the twelfth year of Nabonidos, one maneh (or £9) was
paid for six _gurs_ of sesame, and as the _gur_ contained five artabs,
the quart of sesame would have been a little less than 1½_d._ In the
seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar one shekel only had been given for one and
one-third artabs of dates, or about a halfpenny a quart; while in the
thirty-eighth year of the same reign we find the quart valued at only
one-twentyfifth of a penny.
Prices, however, were frequently calculated in grain and dates—that
great staple of Babylonia—and payments accordingly made in kind instead
of in coin. The tithes, for instance, were always paid to the priests
in kind, as among the Jews. In the first year of Cambyses we are told
that the price of an ox was 150 _gur_, 114 _qas_ of dates, the _gur_
containing three homers. It was in dates, again, that the wages of the
gardeners were paid by the priests attached to the temples of Babylon. In
the nineteenth year of Darius 120 _gur_ of dates were sold for one maneh
thirty-five shekels of silver. At this time, therefore, the quart of
dates was worth about the tenth part of a penny.
Fish, both from the sea and from fresh water, were a common article of
food, and must have been cheap and plentiful. We find them included among
the offerings made to the gods. As at Athens, salted fish were largely
eaten.
The streets, where troops of dogs acted as scavengers, as they still do
in the East, were lined with shops; the business was sometimes conducted
by a woman, and often consisted of a joint partnership. Deeds relating
to the formation or dissolution of a partnership are by no means rare.
Generally it was customary for each of the persons who entered into
partnership to contribute an equal share to the business, the profits
on the business, both ‘in town and country,’ being afterwards divided
equally between them. When one of the parties contributed more than the
other, provision was made for a proportionate distribution of gains and
losses. The following deed may be taken as an illustration of the way
in which a partnership could be dissolved:—‘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 brought up before the judge of the judges. Fifty
shekels of silver had been 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.’ Then follow the names
of the witnesses, and the date, ‘The eighth day of Sebat (January), the
eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon.’
A business could be carried on by the wife in the absence of her husband.
A document belonging to the second year of Neriglissor or Nergal-sharezer
(B.C. 559) shows this very clearly. Here 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.’
Among the witnesses to this deed is a certain ‘minister of the king’
called Solomon (Salammanu), the son of Baaltammuh. The name indicates
that he had come from Palestine or Syria, and it is therefore interesting
to find him holding high office at the Babylonian court.
Other goods besides money and houses might serve as the subject of a deed
of partnership. Thus, in one instance, we are told that ‘200 barrels full
of good beer, twenty empty barrels, ten cups and saucers, ninety _gur_ of
dates in the store-house, fifteen _gur_ of chickpease (?), and fourteen
sheep, besides the profits from the bazaar, and whatever property
Bel-sunu has accumulated, shall be shared between’ the contracting
parties.
Even the members of the royal family did not consider commercial dealings
beneath them. The name of Belshazzar, the son of Nabonidos, more than
once appears in the contract-tablets, though it is true that he acted
indirectly through the steward of his house, as well as through his
secretaries. One of these tablets reads as follows:—
‘Twenty manehs of silver, the price of wool, the property of Belshazzar,
the son of the king, which, by the hands of Nebo-tsabit, the steward of
the house of Belshazzar, the son of the king, and the secretaries of
the son of the king, has been handed over to Nadin-Merodach, the son
of Basa, the son of Nur-Sin, in the month Adar, the silver, namely
20 manehs, he shall give. The house of ... a Persian, and all the
property of Nadin-Merodach in town and country shall be the security of
Belshazzar, the son of the king, until Belshazzar shall receive in full
the money. The debtor shall pay the whole sum of money as well as the
interest upon it.’ The names of six witnesses, including that of the
priest who drew up the deed, are then added, as well as the date: ‘At
Babylon, the twentieth day of the month (Adar), the eleventh year of
Nabonidos king of (Babylon).’
It will be seen from this document that Belshazzar, whose name has been
made familiar to us through the Book of Daniel, was not averse to acting
as a wool merchant, when money could be made thereby.
It will also be seen that in his trading transactions the heir to the
throne had to conform to the requirements of the law like the meanest
of his father’s subjects. Witnesses and a properly attested deed were
necessary to protect the prince against fraud. The fact illustrates
the commercial and legal instincts of the Babylonians, as well as the
restrictions that were placed by them on the exercise of the royal
authority.
Money-lending was naturally carried on upon an extensive scale. Under
Nebuchadnezzar and his successors the usual rate of interest was twenty
per cent., the interest being paid each month, though at times we find it
was reduced to thirteen and a third per cent., and in a time of famine
even remitted altogether by a patriotic money-lender. In concluding a
bargain it was ordinarily stipulated that if the money were not paid by
a specified date, interest upon it at the customary rate should run on
until it was paid in full.
In Nineveh in the age of Tiglath-pileser III and Sennacherib the rate
of interest seems to have been different from that which afterwards
prevailed in Babylonia. Thus we are told of six manehs ten shekels of
silver being lent out at interest which was to be at ‘a fourfold’ rate,
and of two talents of ‘the best bronze’ being given on a loan, the
interest on them to be ‘three times’ their value. In Assyria, besides
the national standard of ‘the royal maneh,’ the Hittite standard of
‘the maneh of Carchemish’ was in use, according to which commercial
transactions could be regulated.
The metal, whether gold, silver, or bronze, was measured out by weight,
and it was only in the later Babylonian period that this somewhat
cumbersome way of conducting business was replaced by symbols or coins.
On these was marked the weight represented by each.
The extensive system of credit implied by the Babylonian contract-tablets
proves what a trading centre Babylonia had become. Goods were imported
into it from all parts of the known world, and in return corn, dates, and
palm-wine were exported abroad. A good deal of the business, however,
carried on by the money-lenders was due to the necessity the poorer
classes were frequently under of paying their taxes in coin. Many of
these taxes, it is true, could be paid in kind, but it is probable
that the capitation-tax, which was levied on the whole community, had
to be paid in cash. The tribute paid by the subject-states, as well
as the contributions to the royal treasury due each year from the
cities and districts of the kingdom, had also to be made in coin. These
contributions were levied both in Assyria and in Babylonia. In the time
of Sennacherib, for example, the contribution due from Nineveh was
assessed at thirty talents; that from Calah at five. At the same time,
Carchemish, the ancient Hittite capital, had to pay 100 talents.
In Babylonia, if not in Assyria, even the brick-yards were taxed, the
privilege of making bricks—the universal material of the buildings of
the country—requiring the permission of the Government. It is also
probable that the owners of property, if not the tenants, were obliged
to contribute a fixed amount of grain each year to the royal _sutummu_,
or ‘granary,’ which existed in each of the large towns, and out of which
grants of food were made to the religious and civil functionaries.
Whether houses were taxed is not known. At all events nothing is said
upon the subject in the numerous deeds that relate to them. These deeds,
however, throw a flood of light on the laws which regulated their sale
or letting. The exact limitations of the property to be let or sold and
the condition of the house were minutely described, as well as the length
of time for which it was to be leased, and the rent to be paid by the
tenant. The tenant usually agreed to return the property in the state in
which he found it, keeping the fabric in repair at his own expense and
carefully cultivating the garden. Any transgression of the terms of the
lease was punished with a severe fine.
The value of the house depended on its size, position, and character. In
the reign of Cambyses we hear of a house being let for three years at
sixteen shekels a year, while, at the same time, another house was rented
for a year at only five shekels. In the latter case it is stipulated that
half the rent shall be paid at the beginning and the other half in the
middle of the year, and that the tenant shall repair all damages to the
walls of the building. Any transgression of the terms of the contract
was to be punished with a fine of ten shekels, or double the amount of
the rent, which was to be paid to the wife of the owner of the house. It
is therefore probable that the husband was dead, and that the property
had passed into the hands of his widow.
At the beginning of the same reign we find four and a half manehs of
silver (or £40 10_s._) given for a field and house, and another house
sold in the joint name of a man and his wife for two manehs (or £18).
At the same time a woman pays only two shekels (or 6_s._) for the house
‘in which she lives.’ It must, therefore, have been a mere hovel. It
is curious to learn how many of the houses which were sold or let in
Babylonia belonged to women; some of them had doubtless formed part of
their dowries, but others must have been left to them by their husbands
after death. One of them, which belonged to a lady named Buhiti, is
described as being situated in ‘the Broad Street’ of Babylon, ‘the
passage of the gods and the king.’ In the deed of sale of this house it
is stipulated that if the buyer asserts that ‘the house has not been
given up’ to him, the owner shall receive twelve times the amount of its
purchase-money.
The same formalities which accompanied the sale or letting of a house in
Babylonia were observed in Assyria. Here, for example, is the translation
of a deed of sale, which is dated in the year 692 B.C., or eleven years
before the death of Sennacherib: ‘The nail-mark of Sar-ludari, the
nail-mark of Atar-suru, (and) the nail-mark of the woman Amat-suhla, the
wife of Bel-dur, a captain (?), the owner of the house which is sold.’
[Then follow four nail-marks.] ‘The house, well-constructed, with its
beams and doors, situated in the city of Nineveh, adjoining the houses of
Mannu-ki-akhi and Ilu-ittiya, and the Street of the Messenger, has been
sold, and Tsil-Assur, the superintendent, an Egyptian, has bought it for
one maneh of silver, according to the royal standard, in the presence of
Sar-ludari, Atar-suru, and Amat-suhla, the wife of its owner. The full
sum has been paid, the house in question has been bought: there shall be
no retractation or annulment of the contract. Whosoever hereafter, among
the sellers, shall claim an annulment of the contract from Tsil-Assur
shall be fined ten manehs of silver. The witnesses are: Susanqu, the
son-in-law of the king, Kharmaza, the captain (?), Rasuh, the sailor,
Nebo-dur-zikari, the spy, Kharmaza, the naval captain, Sin-sharezer,
and Zedekiah. Dated the sixteenth day of the month Sivan (May), in the
eponymy of Zazâ, the governor of Arpad. The contract has been signed in
the presence of Samas-yukin-akhi, Latturu, and Nebo-sum-utsur.’
In Babylonia, where education was more widely spread, the contracting
parties would have attached their names and seals to the deed instead
of their nail-marks. One of the witnesses, Zedekiah, seems to have been
an Israelite, while the purchaser of the property is described as an
Egyptian, who held a high position in Nineveh. It would therefore appear
that foreigners in Assyria were able to hold property as well as offices
of state.
House-property, like slaves, could be bought and sold through the
intervention of an agent. In this case the purchaser was careful to state
that the property which had been bought did not belong to its nominal
buyer, and also to keep the deed of sale in his own hands. When the
money for the purchase was advanced by the agent it was agreed that it
should be repaid within a limited time—in one instance within two months;
failing its repayment within the specified period, what had been bought
became the property of the agent. Advantage was occasionally taken of
this system of purchase to buy a piece of land or other property in the
name of the wife, whose property was usually protected from distraint for
her husband’s debts.
The legal formalities attendant on the sale of property in Assyria and
Babylonia are an interesting commentary on the purchase of Hanameel’s
field by Jeremiah[22]. The prophet agreed to pay seventeen shekels of
silver for it, and the money was accordingly weighed out in the presence
of witnesses. He then added his signature to the deed, and sealed it
afterwards, as it would appear, enclosing the whole in a clay envelope,
on which was inscribed a statement of its contents. The witnesses had
previously attached their names to the document. The deed, containing
both the document that had been sealed and the document that was
exposed to view[23], was subsequently deposited ‘in an earthen vessel,’
which must have resembled the earthen jars in which the Babylonian
contract-tablets are found. Such jars served the purpose of a modern
safe, and were each appropriated to a particular set of documents, or to
those that related to a particular family. Who can say whether we shall
not yet recover the deed of sale signed by Jeremiah, and the jar to which
it was entrusted, as we have already recovered the similar deeds that
were drawn up and signed by his contemporaries in Babylonia? Stranger
events have happened in the romance of modern excavation.