XXXV POLITICAL, SOCIAL, LITERARY 161 



[A money-lender's trade must have been worth 

 plying in the good old days of Nabonidus, and 

 it seems easy to understand why the usurer was 

 unpopular.] 



From Tablet No. 17-10-2, 2 we learn that a part of the 

 property claimed by Bunanitum's brother-in-law had 

 been purchased in the 2nd year of the reign of Nabonidus, 

 at Bonsippa for 11| manas of silver, B.C. 553. 



From a letter of Khammurabi we see that a man 

 was charged with bribery, and the king sent men to 

 enquire into the charge. Sin-idinnam is ordered to 

 set a seal upon the silver or upon whatsoever was offered 

 as the bribe, and to send it to the king. The word for 

 silver is kaspa and it is probable that small lumps of 

 silver were carried about and used as money. 



(Tablet No. 12,829, B.C. 2300.) 



A moneylender called Ani-ellati lent on certain land 

 in Babylon more money than it was worth, intending 

 to foreclose on it when the crop was grown. The 

 borrower, Lalum, bought the seed corn and grew his 

 crop, but at harvest the usurer seized both land and 

 crop. Lalum appealed to the king,^ who caused the 

 old land registers to be examined, and when this was 

 done, it was found that twenty gan ^ had been assigned 

 to him in olden days and that he could not sell or part 

 with the property. The king ordered the usurer to 

 be punished and the restitution of the land. 



(Tablet No. 12,821, B.C. 2300.) 



Hishu-ibi lent Sin-magir 30 gur of corn (about 10,800 

 litres) and took a receipt for same ; each year for 3 

 years he asked for payment but never got it. The 

 king orders the corn to be paid, and interest upon it. 

 (Tablet No. 12,864, same date.) 



Khammurabi orders that the money which the 

 scribe Sheb-sin has received from the merchants shall 

 be sent to him in Babylon. 



(Tablet No. 12,838, same date.) 



» Khammurabi. 



' The gan was a piece of land about 430 yards long by 20 yards wide. 



VOL. II M 



