Vii.] INSTITUTE OF BANKEKS. 201 



Darius ; " and a second — " Loan of five mana of silver by 

 Nabu-zer-iddin to Belnasir. The money to be repaid in 

 instalments of a .shekel and a half, beginning in Nisan, 

 fifteenth day of Tebet, thirty-fourth year of Nebu- 

 chadnezzar." The Assyrian drafts appear to have been 

 negotiable but from the nature of things could not pass 

 by endorsement, because when the clay was once baked 

 nothing new could beadded, and under these circumstances 

 the name of the payee was frequently omitted. It seems 

 to follow that they must have been regularly advised. 

 It is certainly remarkable that such instruments, and 

 especially letters of credit, should have preceded the use 

 of coins. The earliest banking firm of which we have 

 any account is said to be that of Egibi & Company, for 

 our knowledge of whom we are indebted to Mr. Bos- 

 cawen, Mr. Pinches, and Mr. Hilton Price. Several 

 documents and records belonging to this family are in 

 the British Museum. They are on clay tablets, and 

 were discovered in an earthenware jar, found in the 

 neighbourhood of Hillah, a few miles from Babylon. 

 The house is said to have acted as a sort of national 

 bank of Babylon ; the founder of the house, Egibi, 

 probably lived in the reign of Sennacherib, about 700 

 B.c. This family has been traced during a century and 

 a half, and through five generations, down to the reign 

 of Darius. At the same time, the tablets hitherto trans- 

 lated scarcely seem to me to prove that the firm 1 acted 

 as bankers, in our sense of the word. 



As regards the Hebrews, Mr. Poole tells us there is no 



1 I am much indebted to Mr. Poole, Mr. Head, Mr. Gardner, and 

 Mr. Evans for the information which they have kindly given me on 

 various points connected with the history of money. 



