iS 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[July 6, 1888. 



tracts, practically twice as much as they had borrowed. 

 Some landowners cultivated their estate themselves by 

 means of slaves, or their land was divided in small por- 

 tions among a number of serfs, who had to give up the 

 whole of the crop, keeping only enough for their bare 

 existence. 



The fertility of the land allowed the agriculturists to 

 cultivate any kind of plants, the chief being that of the 

 -date-tree, for dates were such an important article that 

 the word for date came to mean any kind ol produce. 

 Wheat, barley, oats were also cultivated, as well as 

 several sorts of vegetables. Farmers also reared cattle, 

 either as beasts of burden or to provide for butcher 

 meat. 



The geographical position of Babylon made it, at 

 an early period, a great centre of commerce. The 

 export and import trade was done either by caravan or 

 by water. Goods were brought from the north on rafts, 

 but, once in Babylon, the rafts were pulled to pieces and 

 taken back on donkeys, or oxen, to the countries from 

 whence they came, as it would have been difficult to go 

 up the river against the current. The Babylonians never 

 were good sailors ; it is, therefore, probable that the sea- 

 trade of the Persian Gulf was carried on by foreigners. 

 The caravans radiated from Babylon in all directions, in 

 Media, Elam, Assyria, and Armenia. The Syrian desert 

 was avoided ; as a rule, the merchants wishing to go to 

 Syria and Egypt, went towards the north, crossed the 

 Euphrates, turned southwards into Syria, and so into 

 Egypt. The principal articles of export were grain, 

 dates, cattle, and slaves, for the Babylonians were not 

 manufacturers. The import, on fhe contrary, brought to 

 the great city manufactured objects from Phoenicia : cloth, 

 linen, carved ivory, and amber. Skins and hides were 

 brought from Media and Armenia. Asia Minor was the 

 principal country which provided horses for the Baby- 

 lonians. We have several tablets of commercial agents 

 informing their employer of the number of horses they 

 had bought, and were sending from divers localities in 

 Asia Minor. 



When the goods were brought to Babylon, they were 

 generally unloaded in the large markets held between 

 the two walls, and sold wholesale to the small traders or 

 commercial agents. There were many impediments to 

 trade : tolls were numerous, not only on bridges, and 

 through or near towns, but also near temples ; the 

 travelling merchant had besides to submit to the ex- 

 action of kings or governors through whose states he 

 had to pass ; but what he had most to dread was the 

 highway robbers, and, in order to resist these, mer- 

 chants often associated together, and travelled with a 

 numerous, well-armed escort. 



In some cases the merchant did not possess the neces- 

 sary capital to buy the goods ; he had then recourse to 

 capitalists or bankers, who in that case played the same 

 part of sleeping partner as the landowner in the double 

 tenure, and received a certain percentage of the profit. 



The retail trade was done on the same principle as 

 the small land tenure. Large proprietors or capitalists 

 had a number of shops which they farmed under certain 

 conditions. Sometimes the owner merely placed in his 

 shop a manager, who received from him all the goods, 

 but had to give up all the profits, keeping only a fixed 

 amount as his salary. Sometimes the shop was simply 

 rented for a fixed sum; in other cases the landlord 

 entered into partnership with the shop-keeper. The 

 shops in Babylon were not like ours, with their great 



display of show-windows, but the goods were generally 

 kept inside the houses, into which the customers had to 

 enter to make their purchase. If people wanted to have 

 more choice, they had to go to the bazaar, which answered 

 to our retail markets ; retailers there held stalls either on 

 their own account, or in partnership with or as simple 

 manager of the capitalist, who advanced the money to 

 buy the goods. The articles sold in the bazaar were 

 most varied : not only ornaments in gold, silver, amber, 

 or ivory, but utensils of all sorts, clothing materials, and 

 also eatables. The slave market was, it appears, held at 

 a different place, as also was the horse and cattle 

 market. 



There was in Babylonia a branch of trade which 

 hardly has its equivalent in modern time, that is that of 

 the lender ; it was an important and most lucrative in- 

 dustry. The lender let out on hire every possible 

 article, tools to the workman, cart to the tradesman, 

 horses, oxen, or grain to the agriculturist, or even furni- 

 ture to people starting in life, but the most important 

 article was the slaves : these were let for short or long 

 periods as workmen of all kinds. We have in the British 

 Museum several contracts referring to transactions of 

 this sort, and it is generally specified that the hirer shall 

 pay a fixed sum in case of death or disablement of the 

 slave. The slave-owner did not always conduct a 

 business of this kind himself : he often left it in the 

 hands of a manager, who was sometimes himself a galla, 

 or chief slave. 



We see by that and by the same practice in other 

 branches of commerce, that the middle-man was an im- 

 portant person in Babylon. Not only were there those 

 employed as agents by the merchants, but there were 

 also independent middle-men, who bought the goods in 

 the wholesale market and sold them in small quantities 

 to the retail dealers, and the independent agent who 

 canvassed for the large slave-owners and lenders. 



The profession of banker, money lender, and even 

 usurer was generally in the hands of the scribes. In 

 nearly every circumstance of life the Babylonian had re- 

 course to the bankers : if a young man was on the point 

 of being married he often borrowed in order to buy a 

 house ; in other cases a man borrowed money to create 

 a capital and begin business, either by himself or In 

 partnership with another. The money lender generally 

 took as security houses or other landed property, or, like 

 the modern pawnbroker, objects of value, rings, brace- 

 lets, etc. 



Retail dealer and small agriculturist had often to 

 appeal to the usurer, the former to buy the goods neces- 

 sary to his trade, and the latter to buy either seeds or 

 implements. The money was generally lent for a year 

 or six months, repayable by monthly instalments at the 

 interest of one-sixtieth per month, which is not so ex- 

 orbitant for usurers. But when a man had borrowed, 

 without giving any property as security, his creditor had 

 claim on his person, and, as in ancient Rome, could 

 seize his debtor and sell him as a slave. 



Connected with trade is the interesting question of the 

 means of exchange. There was no stamped money : the 

 Babylonians used gold-dust, or bars of metal, gold or 

 silver, weighed in scales ; every article for sale was 

 esteemed so much gold or silver in weight. Coined 

 money appears to have been introduced by the Greeks 

 at the time of Nabonidus ; even the darick, so long sup- 

 posed to have been invented by Darius, and its name- 

 derived from that of this king, is found mentioned in a 



