Debt and economic renewal in the ancient Near East

The third volume in a series sponsored by the International Scholars Conference on Ancient Near Eastern Economies (ISCANEE) and the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET) places the origins of interest-bearing debt in historical context by tracing its dynamics from Sumer down through the neo-Babylonian epoch, as well as relating what is known about early Egypt, Nuzi, and other neighboring regions. Eleven papers trace how early Near Eastern economies dealt with the phenomenon of interest-bearing debt as it spread from large public institutions - the temple and palace - to individual creditors, and from commerce to agriculture. Most striking is the logic of periodic Clean Slate decrees to restore order by annulling crop debts and related personal debt bondage. These royal edicts reversing the consequences of agrarian usury were proclaimed by the rulers Enmetena c.2400, Urukagina c.2350, and Gudea c.2150 in Lagash. In second-millennium Babylonia these "restorations of order" became quite elaborate, culminating in the Edict of Ammisaduqa in 1646. Their echoes are found in the Jubilee Year of Leviticus, by which time the initiative was taken out of the hands of kings and placed at the center of religious law as part of the Mosaic Covenant. Kindred Egyptian policies are reflected in inscriptions as late as the Ptolemaic-era Rosetta Stone (196 BC).


Other books in this series:
PRIVATIZATION IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST AND CLASSICAL WORLD
Edited by Michael Hudson and Baruch A.Levine. Archaeologists, economists, and Assyriologists describe the increasingly private control of land, handicraft work shops, and credit from the Bronze Age through classical antiquity. (1996)

URBANIZATION AND LAND OWNERSHIP IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST
Edited by Michael Hudson and Baruch A.Levine. This volume examines the impact of debt, private land ownership, and urbanization on ancient societies as evidenced by archaeological data, surviving financial records, and other documents. (1999)