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The Origin of Banking: Religious Finance in Babylonia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

Benjamin Bromberg
Benjamin Bromberg
Affiliation:
Brooklyn, New York
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Extract

The economic importance of the sanctuaries of antiquity has long JL been recognized. The Babylonian shrines were no exceptions; not only were the chief Mesopotamian temples religious centers, law courts, schools, and archive depositories, but they were also banks and mercantile establishments. Indeed, as fiscal institutions of the Babylonian economy, the importance of the sanctuaries cannot be overemphasized: “In financial or monetary transactions the position of the Babylonian temples was not unlike that of national banks; they carried on their business with all the added weight of official authority.”

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , May 1942 , pp. 77 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1942

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References

1 Jastrow, Morris, Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria (New York, 1911), 277Google Scholar.

2 Oppert, J., “Un Dieu Commercant,” Académic des Inscriptions et belles-lettres: Comptes Rendus (CRAl), 4e sér., XXV (09 3, 1897), 470.Google Scholar W. St Chad Bosca-wen says that the most ancient bank was a private Babylonian concern, that of the house of Zini-Ištar. “The Oldest Bank in the World,” The Babylonian & Oriental Record (BOR), VII (07, 1894), 241–246.Google Scholar But Boscawen never once used the term “bank” in this article, and none of the material he presented is of a banking character at all.

3 Oppert, loc. cit.

4 The chronology of Sidney Smith has been used in this paper. See his Alalakh and Chronology (London, 1940), 29Google Scholar.

5 Pinches, Theodore G., “A Fragment of a Babylonian Tith-List,” BOR, I (05, 1887), 77Google Scholar.

6 Thompson, R. Campbell, Late Babylonian Letters (London, 1906), Nos. 11, 12, 153Google Scholar; King, L. W., The Letters and Inscriptions of Hammurabi, III (London, 1900), xlviGoogle Scholar.

7 Sayce, A. H., Babylonians and Assyrians (New York, 1899), 253–254.Google Scholar The following texts are examples of monetary tithes: “25 shekels of silver, the tithe of Merodachnadin-akhi, the son of the king, by the hands of Šamaš-yukin-akhi and Aqabi-ili, he has given to Bit-Uri, the 14th day of Iyyar, the 42d year of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon.” Sayce, , ed., Records of the Past (London, 1891), V, 143.Google Scholar “Six minae of gold, the tithe which the king gave in the great gate of the temple Ebabbara. The 26th day of Sivan [June], the accession year of Nabonidus, the king of Babylon.” Dougherty, Raymond P., Nabonidus and Belshazsar (New Haven, 1929), 87nGoogle Scholar.

8 Cf. Hilprecht, H. V., Explorations in Bible Lands (Philadelphia, 1903), 275Google Scholar.

9 See Oppert,488.

10 Ibid., 471.

11 , Thureau-Dangin, “La Compatibilité Agricole en Chaldée au Troisième Millénaire,” RA, III, 1895, 121Google Scholar.

12 In general, the same principle applies to its large herds of cattle, sheep, and oxen. However, Moldenke has published a tablet involving the sale of sheep worth 2⅔ minae, 5 shekels of silver from the sun-god of Sippar. Cuneiform Texts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1893), Part II, No. 11Google Scholar.

13 Thureau-Dangin, 121n.

14 Thompson, No. 19.

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16 Beatrice Allard Brooks, “Some Observations Concerning Ancient Mesopotamian Women1,” The American Journal of Semitic Languages (AISL), XXXIX (04, 1923), 190Google Scholar.

17 Cf. Sayce, 127; Boehl, Franz Th., “The Position of Women in Ancient Babylonia and Israel,”Bibliotheca Sacra, LXXVII, 1920, 11Google Scholar; Preussner, A. H., “The Earliest Traces of Negotiable Instruments,” AJSL, XLIV (01, 1928), 91Google Scholar.

18 See, e.g., texts 2 and 17 given by , Duncan in his “Babylonian Legal and Business Documents from the First Babylonian Dynasty,” AJSL, XXX (10, 1913),Google Scholar and Preussner, 95. I find no warrant for Sayce's statement that the priestesses were required to give a certain proportion of their profits to the sanctuary of Šamaš. Sayce, 252.

19 The British Museum mentions a contract of about 61S B.C. in which Šamaš of Sippar lent money to a number of Babylonians in the reign of the Assyrian king, , Sin-šar-iškun. Babylonian and Assyrian Antiquities, 145.Google Scholar Therefore it is not true to state, as many scholars have, that the temple as a banking institution no longer functioned in the neo-Babylonian era; although it may be quite correct to say that its financial status declined materially in late Babylonian times.

20 III–VI (Leipzig, 1909, 10, 11, and 1923). Cited hereafter as KU.

21 KU, 1,127.

22 “Les Nouveaux Fragments du‘Code,’” RA, XIII, 1916, 49. See also Cuq,Google Scholar“Les Nouveaux Fragments du Code de Hammourabi,” RA, XIII, 1916, 144Google Scholar; Académie des Inscriptions et belles-lettres: Mémoires Mèm. AI), 166, 190.

23 KU, 899; Price, Ira M., “Some Observations on the Financial Importance of the Temple in the First Dynasty of Babylon,” AJSL, XXXII (07, 1916), 255–256Google Scholar.

24 Schorr regards Ur-Kalkal as a partner of the divinity. Urkunden des altbabylonischen Zivil-und Prozessrechts (UAZP) (Leipzig, 1913), 67Google Scholar.

25 , Cuq, RA, 156.Google Scholar

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27 KU. 1.537.

28 “Notules, XV. Prêts Religieux,” RA, XIII, 1916, 131–132. See alsoGoogle Scholar, Cuq, CRAI (02 2, 1917), 29Google Scholar; Mém. AI, 183–185. And parenthetically see also , Oppert, CRAI, 488.Google Scholar The views of the dissenting Assyriologists are neatly summarized in , Boyer'sContribution à I'histoire juridique de la I'edynastie babylonicnne (Paris, 1928), 50–52Google Scholar.

29 Ibid., H.E. 133.

30 “Studies in Eastern Law,” AJSL, XLVIII (04, 1932),229Google Scholar.

31 KU, 187; Meissner, Bruno, Beitraege sum, altbabylonischen Privatrecht (Leipzig, 1893), No. 21Google Scholar.

32 As Oppert thought. CRAI, 4e sér, XXIII (September, 1895), 383.

33 KU, 169; Price, 255.

34 KU, 162; Ranke, Hermann, Babylonian Legal and Business Documents (Philadelphia, 1906), No. 9Google Scholar.

35 RA, XIII, 1916, 49. See also , Cuq, RA, 145Google Scholar; Mém. AI, 166, 190. This rate was 13⅓ per cent less than the maximum charged for grain loans. This discrepancy appears strange, but it should be remembered that during the time of Hammurabi the Chaldean region was more of a natural economy than a pecuniary one.

36 , Cuq, RA, 156Google Scholar.

37 KU, 855.

38 , Cuq, RA, 146Google Scholar.

39 KU, 857; Price, 255.

40 KU, 1,129.

41 KU, 1,130.

42 Cf. , Cuq, Mém. AI, 260Google Scholar.

43 KU, 1,128.

44 “Glimpses of Life in Erech,” The Expository Times, XXV (06, 1914), 420–421.Google ScholarSee also his “The Latest Discoveries in Babylonia,” Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute, XLVI, 1914, 178Google Scholar.

45 KU, 1,540; , Scheil, “Notules, XV,” RA, 131–132Google Scholar.

46 KU, 164; , Meissner, Beitraege zum altbabylonischen Privatrecht, No. 9Google Scholar.

47 KU, 189.

48 KU, 1,551. Lutz, Henr y Fr., “Babylonian Partnership,” The Journal of Economic and Business History, IV (05, 1932), 562Google Scholar.

49 I believe that Moses Schorr was the first Assyriologist to mention this partnership doctrine of a private individual wit h the sun-god. See his “Altbabylonische Rechtsurkunden aus der Zeit der I. babylonischen Dynastie,” Sitzungsberichte der Kais. Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien. Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, 1910, 165, 52–53,Google Scholar and his UAZP, 67,88, 92.

50 In Susa, the capital of the country of Elam, the god Šamaš was the principal banker. A number of these loan texts have been published by Scheil, Father in the Mémoires de la Mission Archéologique de Perse, XXII (1930), XXIII (1932), XXVIII (1939).Google Scholar In Nos. 35 and 198 the god was unassociated with others in making the loan. In No. 22 the divinity was affiliated with one Gimil Lugal, and in No. 124 Šamaš-bani was mentioned together with the lord. In Nos. 179, 180, 182, 183, and 428 Tan-ili was connected with Šamaš. Warad Martu was associated with the sun-god in Nos. 271 and 273, but in No. 198 the same Warad Martu, instead of being affiliated with Šamaš, borrowed from him. Cuq holds that these associates of Šamaš of Susa were his temple administrators. “Les Actes Juridiques Susiens,” RA, XXVIII, 1931, 64Google Scholar; “Le Droit Élamite d'Après les Actes Juridiques de Suse,” RA, XXIX, 1932, 160Google Scholar.

51 KU, 919; , Price, AJSL, 254–255;Google Scholar, Preussner, AJSL, 92Google Scholar; , Cuq, RA, XIII, 1916, 157Google Scholar.

52 KU, 920.

53 Budge, E. A. W., The Rise and Progress of Assyriology (London, 1925), 134Google Scholar.

54 “Les Dépôts et les Confiements en Droit Égyptien et en Droit Babylonien,” Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology (PSBA), IX (07 7, 1887), 271–272.Google Scholar Also to be found in their Cinq Mémoires sur le Droit Égyptien et Babylonien (London?, 1887?), 5–6Google Scholar.

55 “A Babylonian Year of Jubilee?” LVII (05, 1938)Google Scholar.

56 Ibid., 70.

57 Alexander ignores this economic phenomenon, and rather believes the cancellation policy to have been issued every fixed number of years, in some such fashion as the Hebrew Jubilee Year. Cf. Langdon, S., “A Fragment of the Hammurabi Code,” PSBA, XXXVI (05 11, 1914), 102, 104. See alsoGoogle ScholarGadd, C. J., “Text of the ‘Babylonian Seisachtheia,’” Symbolae ad Iura Orientis Antiqui Pertinentes Paulo Koschaker (Leiden, 1939)Google Scholar.