COMMERCE IN OLD BABYLONIA.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 3461, 4 January 1901, Page 4

COMMERCE IN OLD BABYLONIA.

From the curious clay tablet records unearthed at Babylon and Nineveh much curious and interesting information has been obtained about the commerce and commercial laws of Old Babylonia. The Babylonian merchant of the time of Asurbanipal was curiously like the trader of the Plantagenet and Tudor periods. . His commercial activities were more developed than those of" our merchants under the earlier English dynasty, owing to the curious policy which led the first, three Edwards to place the foreign trade of the country in the hands of such ..bodies ,as the Ilaiiseatic League. He is perhaps more "properly comparable with the adventurers of the .sixteenth century, who carried on the spice trade with the East Indies, and risked their persons and property in the territories of the Muscovite Emperors. Babylonia was in easy communication with India- both by land and sea, and the seaport tow llß which sprang up along the Persian Gulf testified to the profitable character of the commerce which this fact encouraged;: Moreover, there was Phoenicia -lying to the westward 'ready to -receive .the wealth of the .East after its through. Babylon, and to ito the:' countries on ihe Mediterranean. . With such-trading' facilities it was only to be expected that we should find a. body of-commercial law and custom. Although much of the written law has either disappeared altogether or is hopelessly mutilated, the large number of legal documents discovered during excavations at Babylon, Nineveh, and elsewhere, has enabled a reconstruction to be made, with remarkable accuracy and fulness. Meuiy of these documents, in- j scribed on .clay , tablets, are to 'be seen in the British Museum, v and their numbers, are accounted for by the facfe that documentary evidence was the custom in almost all transactions. The Babylonian made his contract before an official, generally a priest, taking an oath to abide by the obligations he had assumed, and the contractual relations were cemented by the signatures and seals of the parties and a number of witnesses. Occasionally the contract was duplicated, one tablet being enclosed in the other, and the outside one being broken ,dn case a question arose as tq whether the outside contract had been tampered with. , Under the ordinary law of Babylonia, a sale did not confer a permanent title on the purchaser;- the seller or his heirs might always demand the return of the property sold. This rule also prevailed among another branch of the Semitic nation, the Israelites, with regard to sales of land, since the soil was regarded as a gift from Jehovah to the nation, and therefore incapable of permanent alienation by private ; holders. The commercial instinct of the Babylonians quickly made them, aware that such a right depreciated -the value of their property, and'accordingly, the custom grew up of 'contracting out of the . law by* -inserting .in the' bargain a, clause to the effect that "the 'demand for the return of"the property will not be : made, the contract will not be altered, no . claim will .be raised by either party : against tie' other."..-' Various forms "of mortgage and pledge were in use in Babylonia, one olj them bearing a close resemblance to the Roman hypotheca, in which, possession of the pledged article remained with the pledger. . In the antichretic mortgage, on the other hand, possession passed to the mortgagee at' once, and ownership.! as well if the debtor failed to pay at the specified' date. No deed was in that case necessary to pass dominum, a noticeable distinction between, the Babylonian law and that of Egypt, where a. formal act of foreclosure was required. A contract for future delivery was frequently accepted as security for a loan.