Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts and Letters Part 29

One mina which A and B have put together for common business. All that it makes is common property.

Or thus:

Two minas each, A and B, have as _?arranu_. All that it makes, in town and country, is in common. Rent of the house to be paid from capital.(755)

(M705) They had a house, as shop and warehouse, the rent of which was a charge upon the business. Slaves might be partners with free men, even with their masters. A partner might merely furnish the capital or both might do so, and commit it to the hands of a slave or a free man with which to do business. The slave took his living out of such capital, and the free man received either provisions or a fixed payment. Thus we read:(756)

Five minas and six hundred and thirty pots of aromatics belong to A and B as partners. This stock is given to C, a slave, and D, another slave, with which to do business. Whatever it makes is A and B's in common. C and D take food and clothing from the profits where they go.

It is not unlikely that each slave was to look after his own master's interests. For we read:(757)

Six minas belong to A and B and are given to C the slave of B as capital. A and B share what it makes. A will give another slave D to help C.

Even women entered into business as agents. We read:(758)

Two-thirds of a mina belonging to A and B are given to a free woman with which to trade.

(M706) As in earlier times, the dissolution of partnership usually involved a reference to the law-courts. Thus we have(759) a reckoning before judges of two brothers and a third who were in a partnership from the eighth year of Nabopola.s.sar to the eighteenth of Nebuchadrezzar. "The business is dissolved" (_girru pa?rat_). All the former contracts were broken and shares are a.s.signed to each. The first two brothers were in possession of fifty shekels which were to be divided.

(M707) Provisional reckonings were constantly made at frequent intervals, but did not involve dissolution of partnership, nor need to be referred to a law-court.(760) Some cases are interesting for additional items of information. Thus we note:(761)

(M708)

Two partners put in each fifty _GUR_ of dates. Whatever it makes is to be in common. They take a house in Borsippa for one year at rent of half a mina. The rent is to be paid out of profits. B holds the house and apparently carries on the business. At the end of the year he returns it and all the utensils to A.

It seems likely that he carried on some kind of manufacture. A held the south house, next door. B also paid the t.i.thes. A similar case where some manufacture from dates is supposed, is thus stated:(762)

A lends one hundred _GUR_ of dates, fifty _GUR_ of corn, sixty large pots, to B and C two of his slaves, on a partnership. They are to take in common whatever it makes, in town and country. The venture is to last three years. But, in this case, they are to pay interest two minas _per annum_. At the end of the three years, the two slaves returned all.

They were given a house for which they paid no rent.

(M709) Closely allied with agency is the power of attorney. In the Code(763) a son in his father's house could not contract, buy or sell, or give on deposit, except by power of attorney empowering him to act for his father. The same was true of the slave. The contemporary doc.u.ments contain many references to business done by agents on the order of their princ.i.p.als.(764) The a.s.syrians also make frequent mention of persons acting as _bel ?atati_, having the power of another's hands, being in fact allowed to act as their attorney or agent. The king was represented in the law-courts by his agent.(765) Sometimes the agent was called _bel pa?ati_ of the king's son.(766) It even seems to be the case that _?atatu_ acquired the sense of agency, or business, and _bit ?atati_ came to mean a "shop," or bazaar. In many cases "agency" was expressed by _a ?ata_, "by the hands of." Aliens had to act through such an agent.(767) When three men borrow a quant.i.ty of straw, one alone sealed the receipt and bond to repay, and was said to be _bel ?atati a tibni_, "agent for the straw."(768) A female slave was sued for property said to be due from her master, in his absence. A free man, perhaps the judge, was _bel ?atati_ for the woman that her master would take up the case on his return, and undertook to satisfy the suitor, if she could not do so.(769)

(M710) In later Babylonian times the phrase survived. The commissary acted "with the hand" of his princ.i.p.al. We may take this to be the hand-sign, or seal, representing written authority. It involved a reckoning with his master, and naturally gave rise to a number of delicate questions. If a man bought a house for another, having been commissioned so to do, his princ.i.p.al must of course pay the price. But was he bound to accept his agent's selection? Could he not demur regarding the price? One of these points at least was dealt with by the later Code. Law A deals with the man who has concluded a purchase for another, without having a power of attorney from him in a sealed deed. If he has had the deed made out in his own name, he is the possessor. Of course, he can sell again to his princ.i.p.al, but he could not do so at a profit. Nor is the princ.i.p.al under any obligation to accept the purchase at the price the agent gave for it.

Actual examples are far from rare: A buys a field, crop, date-palms and all, for C and D. This purchase was made on condition that all copies of the transaction be destroyed. The condition was not observed, as we still possess one of them. Later A received from C, one of his princ.i.p.als, about half the price he had paid. But it does not appear that D ever paid his share, and this is why the condition was not carried out. Presumably A and C remained owners of the field.(770)

(M711) There is no limit to the varieties of agency or representative action. At all periods we meet with a brother, usually the eldest, acting for his other brothers. A brother acting with the hand of his brother also occurs in the time of Evil Merodach.(771)

(M712) The power of attorney was also given to receive money and give a receipt, under seal.(772) Again: A bought some slaves of B and paid in full. B gave receipt for the money, but did not undertake to deliver the slaves at A's house. A can send a messenger or agent to take the slaves, and B agrees to deliver them to such. Whatever is born or dies from among the slaves is credited to A.(773)

XXIX. Accounts And Business Doc.u.ments

(M713) There are lists which are not formal contracts, but may have been used as legal evidence. The stewards of the great temples, of the palaces, and even of wealthy men in business, kept most careful accounts. These lists have some features peculiar to themselves and are not without considerable interest.

(M714) The tablets which have reached our museums from Telloh, Nippur, and elsewhere, belonging to the ages before the First Dynasty of Babylon, are for the most part temple accounts. They often concern the offerings made by various persons, often officials of high standing, and some may well have been the notes sent with the offerings. But many were drawn up as records of the receipts for a certain day, month, or year. Interesting as they are for the cla.s.s of offerings, for the names of offerers, or of priests, and for the cult of particular G.o.ds, or the localities near Telloh and Nippur, and often containing valuable hints for the history and chronology of those times, they do not give us the same insight into the daily life of the people that the longer legal doc.u.ments do, in later periods.

(M715) An important cla.s.s consists of receipts for loans. Those drawn up at full length and witnessed, have already been considered. But the majority may only contain a list of articles delivered, with the name of the receiver, the lender being the holder as a temple official, while the receiver is a subordinate. These may have been as effective as the fuller bonds, but they furnish little information, except regarding the current prices of articles.

(M716) Some tablets are concerned with hire. The amounts paid by the temple for repairs, fresh robes for G.o.ds and officials, even maintenance of the workmen, are all set down with their totals for a week, or a month.

(M717) An important cla.s.s consists of the records of the measurements, length, breadth, and area of fields, together with the amounts of corn which they were expected to produce. Were these available for a widely extended area, we might be able to map out the district round the temple from whose archives they come.

(M718) The temples and large landowners had great flocks and herds.

Consequently, there is much evidence concerning the pastoral occupations of the people of Babylonia. The Code regulates the relations of the shepherds and herdsmen to the flock-masters.(774) Thus an owner might hire a shepherd, _nakidu_, for his sheep or cattle, at the wages of eight _GUR_ of corn _per annum_. The shepherd or herdsman took out the flock or herd to the pasture and was responsible to the owner for them. They were intrusted to him, and if sheep or ox were lost through his fault, he had to restore ox for ox and sheep for sheep. If he was hired and had received satisfactory wages, he had no power to diminish, or abstract from, the flock or herd for his keep or private use. He entered into a contract with the owner, and that stipulated for the restoration of the entire flock or herd, together with a proper increase due to the breeding of the flock or herd. He had to make any deficiency good, by statute.(775) This applied also to the stipulated profit in wool or other produce. It seems clear that his own profit was any excess above the stipulated return. Otherwise it is difficult to see what source he had from which to make good the loss to his master. He was forbidden to alter the agreement into which he had entered in any particular, or to sell any of the flock, under penalty of a tenfold rest.i.tution. He was, however, protected from liability for loss by wild beasts or accident. But, if the loss was due to his fault, by neglecting to keep the fold secure, he had to make up the loss.

(M719) It is obvious that he gave a receipt for what was intrusted to him and made his account on return from the pastures. These accounts are plentiful among the temple accounts in the earliest periods, but being written for the most part in Sumerian, have still many obscurities for us.

As a rule, each deals with the liabilities of one man, whose "account,"

_nikasu_, it is said to be. At the beginning are recounted the details of his trust, so many oxen, cows, sheep or goats, of varied ages and qualities. Here it is very difficult to translate. Anyone who knows the variety of names which are given to an animal by agriculturists according to its age, s.e.x, and use, need not be surprised to find that the Babylonians had many names for what we can only render by "sheep." As a rule, we know when the ram, ewe, or lamb is intended. But this by no means exhausts the variety. Anyone who glances through an Arabic lexicon must notice how many different names the Arabs have for the camel in its different aspects. But in our case we often have no clew to what was meant by the signs beyond some variety of sheep, ox, or goat. At any rate, the first section enumerates the cattle or sheep delivered to the herdsman.

Then follows a section devoted to those "withdrawn," taken back by the owner, or exacted as some due from the flock. Others are noted as taken for sacrifice, used for the wages or support of the herdsman, or else dead or otherwise missing. These the herdsman was allowed to subtract and then had to return the balance. There are similar lists of a.s.ses or goats. The tablets hardly lend themselves to connected translation because of the absence of verbs. The following is an example:

Forty-three ewes, forty-three rams, seven ewe-lambs, seven he-lambs, three she-goats, one sucking kid, to start with.

Expended in ewes and rams, none; six ewes, seventeen rams, s.n.a.t.c.hed away; no lambs lost: no ewes, one ram, no lambs. Total: one hundred and four to start with. Total expended: none. Total: twenty-three s.n.a.t.c.hed away. Total: one lost. Nam?ani, shepherd.

Overseer: Duggazidda. At Girsu. The year after the king devastated Kimash.

The meaning of the words is somewhat conjectural. "Expended" may mean used for the shepherd's own maintenance. "s.n.a.t.c.hed away" means probably deducted for revenue purposes, about one in five. The scribe did not write "none." He merely left a blank.(776)

(M720) The similar lists for the second epoch are not yet available for study. Only one(777) appears to have been published,(778) but there are many still unpublished. It is not easy to translate them, because, though many Semitic names occur, there is still a tendency to use the old Sumerian, or ideographic writings. Such a list as:

Eight oxen, twenty-three work-oxen (for watering-machines), eleven milch cows, sixteen steers, sixteen heifers. In all seventy-four oxen (or cattle) belonging to Marduk-uballi? in the hands of Belshunu, fifth day,

may serve as an example, but does not convey much information to us. These lists are chiefly valuable for the means of comparison they afford. A three-year-old ox was worth half a mina of silver.(779)

(M721) For a.s.syrian times we have a few interesting examples, just enough to show that the same customs survived. There are no less than thirty-five kinds of sheep and goats, and fifteen kinds of cattle named in the lists; also eleven kinds of birds. Here is a specimen list of a.s.ses which gives some prices:(780)

One male working a.s.s for one and a half minas seven shekels, one she-a.s.s for thirty-seven shekels, a second she-a.s.s for one mina, a third she-a.s.s for one royal mina, a fourth she-a.s.s for thirty-two shekels, in all five and a half minas two shekels.