Early Civilizations - Mesopotamia: Cruelty and Redemption
I. EARLY CIVILIZATIONS - MESOPOTAMIA: CRUELTY AND REDEMPTION
a. An account ....
b. Bondage or bonded
servitude
(Schuldknechtschaft)....
c. Clean plate edicts
d. Coins (Münzen) ....
e. Coinage (Münzprägung)....
1.... stipulated that all debts would be automatically cancelled in
the Sabbath year (that is, after seven years had passed), and that
all who languished in bondage owing to such debts would be
released.
2.... is the release from one's burden of sin and guilt: The end of
history would be that moment when all slates are wiped clean
and all debts finally lifted (= final Jubilee).
3.... are small pieces of valuable metal, shaped into standardized
units, with some emblem or mark inscribed to authenticate
them. They are used as money.
f. A commodity (Ware)....
4..... was first introduced in Northern China and in Ancient
Greece around 600 B.C.
g. Credit (Kredit, Darlehen)....
5..... is a record of all the money (or commodities, goods) that a
person or business receives and spends.
h. A Creditor (Geldgeber,
Gläubiger)....
6..... is something that is (usually produced in order to be) sold for
money. In times of slavery even human beings are sold for
money at markets..
i.
The Law of Jubilee...
j.
Interest on a loan
(Kreditzinsen)....
7 .... means "he or she believes" in Latin. This refers to the belief
or the trust that a person who lends money or goods to you has
that you will pay back the money or goods that you owe him.
k. Mortgage (Hypothek)....
l.
Patriarchy (Patriarchat)....
m. A pawn (Pfand)....
n. Redemption (Erlösung) ...
o. Usury (Wucher)....
8.... is a person (or a bank) that lends money or goods to you. The
debtor owes the money or the goods to this person or bank.
9 ..... is a sum of money that you have to pay as a percentage of a
larger sum of money or an amount of goods which you have
borrowed.
10 ..... is using your land or your house as a guarantee to a creditor
in order to borrow money or goods from him. If you fail to pay
back your debt, the creditor has the right to take possession of
your land or your house.
11 ..... is something you give as a security to someone who
becomes your creditor. If you do not pay back your debt, the
creditor has the right to sell it.
12..... is the practice of lending money at interest rates that are
higher than they should be.
13..... were issued by Mesopotamian rulers since the 3rd
millennium B.C. All debts, even those based on failure to pay
fees to the temple, were forgiven and cancelled. Maximum
interest rates were set. The king oversaw the ritual of "breaking
the tablets", that is, the debt records, by raising a torch,
symbolizing the sun-god of justice. Persons held in bondage
were released to rejoin their families, other debtors were
restored to their lands.
14. .... is the condition of being under the total control of someone
else working for them as their slave or their serf.
Auf dieser Stele ist der mesopotamische
Lugal (König) Hammurabi abgebildet.
15..... means “the rule of fathers” For a poor man, one's
creditworthiness was precisely one's command over one's family.
For the poor, this meant that family members could be rented if
they needed to take a loan. There are recorded cases of men
sending their sons as "pawns" for loans that were clearly just
advance payment for employment in the lender's farm or cloth
workshop.
Early Civilizations - Mesopotamia: Cruelty and Redemption
an account - accountancy
An account is a record of all the money (or commodities,
goods) that a person or business receives and spends
bondage - bonded servitude
Bondage or bonded servitude is the condition of being under
the total control of someone else working for them as their slave
or their serf.
bullion
Bullion is gold or silver in form of lumps or bars (-> ingots).
From around 600 A.D. bullion was turned into coins.
a coin - coinage
A coin is a small piece of valuable metal, shaped into a
standardized unit, with some emblem or mark inscribed to
authenticate it. Coins are used as money. Coinage was first
introduced in Northern China and in Ancient Greece around 600
B.C.
a clean plate edict
Since the 3rd millennium B.C. clean plate edicts were issued by
Mesopotamian rulers. All debts and mortgages, even those
based on failure to pay fees to the temple, were forgiven and
cancelled. Maximum interest rates were set. The king oversaw
the ritual of "breaking the tablets", that is, the debt records, by
raising a torch, symbolizing the sun-god of justice. Persons held
in bondage were released to rejoin their families, other debtors
were restored to their lands.
a commodity - commoditization
A commodity is something that is (usually produced in order to
be) sold for money. In times of slavery even human beings
become commodities and are sold for money at markets.
a credit
Credit derives from the Latin word "credit" which means "he
or she believes" - in this sense credit refers to the belief or the
trust that a person who lends money or goods to you (->
creditor) has that you will pay back the money or the goods
that you owe him
a creditor
Your creditor is a person that lends money or goods to you.
You owe the money or the goods to the creditor.
a debt
In all Indo-European languages, words for "debt" are
synonymous with those for "guilt". Debt derives from the Latin
word "debere" which means "you must do something" or "to
be obliged to do something". The Latin word "debitus" means
"guilty". Debt is also closely related to money. For example,
there is a connection between the German word "Geld" with
Old English "Geild" (= the sacrifice you owe to a God) and, of
course, guilt. "Vergeltung" (= retaliation) in this sense also
means to pay back someone.
.
a debtor
A debtor is a person who owes money or goods to a creditor.
freedom
The term "amaragi" translated as "freedom" first occured in the
3rd millenium B.C. in clean plate edicts. "Amaragi" was related
to "resoring the child to its mother, and the mother to her
child" as people who languished in bondage were released to
rejoin their family
interest on a loan
A sum of money that you have to pay as a percentage of a
larger sum of money or an amount of goods which you have
borrowed (-> loan). You pay interest on a loan (-> goods or
money that you have borrowed).
The origins of interest are difficult to reconstruct. In ancient
languages the word for interest is often derived from some word
for "offspring". This might indicate that interest originated in
loans of livestock (cattle, sheep, etc.). More likely, the first
interest bearing loans were commercial: Mesopotamian palace
officials would forward goods to merchants, who would then
trade them on trading expeditions. Mesopotamian officials seem
not to have trusted merchants returning from far-off land to be
entirely honest about the profits they made. Instead, an interest
rate as a return for the loan was fixed in advance.
the law of jubilee
A law that stipulated that all debts would be automatically
cancelled in the Sabbath year, and that all who languished in
bondage owing to such debts would be released and debtors
were restored cultivation rights to their lands.
money
Money was probably first created by Mesopotamian officials in
order to keep accounts and to calculate debts (loans, fees, rents)
to mortgage - a mortgage
If you mortgage your land or your house you use it as a
guarantee to a creditor in order to borrow money or goods from
him. If you fail to pay back your debt, the creditor has the right
to take possession of your land or your house.
patriarchy
means “the rule of fathers” For a poor man, one's
creditworthiness was precisely one's command over one's family.
For the poor, this meant that family members could be rented if
they needed to take a loan. There are recorded cases of men
sending their sons as "pawns" for loans that were clearly just
advance payment for employment in the lender's farm or cloth
workshop.
a pawn
A pawn is something you give as a security to a pawn-broker who
becomes your creditor. The pawn-broker as your creditor has the
right to sell the pawn if you do not pay back your debt
usury
Usury is the parctice of lending money by money lenders who
charge interest rates that arr higher than they should be