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CDL, Bethesda, MD. 2002, 355 pgs., bibliographies, notes, This is Vol.
III from the Institute for the Study of Long-term Economic Trends and the
International Scholars Conference on Ancient near Eastern Economics - A
colloquium held at Columbia Univ. Nov, 1998.
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Reviewer comment:
This is one of the important contributions of Michael Hudson to the
understanding of economics, trade, money, credit, debt in ancient Mesopotamia
and Egypt. it contains 12 entries authored by participants in the colloquium.
Several of these are very detailed descriptions based on primary sources in the
cuneiform documents found in various archeological sites in Mesopotamia. This
was a highly focused meeting and resulting book.
The authors discuss the reality of economic activity in ancient Mesopotamia and
Egypt unknown, overlooked, or denied by modern economists since Adam Smith. But
this focus then leaves out discussion of the social-political context - in
particular the deeply believed religious motivations that guided and determined
economic as well as all activity - and the political structure described by
Karl Wittfogel and others as an "Oriental Despotism" and
"hydraulic society'.
In particular they want to bring attention to the why and how 'debts' accrued
in the course of economic activity were remitted - written off- periodically in
contrast to the 'destructive' result of enforcement of debt payment at the
hands of socially favored creditors in societies from ancient Greece and Rome
to the present day. But, unfortunately they ignore the religious beliefs upon
which those communities were based - namely that their gods not only owned
everything but had created mankind itself to serve, work for, and obey them in
return for the god's protecting them from the inherent chaos that governed the
external world.
Michael Hudson is a strong advocate of debt cancellation today. Thus, his real,
main subject is not 'debt' itself so much and the cancellation of 'debt' as is
evidenced in the title of his opening article. His strong political views may
be read in his book, Finance Capitalism and its Discontents, and also in
The Bubble and Beyond .
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Chapter 1 - Michael Hudson - Reconstructing the Origin of
Interest-Bearing Debt and the Logic of Clean States
Dr. Hudson includes many facts about the role of 'debt' in ancient Mesopotamia
but jumps directly into a negative assessment of the negative results of
compounded 'debt' by addition of 'interest', rather than first describing
'debt' itself, let alone the concept and purpose of interest. He is an advocate
of the political policy of enforcing 'clean states', that is, cancelation of
debt, which policy he favors today. But he does note specifically that 'debt'
in the ancient societies he examines was debt by the people TO the rulers
(palaces, temples, and appointed bureaucrats) - whereas the debt that vexes
society today is debt of the rulers TO the ruled ,or debt between members of
the ruled suppoted and enabled by government issue of free credit. Thus
remission of debt today would be an entirely different process with different
results.
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Chapter 2 - Marc Van De Mieroop - A History of Near Eastern Debt?
Dr. Van de Mieroop opens his essay by this to generate interest: "Debt has
become all-pervasive in our modern world. Indebetdness is a prevalent condition
no only of individuals but also of corporations, nations, and entire
continents. Individuals, organizations ranging from small communities to
multi-natonal entiries, public and private corporations, and governments at the
national, state, and local levels all extend and receive credit. So what does
debt today have to do with a study of debt in very different ancient societies?
BINGO - debt today is the accounting mirror of CREDIT. But that was not always
or in many cases even the earliest cause of 'debt'. Debt was a synonym for
'transgression' as the Lord's Prayer indicates. "Debt' now is also thought
of as the result of 'borrowing'. "Debt' is a promise to produce something
in the future with which to complete an exchange transaction. But 'debt' in
ancient societies could be quite different.
The author continues with discussion of the modern attitude toward 'debt'
transfered to its creditor. He cautions: "The creditor's negative image
needs to be balanced against the importance of credit in the economy,
pre-capitalist and well as capitalist. He proceeds to describe in considerable
detail the nature of 'debt' as depicted in the ancient Near Eastern documents,
our only sources today for this information.
He explains his purposes: "Individual acts of lending and borrowing,
collecting and forgiving debts,charging interest and so on can only fullly be
understood within a wider context" (With which our contemporary economists
generally ignore). He first descries the limited ancient primary sources and
includes a table showing the dates for these documents from Mesopotamia from
3000 BC Uruk to 100 BC Assyria and Babylon. He also cites the single ancient
Egyptian source, the tomb workers' community at Deir el-Mediah.
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Chapter 3 - Alfonso Archi - "Debt" in an Archaic Palatial
Economy
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Chapter 4 - Piotr Steinkeller - Money-Lending Practices in Ur III
Babylonia: The Issue of Economic Motivation
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Chapter 5 - Johannes Renger - Royal Edicts of the Old Babylonian Period
-- Structural Background
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Chapter 6 - Marc Van De Mieroop - Credit as a Facilitator of Exchange
on Old Babylonian Mesopotamia
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Chapter 7 - Carlo Zacagnini - Debt and Debt Remission at Nuzi
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Chapter 8 - Michael Jursa - Debts and Indebetedness in the
neo-Babylonian Period: Evidence from the Institutional Archives
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Chapter 9 - Cornelia Wunsch - Debt, Interest, Pledge and Forfeiture in
the New-Babylonian and Early Achaemenid Period: The Evidence from Private
Archives
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Chapter 10 - Edward Bleiberg - Loans, Credit and Interest in Ancient
Egypt
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Chapter 11 - Ogden Goelier, Jr. Fiscal Renewal in Ancient Egypt: Its
Language, Symbols and Metaphors
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Chapter 12 - Michael Hudson, ed. General Discussion
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Michael Hudson, ... and forgive them their debts. Islet verlag,
Dresden, 2018, 311 pgs., index, huge bibliography, illustrations, paperback
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Michael Hudson, 'The Archeology of Money', Chapter 5 in Credit and
State Theories of Money - Edward Elgar Pub. Cheltenham, U.K., 2004,
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Michael Hudson, Finance as Warfare, College Publications, UK.,
2015, 151 pgs., notes, references, paperback
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Michael Hudson, A Travesty Of Financial History Which Bank Lobbiests
Will Applaud, New Economic Perspectives. org, 15 July, 2016,
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Michael Hudson, Finance Capitalism and its Discontents, ISLET,
Dresden, 2012, 275 pgs., paperback
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Michael Hudson The Bubble and Beyond, ISLET, Dresden, 2012, 535 pgs.,
paperback
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Peter Temin, The Roman Market Economy, Princeton Univ. Press,
2013, 299 pgs., index, references, paperback
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Alain Bresson, The Making of the Ancient Greek Economy,
Princeton Univ. Press, 2016, 620 pgs., index, sources, notes
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Amanda H. Podany, Brotherhood Of Kings, Oxford Univ. Press,
2010, index, bibliography, notes, illustrations, maps, time line, list of
personalities, recommended reading, paperback
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David S. Landes, Joel Mokyr & William Boumol, eds., The
Invention of Enterprise: Entrepreneurship from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern
Times, Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, 2010, 566 pgs., index, each essay
has its own reference notes.
This includes articles by Michael Hudson and Cornelia Wunsch
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J. G. Manning and Ian Morris, The Ancient Economy, Subheading:
Evidence and Models, Stanford University Press, Stanford, Calif., 2005, index,
notes, bibliography, maps, tables, figures, paperback
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David Graeber, Debt, Subtitle: The First 5,000 Years, Melville
House Publishing, Brooklyn NY., 2011, 534 pgs., index, bibliography, notes
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Mesopotamia - Wikipedia Entry
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Facts and Details - Mesopotamian Economics and Money
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