Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East

Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East PDF Author: John Weisweiler
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197647170
Category : Credit
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
In his Debt: The First 5000 Years, the anthropologist David Graeber put forward a new grand narrative of world history. From the Late Bronze Age onwards, all across the Near East and Mediterranean, relationships of mutual obligation were transformed into quantifiable and legally enforceable debts. Graeber suggests that this transformation made possible new economic institutions, such as IOUs, coinage, and chattel slavery. It also led to the emergence of modes of thought that have shaped Eurasian philosophical and religious traditions ever since. Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and the Near East explores the implications of this theory for the history of the Mediterranean and Near East. A distinguished group of ancient historians assesses how well Graeber's interpretations fit current understandings of ancient and late antique economies. At the same time, this volume offers a history of premodern credit systems which takes seriously the dual nature of debt as both quantifiable economic reality and immeasurable social obligation. By exploring the diverse ways in which social relationships were quantified in different ancient and late antique societies, the work introduces a method of writing the history of premodern systems of exchange that departs from the currently dominant paradigm of neo-institutional economics.

Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East

Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East PDF Author: John Weisweiler
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197647170
Category : Credit
Languages : en
Pages : 297

Get Book

Book Description
In his Debt: The First 5000 Years, the anthropologist David Graeber put forward a new grand narrative of world history. From the Late Bronze Age onwards, all across the Near East and Mediterranean, relationships of mutual obligation were transformed into quantifiable and legally enforceable debts. Graeber suggests that this transformation made possible new economic institutions, such as IOUs, coinage, and chattel slavery. It also led to the emergence of modes of thought that have shaped Eurasian philosophical and religious traditions ever since. Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and the Near East explores the implications of this theory for the history of the Mediterranean and Near East. A distinguished group of ancient historians assesses how well Graeber's interpretations fit current understandings of ancient and late antique economies. At the same time, this volume offers a history of premodern credit systems which takes seriously the dual nature of debt as both quantifiable economic reality and immeasurable social obligation. By exploring the diverse ways in which social relationships were quantified in different ancient and late antique societies, the work introduces a method of writing the history of premodern systems of exchange that departs from the currently dominant paradigm of neo-institutional economics.

Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East

Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East PDF Author: John Weisweiler
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780197647196
Category : Credit
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"This volume reconsiders the economic history of the ancient and late ancient Mediterranean and Near East from the perspective of David Graeber's anthropological theory. It pursues two purposes. On the one hand, it tests the accuracy of the grand narrative put forward in his 2011 monograph Debt: The First 5000 Years. Does the concept of a 'currency-slavery-warfare complex', in which monetization, state formation and the subjection of new fields of life to the logic of the market go hand in hand, shed new light on the political economies of the Near East and Mediterranean from around 700 BCE to 700 CE? On the other hand, this volume offers a history of ancient and late ancient credit systems which takes seriously the dual nature of debt as both a quantifiable economic reality and an immeasurable social obligation. By examining the multiplicity of ways in which social relationships were quantified in different societies, it tries out a method of writing the history of pre-modern systems of exchange that departs from the currently dominant paradigm of neo-institutional economics"--

Debt and Economic Renewal in the Ancient Near East

Debt and Economic Renewal in the Ancient Near East PDF Author: Michael Hudson
Publisher: Penn State University Press
ISBN:
Category : Debt
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
History and analysis of the economic and social development of debt, interest-bearing loans, royal remission of debts, and economic renewal policies.

The Open Sea

The Open Sea PDF Author: J. G. Manning
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691202303
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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Book Description
"In The Open Sea, J. G. Manning offers a major new history of economic life in the Mediterranean world in the Iron Age, from Phoenician trading down to the Hellenistic era and the beginning of Rome's imperial supremacy. Drawing on a wide range of ancient sources and the latest social theory, Manning suggests that a search for an illusory single "ancient economy" has obscured the diversity of lived experience in the Mediterranean world, including both changes in political economies over time and differences in cultural conceptions of property and money. At the same time, he shows how the region's economies became increasingly interconnected during this period." -- Publisher's description

Law and (Dis)Order in the Ancient Near East

Law and (Dis)Order in the Ancient Near East PDF Author: Katrien De Graef
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 1646021207
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
Mesopotamia is often considered to be the birthplace of law codes. In recognition of this fact and motivated by the perennial interest in the topic among Assyriologists, the 59th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale was organized in Ghent in 2013 around the theme “Law and (Dis)Order in the Ancient Near East.” Based on papers delivered at that meeting, this volume contains twenty-six essays that focus on archaeological, philological, and historical topics related to order and chaos in the Ancient Near East. Written by a diverse array of international scholars, the contributions to this book explore laws and legal practices in the Ur III, Old Babylonian, Middle Assyrian, and Neo-Assyrian periods in Mesopotamia, as well as in Nuzi and the Hebrew Bible. Among the subjects covered are the Code of Hammurabi, legal phraseology, the archaeological traces of the organization of community life, and biblical law. The volume also contains essays that explore the concepts of chaos/disorder and law/order in divinatory texts and literature. Wide-ranging and cutting-edge, the essays in this collection will be of interest to Assyriologists, especially members of the International Association for Assyriology.

Security for Debt in Ancient Near Eastern Law

Security for Debt in Ancient Near Eastern Law PDF Author: Raymond Westbrook
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004121249
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
A survey by twelve leading experts of the types of security available to creditors in the earliest recorded legal systems, and of the ways in which the law sought to satisfy the conflicting interests of creditors and debtors.

Debt and Indebtedness at Emar

Debt and Indebtedness at Emar PDF Author: Maurizio Viano
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1501515314
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 561

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Book Description
This book is the first comprehensive study of debts and credit system at Emar. It focuses on the socio-economic aspects of credit access and indebtedness as well as on the motivations behind debts and debt settlement in the city of Emar. The credit system is analyzed through several factors: the purpose of debts, i.e., productive or consumptive; the procedures for granting loans; the strategies put in place to meet an obligation and to cope with economic difficulties; the consequences of non-fulfillment, which may lead to servitude or slavery; the different types of slavery; slave prices; the mechanisms of enslavement; and termination of slavery. Moneylending practices and the formation of servile conditions at Emar are studied in the context of the Syrian economy aiming to understand whether the Emar evidence conforms with a socio political and economic crisis that is generally acknowledged to have struck Syria, Anatolia and Northern Mesopotamia at the end of the Late Bronze Age. This work is of sure relevance for scholars interested in socio-economic history, not only of the pertinent historical-geographical area.

A History of Interest and Debt

A History of Interest and Debt PDF Author: Murat Ustaoğlu
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000089932
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
With the spread of interest-based transactions, major problems such as inequality, poverty and debt-based slavery have emerged. Those who practiced professions such as usury have, despite the negative connotations attributed to them, contributed extensively to the construction of the conventional financial system in the global economy, suggesting that the core concepts in this practice need to be analyzed in greater depth and from a historical perspective. This book analyzes the evolution of interest-bearing debt transactions from ancient times to the era of Abrahamic religions. In modern times, interest is strictly prohibited by Islam, but this book demonstrates that it is a practice that has been condemned and legally and morally prohibited in other civilizations, long before Islam outlawed it. Exploring the roots of this prohibition and how interest has been justified as a viable practice in economic and financial transactions, the book offers deep insight into the current nature of finance and economics, and the distinctive features of Islamic finance in particular and enables researchers to further delve into a review of interest-free financing models. Islamic finance, or alternative financial methods, have become extremely popular particularly in the aftermath of global financial crises, suggesting that they will attract further interest in the future as well. The book is primarily aimed at undergraduate and graduate students but, as it avoids the use of technical jargon, it also speaks to a general readership. It will appeal to those who have an interest in financial history, particularly the history of debt as well.

Dynamics of Production in the Ancient Near East

Dynamics of Production in the Ancient Near East PDF Author: Juan Carlos Moreno Garcia
Publisher: Oxbow Books
ISBN: 1785702831
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
The transition between the 2nd and the 1st millennium BC was an era of deep economic changes in the ancient Near East. An increasing monetization of transactions, a broader use of silver, the management of the resources of temples through “entrepreneurs”, the development of new trade circuits and an expanding private, small-scale economy, transformed the role previously played by institutions such as temples and royal palaces. The 17 essays collected here analyze the economic transformations which affected the old dominant powers of the Late Bronze Age, their adaptation to a new economic environment, the emergence of new economic actors and the impact of these changes on very different social sectors and geographic areas, from small communities in the oases of the Egyptian Western Desert to densely populated urban areas in Mesopotamia. Egypt was not an exception. Traditionally considered as a conservative and highly hierarchical and bureaucratic society, Egypt shared nevertheless many of these characteristics and tried to adapt its economic organization to the challenges of a new era. In the end, the emergence of imperial super-powers (Assyria, Babylonia, Persia and, to a lesser extent, Kushite and Saite Egypt) can be interpreted as the answer of former palatial organizations to the economic and geopolitical conditions of the early Iron Age. A new order where competition for the control of flows of wealth and of strategic trading areas appears crucial.

The Classical Debt

The Classical Debt PDF Author: Johanna Hanink
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674978307
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
“Greek debt” means one thing to the country’s creditors. But for millions who prize culture over capital, it means the symbolic debt we owe Greece for democracy, philosophy, mathematics, and fine art. Johanna Hanink shows that our idealized image of ancient Greece dangerously shapes our view of the country’s economic hardship and refugee crisis.