M. Jursa

Aspects of the Economic History of Babylonia

 AOAT 377
in the First Millennium BC.
     
Economic geography, economic mentalities, agriculture, ISBN 978-3-86835-041-8
the use of money and the problem of economic growth xviii + 900 pp.
       
(with contributions by J. Hackl, B. Janković,
K. Kleber, E.E. Payne, C. Waerzeggers 2010
and M. Weszeli)

Veröffentlichungen zur Wirtschaftsgeschichte Babyloniens 

 136,- EUR
im 1. Jahrtausend v.Chr. 
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Based on twenty years of intensive research Jursa presents a brick-like investigation and inventory of many economic facets of first millennium BC Mesopotamia. The study is based on more than 21,500 tablets of which copies or transliterations are available to the "Vienna Economic History of Babylonia project" can be assigned to an archive and hence normally also to a particular place of origin. The bulk of the material comes from Babylon, Borsippa, Nippur, Sippar and Uruk and bears witness of the movements of goods and people (chapter 2), the strategies of investment within local and interregional trade (chapter 3) and agriculture in the rural landscapes surrounding the cities (chapter 4) according to private as well as temple archives. Special attention is paid to the development of silver used as money (chapter 5). --- Highly recommended for CEOs (whether currently employed or unemployed). Extensive indices enable easy access to the wealth of information.

 

1.

Introduction

1.1.

First millennium Babylonia: historical framework and sources

1.2.

Assyriology and economic history

1.3.

The Neo-Babylonian economy: the state of the question, problems and models

1.3.1. Ecological zones and the corresponding sectors of the economy / 1.3.2. Modes of exchange / 1.3.3. Overall assessments of the Babylonian economy in the first millennium / 1.3.4. Determinants of economic structure and performance

    

2.

Routes of inner-Babylonian communication and exchange of goods

2.1.

Introduction

2.2.

Movements of goods and people in the institutional archives

2.2.1. The Euphrates route / 2.2.2. Regional economic networks and ‘satellite cities’ / 2.2.3. Uruk and Sippar and central Babylonia / 2.2.4. Conclusion

2.3.

Movements of people and goods in private archives

2.3.1. Opis / 2.3.2. Sippar / 2.3.3. Kish /2.3.4. Cutha / 2.3.5. Borsippa / 2.3.6. Dilbat / 2.3.7. Nippur / 2.3.8. Uruk / 2.3.9. Larsa / 2.3.10. Ur / 2.3.11. Babylon / 2.3.12. Conclusion

2.4.

Appendix: the costs of transporting goods (M. Weszeli)

2.4.1. The actual costs: the texts / 2.4.2. Prices in silver / 2.4.3.Other comparable data /  2.4.4. Transport of bitumen and fired bricks / 2.4.5. Conclusion

    

3.

Economic strategies and investment patterns according to private archives

3.1.

Introduction

3.2.

Survey of the most frequent spheres of business attested in private archives

3.2.1 Temple prebends, priestly offices / 3.2.2 Houses / 3.2.3 Date gardening / 3.2.4 Arable farming / 3.2.5 Agricultural management / 3.2.6 Business partnership agreements (harranu)  / 3.2.7 Domestic and interregional trade / 3.2.8. Craftsmen as archive owners / 3.2.9. Slaves / 3.2.10. Money-lending / 3.2.11. Taxes /  3.2.12. Animals  / 3.2.13. Bricks / 3.2.14. Officials and ‘professionals’ as archive owners

3.3.

Summary: typology of archives and ‘business profiles’

3.3.1. Introduction / 3.3.2. ‘Storage’ of wealth  / 3.3.3. ‘Secondary’ economic activities / 3.3.4. Economic ‘types’: rentiers vs. entrepreneurs / 3.3.5. Concluding remarks / 3.3.6 Appendix 1: household incomes / 3.3.7. Appendix 2: synopsis of archives and business activities
    

4.

Agriculture: the rural landscape, regional trends and diachronic change

4.1.

Introduction 

4.2.

Sippar

4.2.1. Introduction / 4.2.2. Ebabbar’s estates  / 4.2.3. The Sipparean rural landscape: the size and shape of the plots  / 4.2.4. The development of Sipparean agriculture

4.3.

Borsippa 

4.3.1. Introduction  / 4.3.2. The Borsippean rural landscape

4.4.

Babylon

4.4.1. Introduction / 4.4.2. The rural landscape around Babylon  / 4.4.3. Conclusion 

4.5.

Dilbat 

4.5.1. Introduction / 4.5.2. Aspects of the rural landscape  / 4.5.3. Land prices in Dilbat

4.6.

Nippur 

4.6.1. Introduction: the Mura¡û archive  / 4.6.2. The evidence from the Nippur letter archive  / 4.6.3. Sixth-century Nippur / 4.6.4. Nippur agriculture in the fifth-century texts apart from the Mura¡û archive / 4.6.5. Conclusion

4.7.

Uruk (Bojana Janković)

4.7.1. Introduction / 4.7.2. Estates of Eanna / 4.7.3. Plot sizes and productivity / 4.7.4. Private land / 4.7.5. Conclusion 

4.8.

Conclusion

4.8.1. Synopsis of the regional surveys / 4.8.2. Prices and agrarian change

  

5.

Silver, silver money and money-based exchange

5.1.

Introduction

5.2.

Silver qualities

5..3.

Interest rates

5.4.

Cash and kind in the institutional economy

5.4.1. Introduction / 5.4.2. Silver in the Nippur letter archive / 5.4.3. Transactions in a temple archive from the eighth century / 5.4.4. Sixth-century temple archives: typological breakdown of transactions / 5.4.5. Ebabbar’s trade in dates / 5.4.6. Eanna’s trade in wool (Kristin Kleber) 

5.5.

Silver in the non-institutional sector of the economy 

5.5.1. Introduction / 5.5.2. Typical contexts of money usage  / 5.5.3. Silver: exclusively high-range money? / 5.5.4. Street markets, markets in the gate areas, shops  / 5.5.5. Taxation and money 

5.6.

Money and labour

 /5.6.1. Introduction / 5.6.2. Hired mass labour in the institutional economy / 5.6.3. The cost of labour: ‘rations’ vs. wages / 5.6.4. Money and labour in the city: on independent craftsmen and hirelings / 5.6.5. Conclusion /

5.7.

Money in agriculture

5.7.1. Introduction / 5.7.2. Agricultural rents and money

5.8.

On price trends and money circulation

5.8.1. Introduction / 5.8.2. The development of sheep prices  / 5.8.3. The development of slave prices / 5.8.4. Inflation in the second half of the sixth century

  

6.

General conclusions and further questions 

6.1.

Summary of principal findings

6.1.1. Economic geography  / 6.1.2. Agriculture  / 6.1.3. On the private sector of the economy  / 6.1.4. On the institutional economy  / 6.1.5. Modes of exchange and the role of silver money

6.2.

Models

6.2.1. The commercialisation model and the traditional model  / 6.2.2. Economic growth: the Hopkins model / 6.2.3. Long-term perspectives?

6.3.

Consumption and standards of living as an indication of economic performance

6.3.1. Defining the problem / 6.3.2. Prosperity levels in Babylonia in the second and first millennia / 6.3.3. Prosperity in cross-cultural comparison: wheat wages

   

7.

Bibliography

   

Indices