The banksters of Old Babylon
In the Old Babylonian Period (2000 to 1600 BCE), the traditional state/temple-run economic system was supplanted by a heavily privatized capitalism. From A History of the Ancient Near East, by Marc Van de Mieroop (emphasis added):
This system of economic organization and management was a hallmark of the entire period from 2000 to 1600 [BCE]. Ultimately its effects on Babylonian society were disastrous. The contributions required from [workers] seem to have been high and, in a region like Babylonia where sequences of bad harvests were not uncommon, people were often unable to meet them. They could only ask for credit from the businessmen who collected their dues. Moreover, when they could not even survive until the next harvest on the amounts set aside for their own needs, they turned to these men for emergency loans…
The records found in the houses of businessmen include a great number of loan contracts, which show that the level of indebtedness was high. That there was a debt crisis is clear from the edicts in which kings claimed to restore order by annulling outstanding consumer loans…
[The king] abolished all debts contracted by [workers] for their survival or to pay for outstanding dues, but not those of businessmen who sought capital for commercial enterprises. It was the palace that absorbed the loss, but it did so because of the tradition that a king needed to maintain order and justice in the land—and because, after all, a large indebted population would no longer form a stable tax base, but would exist only to enrich a competing class of private businessmen.
I was reminded of this when reading the Reuters piece this morning on “The Wall Street disconnect.” Self-involved banksters think they’re the good guys, ridicule the whole Occupy movement, blah blah. One of the traders sneered, “I think everyone gets what the anger is about… But you just can’t say, ‘Well I want all debts forgiven.’ That is not happening.”
Right. That is not happening. It’s pretty goddamn weird to realize that in at least one respect, we’re actually worse off than the old Babylonians.
