7.2.2 Legal Basis
The most common form suggests that loan was a real contract: it
was the receipt of funds that generated the obligation to repay them.
Bare promises to pay were in principle no different, since they implied
prior receipt of the loan. In many cases, however, irrespective of the
formulation, the document also contains a promissory oath to repay.
Oaths are to be expected to secure ancillary duties but would seem
superfluous in respect of the basic obligation of the contract, and
they do not occur in this function in later periods.^112 There is no
ready explanation for this phenomenon,^113 except to refer to the gen-
eral observation mentioned above, that heavy use of the oath was
a special feature of this period.7.2.3 Interest
Some loans have the annotation ur 5 - “è or ur 5 -ra, the Akkadian lex-
ical equivalent of which is ¢ubullu, an interest-bearing loan. Nonetheless,
some have the further notation “bears no interest” (má“nu-tuku),
which suggests a less strict interpretation. In some cases, the expla-
nation may be that an unstated antichretic pledge is to substitute
for interest, since the latter notation is found in antichretic pledge
documents, even together with an explicit statement of the interest
payable from the yield of the pledge (YOS 4 5).^114 In others, there
may have been a special dispensation, as with temple loans (“bar-
ley of Enlil”), which were probably interest-free.^115
The standard rates were 20 percent for silver and 33 ⅓percent
for barley, but could vary. Often the rate was not stated; presum-
ably the customary rate applied. There is also a “merchant’s inter-
est” (má“dam-gàr: YOS 4 7). Labor may be stipulated as interest,
for example, a number of days’ carpentry (NRVN 192).^116(^112) Ibid., 83–84.
(^113) Lutzmann, without much conviction, speculates on the publicity value of the
oath (ibid., 16–17).
(^114) = Lutzmann, Schuldurkunden.. ., §104; see Steinkeller, “Money-Lending.. .,”
123–24.
(^115) See Lutzmann, Schuldurkunden.. ., 51–52.
(^116) See ibid., 31–32.
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