851
7.6.3.2 If performance of the loan was delinquent, some contracts
specified a 50 percent penalty.^168 In grain loans, late-payment fines
were either a fixed sum or an amount of grain at the going mar-
ket rate at the time of repayment.7.7 Pledge^169
In certain cases, the totality of the borrower’s property was pledged
as security for a loan in money. In other cases, the loan only specifies
that the creditor could select from the borrower’s property.^170 Antichretic
pledges of land and houses are occasionally documented.
Normally in loan contracts, the borrower pledged part of his or
her property with the proviso that if the loan was not repaid by a
specified date, the property pledged was automatically forfeited as if
the borrower had sold the property to the creditor.7.8 Debt and Social Justice
The pledge of children occurs in Early Demotic texts.
7.9 Partnership
Partnerships were often formed among family members over business
arrangements and family property. The most common type of part-
nership arose from the joint ownership of land within a family. Land
was often farmed together among siblings, with profits being split.
Formal contracts in which one or more parties acknowledge each
other as partners (¢br) to a business arrangement exist from the Early
Demotic period.^171 Other ventures, such as an agreement to collect
a certain tax or to acquire land, were undertaken in groups who speak
“in one voice.” The parties all agreed to pay a certain percentage
of the price, and any violator of the contract was subject to a fine.^172(^168) P. BM Glanville 10523 (296 B.C.E., Thebes).
(^169) Pierce, Three Demotic Papyri.. ., 110–32.
(^170) Vleeming, Gooseherds of Hou, 173–74.
(^171) Kaplony-Heckel, Gebelen-Urkunden.. ., no. 11; Vleeming, Gooseherds of Hou, nos.
1 and 7, agreement for collective ownership of ten geese and a cow, respectively.
Cf. Donker van Heel, Abnormal Hieratic.. ., 15 and passim. On the semitic loan
word ¢br, see Vleeming, Gooseherds of Hou, 22, n. ff.
(^172) A joint venture to collect tax: P. Berlin 13535+23677 (236 B.C.E., Elephantine)
in Martin, Elephantine Papyri.. ., 363–65. A joint acquisition of land: P. Hauswaldt
16 (221/20 B.C.E., Edfu).
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