contributed to increased production effi ciency. Such centers,
for example, appeared toward the end of the fourth millen-
nium b.c.e. in the southern city-state of Uruk. To what extent
these centers were set up and run by the priests and bureau-
crats remains unknown. It is possible that the centers came
into existence not because of offi cial sponsorship but because
they were located in areas that, unlike other regions, had ac-
cess to the resources necessary for the items they produced.
By the middle of the third millennium b.c.e. the distrib-
utive economy of the Sumerian city-states centered on the
great household, oft en referred to by the Greek term oikos.
A great household could be a temple, a palace, or a large,
wealthy estate. Each oikos controlled the production, labor,
and consumption of its members, who unlike those of the tra-
ditional small household were not kinfolk. Small kin-based
households still existed, but most of the economic activity
was now in the hands of the oikoi.
Th e head of an oikos could be a man or a woman. Th ese
oikoi leaders were among the highest-ranking members of Su-
merian society, and thus Sumerian kings and queens headed
their own oikoi, as did prominent government offi cials and
wealthy merchants. Each oikos had its own fi elds, pastures,
herds, orchards, workshops, and storage depots. Each also
had managers and a labor force. Th e latter were recruited
from the large pool of city residents; by the third millennium
b.c.e. some 80 percent of southern Mesopotamians are esti-
mated to have lived in the cities. Oikos laborers were oft en
specialists—farmhands, animal handlers, cooks, gardeners,
brewers, potters, weavers, and metalworkers. With such ma-
terial and human resources, an oikos was able to meet most of
the needs of its members.
In exchange for this labor the oikos provided its members
with certain basics—oil, beer, wool, and fl our and, on special
occasions, milk, fruit, salt, and fi sh. Age, gender, and the type
of work determined how much an oikos member received.
Generally, oikos members had to process these distributions
further: thus they had to make the fl our into bread and the
wool into cloth. Each oikos also gave out plots of land to its
highest-ranking members; the higher the rank, the larger the
land grant. Among those eligible for land were political lead-
ers, priests and priestesses, scribes, canal inspectors, manag-
ers, soldiers, and skilled artisans. In addition to these grants,
an oikos also rented out land to nonmembers of the house-
hold for a share of the plot’s crops.
THE SPREAD OF THE SUMERIAN
ECONOMIC SYSTEM
Th e Sumerian city-states were not the only ancient Near
Eastern societies to have a distributive economy, payment
in kind, and a corvée. Indeed, by the early third millennium
b.c.e. such were to be found in the growing urban centers of
northern Mesopotamia and the Levant. To what extent these
economic forms existing elsewhere in the region were due to
other peoples having independently developed them and to
what extent they were imported from Sumer is unclear. How-
ever, Sumerian traders, sometimes living in colonies next to
other Near Eastern cities, had business connections through-
out much of the region. It is certainly possible that these trad-
ers brought with them Sumerian economic concepts.
Another method for the export of the Sumerian eco-
nomic system may have been conquest. In the early 24th cen-
tury b.c.e. Sargon the Great created the Akkadian Empire,
which he would rule for almost half a century. Under Sargon
and his successors the empire incorporated the Sumerian
city-states, northern Mesopotamia, Elam, and Armenia. Th e
distributive economy of Sumer was already present in north-
ern Mesopotamian cities. It may also have developed previ-
ous to conquest in such Elamite cities as Susa or been brought
to the region by the Akkadians. Th e economy of Armenia at
this time is unknown, but the later Armenia-based society of
Urartu possibly had a distributive economy.THE AKKADIANS
Th e Akkadian rulers did not change the local economies of
their subject cities. Instead, they required the payment of trib-
ute, with each conquered city having to send a portion of its
collected food and goods to the imperial capital of Agade in
northern Mesopotamia. Th e collection of tribute was already
an old idea by the time of the Akkadian Empire. Among the
Sumerians, aft er a successful war against an enemy city, a vic-
torious king brought back rich loot and later received tribute
from the conquered. Th e king added this newfound wealth
to the palace treasury, sharing some of it with high-ranking
military offi cers and bureaucrats. Some of it was also pre-
sented to the city temple. Trade, another important part of
the state income, also benefi ted from such conquest, as trad-
ers soon arrived to claim a piece of the city’s increased pros-
perity, and taxes on their operations also enriched the city.
Where in Sumer conquest was generally modest, oft en with
only one city dominating another, and short-lived, frequently
in terms of years, the Akkadian Empire held an extensive ter-
ritory for a century and a half.
In order to manage the fi nances of the empire, the Ak-
kadians introduced a common accounting practice in all their
conquered territories. Accounting had to be done using the
same cuneiform signs and tablets having the same shape and
layout. Additionally, since payment was in kind, the Akkadi-
ans standardized weights and measures by introducing the gur.
One gur was equal to about 43 gallons of barley. Valuing goods
by comparing them to a quantity of barley, the most common
grain that was grown in Mesopotamia, had been a longtime
practice of the Sumerians. Th e gur would continue to be used,
at least in Mesopotamia, for the next two millennia.
Th e Akkadians were succeeded by other states, such as
the Th ird Dynasty of Ur and the Old Babylonian kingdom,
who each in turn ruled much of Mesopotamia, north and
south. No matter the state, the old Sumerian distributive
economy remained in place in each Mesopotamian city. Pay-
ment in kind likewise survived, though it was supplemented
by occasional payments in silver; along with weights of barley,352 economy: The Middle East