The Babylonian World (Routledge Worlds)

with other texts such as letters concerning the annual shearing of the sheep, we are
able to reconstruct the complete course of events. Right after it was shorn, the wool
was kept in a storehouse of the palace, the ‘New Year house’, and later distributed
to local merchants. The palace kept track of its assets through loan contracts, in which
the merchant declared that he owed an amount of silver, representing the amount of
‘wool of the palace’, to the palace. The silver had to be repaid at a time specified by
the palace (on one occasion only seven years later). The whole transaction involved
two middlemen: the ‘Overseer of the Merchants’ on the part of the merchants, and
Utul-Ishtar on the part of the palace.
Silver loans labelled as ‘wool of the palace’ or containing the phrase ‘to be repaid
when the palace requests its profits’ occur in Kish and Kisurra as early as the reign
of Sumu-la-el, the earliest ruler of the Old Babylonian dynasty. A few decades later,
tablets from Sippar and Babylon contain references to the practice as well. This shows
that entrepreneurs play a major role in the economy throughout the Old Babylonian
period.

Edicts

Several year-names of Old Babylonian rulers refer to the proclamation of a mı ̄sˇarum
(‘redress’) edict (Charpin 1990 ). These decrees do not contain reforms but, rather,
measures with a temporary effect. A mı ̄sˇarumedict orders that the people involved
in the production of palace assets (cultivators, herdsmen and flayers) and the merchants
selling the palace surpluses get a remission of the arrears they owe to the palace. The
edicts interfered in the relations between private citizens as well. All non-commercial
debts were cancelled. The application of this measure can be observed in loans issued
shortly after the mı ̄sˇarumproclamation, which contain a clause assuring that the loan
is concluded after the proclamation and, therefore, cannot be subject to it. Also several
archives display a concentration of many unpaid debts (therefore, not destroyed) in
the years preceding the proclamation of an edict. Some debtors were forced to sell
their land or their relatives in order to get their previous possessions back. Self-sales
because of unpaid debts are annulled as well. Therefore, sale documents, too, may
contain the clause that they have been concluded after the proclamation.
The recurring proclamation of a mı ̄sˇarumwas necessary during the Old Babylonian
period because the economic risks were carried by the producers and the lowest levels
of the entrepreneurs. They did not have any reserves to fall back on, as would the
creditors and the ‘great organizations’ who called in the entrepreneurs.
Most often a king promulgated a mı ̄sˇarumat his accession. Often he repeated this
in the course of his reign. However, he did not do so at regular and predictable
intervals, because that would have rendered the edicts ineffective.

The ilkuminstitution

The Code of Hammurabi distinguishes two major classes of individuals: the musˇke ̄nu ̄m,
who had no obligations to the crown, and the individuals obliged to fulfil an ilkum-
duty. Administrative and legal documents may refer to the persons carrying out their
ilkumassignment with the term re ̄dûm, most often translated as ‘soldier’, although
re ̄dûmmay have worked in public projects as well. In return for this duty, which

— The Old Babylonian economy —