The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1911-12-20
ranks IN DAYS OF BABYLON
COUNTS KEPT ON TABLETS OF
CLAY STORED IN JARS.
D.bvIonfan Merchant Banked Regu.
,orIv and Issued His Brick Checks
and Bills of Exchange.

,rIv and Issued Ills bfICk Cn6CkS
and Bills of Exchange.
pooant discoveries of the wonders
pavlonian civilization, re-enforced
4 tba fruits of earlier explorations,
5ow that business is business" an
nile of life is as old as history.
i Az far back as 1000 years before
rbrist the BabylOnians had made
R-nb nrogress in commercial aptitude
r. sDecial laws had to be framed
deal with those gentlemen who
- short cuts to wealth, says The
ocorntant. The young man with
1rTnectatfons realized in those DAYS
E-ith less regard to the sacredness
4 the person and the right to live.
borrowed, as his modern prototype
IT. infrequently does today, from
IT, professional money lender.
/ The Babylonian merchant banked
Aeou1arly and issued his brick
scReoues" and bills of exchange, and
he law stepped in, even as it does
sodav. to preserve inviolate the
Eights of property. So keen were
H. business instincts of the people
Kbat even the priests were not above
i deal in offerings and in real estate.
Indeed, a great part of the commerce
m Babylonia was concentrated in the
temples
The vast quantities of metals. &C.
heals and other commodities which
Either as gifts to the temples or Of
Ferings to the gods poured in daily
|were sold by the priests, who did not
neglect to get their full margin of
|proft. Business ability indeed seems
Eo have been an important uualifi-
ration for admission in the priest
hood.
Careful accounts of revenue and
expenditure were kept, and these
EhOW that investments in loans and
the purchase of land and other prof-
liable dealings were a regular part
of the fiscal activities of the priestly
Establishments.
Perhaps the most interesting of all
the buried records which have come
Ito light are the contract tablets kent
by firm of bankers and money
lenders known as the Sons of Egi-
hi" established at Babylon before
the time of Sennacherib, probably
as early as 1000 B. c., and which
existed for several centuries. These
'brick books" as they have been
called, constitute the chief source of
our knowledge of life in ancient
Babylon.
The firm of Egibi possessed enor-
nous wealth and influence and have
been designated the "Rothschilds Of
the ancient world" They carried
on every sort Of financial transaction
They made loans to the state an wen
as to private persons, and the fl
nances of the court were entrusted
to them for several generations.
They collected the land taxes, tithes
and dues for the use of the public
roads and paid them into the royal
They also undertook what we
should now describe as agencies for
private individuals, and in addition
70 their vast money lending transac-
tons must also have engaged in what
We now term bankers business. for
We know that documents existed in
nose days corresponding to modern
2necks and bills of exchange. The
'arlous transactions of the firm we're
dofed in great earthenware jars for
aIety, and there they remained I'M
il they were found some few years
lgo
All bear the names of the contract
ng parties and witnesses and most
u them are dated. The Egibi firm
we're not the only great trading firm
n ancient Babylonia, as during the
2ca'ations at Niffer there were dis
oVeEed the records of another firm
Io' Il as Murasu, which rose to a
oSlllon OF great wealth and import
nee during the fifth century.