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Subtitle: Lending, Foreclosure, and
Redemption from Bronze Age Finance to the Jubilee Year. ISLET - Verlag,
Dresden, 2018, 311 pgs., index, extensive bibliography, foot notes,
illustrations, paper back
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Reviewer's comment:
This is a very important book in which the author refutes many myths about the
origin of money and banking. It is based on a detailed study over many years of
the records still being translated about the economies of Mesopotamia and
ancient Egypt. The author has published many books on this subject and
organized many conferences in which he brings together specialist scholars on
the many little known details being literally uncovered by archeology and
translation of cuneiform documents. See for instance his essay in David Landes'
ed. book - The Invention of Enterprise - listed below.
But, despite his refutation about the origin and use of 'money' he proceeds to
misrepresent the origin and nature of 'loan' - (credit-debt) in early
Mesopotamian society. Dr. Hudson is a severe critic of the exploitation of debt
today, and the entire financial system. He provides a history of the ancient
economies overlooked or ignored by most economists. But he only treats on
means, not ends. He focuses on some things that happened, but does not consider
why they happened, because he ignores religion as a motivation.
But his main motivation is to show that the fundamental conflict between
debtors and creditors so prevalent today and during the historical times that
modern economists study actually existed from the very beginning of settled
societies. What he reveals is that during these really ancient eras such as
Mesopotamia 3000 - 2000 BC it was the rulers (governments and temples) that
instituted, for their own purposes, debt cancelation edicts (laws) to abolish
private debt or prevent it. The rulers were opposed by private creditors (who
actually were employed as collection agents) seeking to expand their personal
wealth at the expense of the general public. But the basic debts were owed TO
the temple-palace and were not loans from the temple but failures to deliver
their standard quantity of grain TO the temple. The temple=farmer debt
relationship was the opposite of the modern government (ruler) to privte
individuals relationship. Today it is the rulers who owe TO the workers not the
workers who owe to the rulers.
He considers that the same motivations are the basis for the modern conflict
between debtors and creditors. For a summary of his thinking on this, read his
Finance and Warfare, listed below.
In my opinion the problem that Marxist theoreticians such as Hudson and also
Carl Wittfogel have is their total belief in human motivation based on economic
activity. They simply cannot believe that individuals and whole societies base
their activities, that result from decisions based on religious beliefs that
provide them with their entire 'world view' and understanding of 'reality' and
these activities are the historical evidence that the Marxist theoreticians
(who do not simply ignore history) indicate results of 'economic' decisions.
Dr. Hudson's comparison he seeks to support his political agenda is backwards.
In ancient Mesopotamia it was the government that was the creditor and the
peasants were the debtors. in debt due to their failure to meet their
reqirement in supplying the grain they grew for the government. But today it is
the government that is the debtor since it paid for (exchanged) goods and
services with credit which generated an accounting debt. Moreover the
redit-debt account on the temple books was not the market money supply, so when
a debt was cancled its corresponding credit account also disappeared with no
relation to the money supply. But government cancelation of its own debt now
would reduce the credit based money supply. - Tht is called 'debt deflation'.
Thus this whole book describes results but ignores the beliefs which were the
cause. The result is that the reality is backwards to Dr. Hudson's belief.
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The Rise and Fall of Jubilee Debt
Cancellations and Clean Slates
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Archaic Economies versus Modern
Preconceptions
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The Major Themes of This Book
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Part I Overview
1. A Babylonian Perspective on Liberty and Economic Order
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2 - Jesus' First Sermon and the Tradition of
Debt Amnesty
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3 - Credit, Debt and Money: Their Social and
Private Contexts
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Part II: Social Origins of Debt
4. The Anthropology of Debt, from Gift Exchange to Wergild Fines
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5. Creditors as Predators: The Anthropology
of Usury
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6. Origins of Commercial Interest in Sumer's
Palaces and Temples
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7. Rural Usury as a Lever to Privatize Land
and Impose Bondage
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Part III: The Bronze Age Invents Usury, But
Counters Its Adverse Effects
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8. War, Debt and amar-gi in Sumer: 2400 BC
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9. Urukagina proclaims amar-gi: 2350 BC
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10. Sargon's Akkadian Empire and its
Collapse: 2300 - 2100 BC
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11. Lagash Revives under Gudea and his Debt
Cancellation: 2130 BC
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12. Trade, Enterprise and Debt in Ur III:
2111 - 2004 BC
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13. Isin Rulers replace Ur III and proclaim
nig-si-sa: 2017 - 1861 BC
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14. Diffusion of Trade via Assyrian
Merchants: 1900 - 1825 BC
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15. Privatizing Mesopotamia's Intermediate
Period: 2000 - 1600 BC
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16. Hammurabi's Laws and misarum
Edicts: 1792 - 1750 BC
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17. Freeing the Land and its Cultivators from
Predatory Creditors
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18. Samsuiluna's and Ammisadqa's
milarum Edicts: 1749 - 1646 BC
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19. Social Cosmology of Babylonia's Debt
Cancellations
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20. Usury and privatization in the Periphery:
1600 - 1200 BC
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21. From the Dawn of the Iron Age to the
Rosetta Stone: 1200 - 196 BC
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Part IV: The Biblical Legacy
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22. Judges, Kings and Usury: 8th and 7th
Centuries BC
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23. Biblical Prophets Call for Debt
Cancellation
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24. The Babylonian Impact on Judaic Debt Laws
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25. From Religious Covenant to Hillel
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26. Christianity Spiritualizes the Jubilee
Year as the Day of Judgment
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27. The Byzantine Echo
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28. Zenith and Decline of Byzantium; 945 -
1204 AD
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Conclusion
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Amanda Podany - Ancient Mesopotamia: Life
in the Cradle of Civilization
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Amanda Podany - Brotherhood of
Kings
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Amanda Podany, Weavers, Scribes, and
Kings
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David Landes, Joel Mokyr & William
Baumol, eds. - The Invention of Enterprise
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J. G. Manning and Jan Morris - The Ancient
Economy: Evidence and Models
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Joan Aruz, ed. Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade,
and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C.
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Michael Hudson - Finance as Warfare
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Michael Hudson - The Bubble and Beyond
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Michael Hudson - Financial Capitalism v.
Industrial Capitalism
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Michael Hudson - Privatization in the
Ancient Near East and Classical World
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Michael Hudson - Destiny of
Civilization
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Michael Hudson, ed., - Debt and Economic
Renewal in the Ancient Near East
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Michael Hudson, Finance Capitalism and its
Discontents
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Edward Chancellor - The Price of Time: The
Real Story of Interest
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Sumerian religion
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Mesopotamian religion
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Sumer
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