"العراق والخليج الفارسي" [و‎‎١‎٦‎٠] (٨٦٢/٣٢٤)

SUMERIAN AND BABYLONIAN PERIOD 221
local commercial importance even in Assyrian times, when no large
vessels sailed upon it.
The use of precious metals as a basis of sale and exchange was
familiar from early times, though a coinage did not exist. The shekel
of silver was a weight, not a coin, and was commonly used as a
measure of value by which to adjust barter transactions. The
establishment of an imperial coinage in the sixth century b.c. by the
Persian king Darius—in imitation of the Lydian—together with the
security of the roads, gave a great impetus to international trade.
Earlier, a profitable caravan trade existed but was hazardous (p. 212).
There certainly were great trading-houses at Babylon, and there was
also considerable movement of goods by round-boats and rafts down
the rivers and along the gulf. But the basis of wealth in the Akkadian
and Babylonian period was internal, and depended mainly, not on trade
or industry, but upon the high productivity of the land. The kings
and temples received their dues in kind and accumulated huge stores
of produce. The kings used this capital to feed and maintain men
either as soldiers for the imperial wars or as labour to build their huge
fortresses, palaces, and temples. The temple priests put their capital
to a different use, and became the main centres of commerce and
banking or money-lending. The growth of commerce established a
merchant class in the towns, who were also a land-owning class,
because land was the only form of permanent long-term investment.
But for the mass of the people, peasants and artisans alike, life then
as now was close to subsistence level.
Law. Intellectually, the Babylonian civilization consisted of its
legal system, and of its religion, with a religious and mythological
literature. The continuity of the legal system and of the sense of law
is remarkable. The well-known code of Hammurabi is noted for the
simplicity and relative fairness of its commercial and social arrange
ments, though as in all primitive codes penalties were severe. The
code was accessible to the literate and there was a professional judi
cature, originally based on the temples and priesthood but later
appointed by the kings, which maintained the Hammurabi tradition,
enlarged by case-law and precedent, down to the Hellenistic period.
This feeling for the sanctity of law was transmitted to the Assyrians,
despite their brutality in foreign conquests. Tf the king does not
hear the law, his people will perish, and his power will pass away’,
wrote Ashur-Banipal. The limitations of literacy were, however,
great, because Babylonians used the complicated ‘cuneiform’ script.
The wedge-shaped signs, incised on clay tablets or cylinders, were