Research Proposal n°9

[61] relegating coined money to the second place.

also, apart from staple finance, neither banking nor finance was closely linked with the economic sphere. Though Athens had its sea-loans, no credit instrument resulted from these transactions. Roman finance in its heyday was primarily mobilization of semi-aleatory political booty extorted from internal or external foe, only secondarily was it use of productive capital, in building contracts, shipping, domanial, and lastly, manufacturing processes. As Weber saw forty years ago, the peace and administration offered by the Empire spelled the end for this type of capitalism.

6. Debt Bondage

The sudden appearance of debt bondage in 6th century Greece and its drastic aggravation in the 4th century Rome offer some puzzling features for which the obvious connection of the calamity with the spread of the use of coined money is hardly a sufficient explanation. In both instances, private indebtedness seems to have resulted from previous public indebtedness, as the outcome of a heavy burden of taxation. Such a connection was certainly present under Nehemiah in Jerusalem in the 5th century BC, and even much more explicitly amongst the Jews of Babylonia about 3rd century AD. Reports concerning 1st century BC Asia Minor run on roughly similar lines. I understand that ancient China it was usual for the authorities to mitigate the burden of taxation in times of public calamity by legalizing debt bondage while at the same time alleviating some of its hardships. In some cases (as in 4th and 5th Babylonia), this mechanism was institutionalized. Debt bondage of the poor to the rich arose here frequently by force of law, from the advancing of tax payments by the rich on behalf of the poor. Such advances would often accompany the collection of either poll or land tax, since in both cases the responsibility of local taxpayers was solidary. Further investigation might show how the timely introduction of small rescued the Athenian (and perhaps [62] the Roman) debtor from the status of a dependent laborer, by giving him access to the market.

Document Informations

Date: {1953-1957}
KPA: 31/15, 56-62