Business-archives of Ancient East
Journal Title: Eminak - Year 2016, Vol 2, Issue 1
Abstract
The author distinguishes among economic archives of the subspecies business archives, disputes the opinion that the business archives have arisen during the period of industrial capitalism at the turn of XVIII-XIX centuries and claims that the business archives originated in the Ancient East. For proving this thesis, the author gives examples of business archives of Commercial Chamber «kārum» and merchant archives Kanish (XX-XVIII centuries BCE), the banking house «Egibi and Sons» and «Company Egibi» from Babylon (690-480 years BCE), businessmen from Nippur (VII-V centuries BCE), as well as representatives of small business from cities-states Ur (II millennium BCE) and Aššur (II-I millennium BCE). The author supports the opinion of Cornelia Wunsch, who claimed that the business archives of the Ancient East was formed through the older brother in every generation of businessmen. Archives of other family members and business partners joined its. So this business archives is a basic fond, which incorporates a number of other funds created various owners. According to the author, this is the first feature of the business archives of the Ancient East. The second feature is the miscellaneous business documents and private papers, and the third – the miscellaneous of financial and legal documents. The presence of business archives in the Ancient East, firstly, proves that this kind of archives originated not in the period of industrial capitalism, XVIII-XIX centuries, but several thousands years earlier. Secondly, analysis of the composition and content of the «funds» in these archives shows that we use almost exactly the same kinds of economical and legal documents today which the archives of the Ancient East were keeping as well. It leads to the conclusion that modern business practices and relationships have the roots from the Ancient East. Thirdly, documentary sources preserved in the business archives of the Ancient East and discovered by archaeologists, allow us to study the evolution of the business, economic development, social and economic relations in the communities of Ancient World from another point of view, different from the settled opinion about ancient civilizations as the slave, that fundamentally changes our understanding of the history.
Authors and Affiliations
Larysa Levchenko
Keywords
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