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The Importance of Trade

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

W. F. Leemans
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Extract

Trade being the main theme of this Rencontre, I thought it of some interest to give some reflections on the theme from a general view-point, notably on the role of trade in connection with the diffusion of civilization and on trade as a factor in the economy of ancient Mesopotamia, in short trade as a cultural and an economic factor, and a possible connection between these two. Did trade play an important role in the diffusion of features of civilization in ancient Mesopotamia and surrounding countries? Can it be said that trade was an important element in the economy of that area?

The reflections are mainly based on my own observations and my own, I hope, logical reasoning, the theoretical literature being left out of consideration. I had not been able to gain access to the papers of the seminar held in Santa Fé in 1973, published under the title Ancient Civilization and Trade in 1975, before the Rencontre. Having taken cognizance of this book, it can be stated that the approach to the problems is different from that in this paper; the studies, analysing the trade itself, mainly in prehistoric and protohistoric times, have a clear theoretical character, whereas this paper only regards the two above-mentioned aspects in historical times, starting from some conspicuous facts and questions arising from them.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , Spring 1977 , pp. 1 - 10
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1977

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References

1 Edited by Jeremy A. Sabloff and C. G. Lamberg-Karlovsky, University of New Mexico Press.

2 Cf., for example, Wright, Gary A., Obsidian analyses and prehistoric Near Eastern Trade: 7500–3500 B.C. (1969), 53Google Scholar.

3 Karl Polanyi speaks of “trading peoples” and distinguishes between trading peoples proper, peoples who live only from trade, and peoples of whom a considerable part is engaged in trade (Trade and Market in the Early Empires, 260), but in reality this is a fluid distinction. Cf. also Polanyi, Karl in Ancient Civilization and Trade, 142–143Google Scholar. There is a difference: Polanyi's trading peoples are peoples where the bulk of the population partakes in trade, whereas we might lay more stress on the question of the main basis of existence in a country. Moreover in the historical period with which we deal, in general peoples were organized in states.

4 See below.

5 See Lamberg-Karlovsky, C. G., lastly in Ancient Civilization and Trade, 350–362Google Scholar.

6 See Garelli, P., Les Assyriens en Cappadoce (1963), 161–168Google Scholar.

7 See Figulla, H. H., Iraq 15 (1953), 88 ff. and 171 ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Dalton, George (Ancient Civilization and Trade, 104)Google Scholar seems to suppose that the people who needed the goods, sought these abroad, but this thesis is doubtful cf. below and note 17 on the chlorite objects.

9 Obsidian analyses and Prehistoric Near Eastern Trade, 75.

10 Salonen, A., Die Wasserfahrzeuge in Babylonien (1939), etcGoogle Scholar.

11 Matthiae, P. and Pettinato, G., Or 44 (1975), 337 ff., and 361 ffGoogle Scholar.

12 Cf. Falkenstein, A., ZA 56 (1964), 101, ll. 122–138CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 Kramer, S. N., Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta (1952), ll. 389 ff. and 620 fGoogle Scholar. For Aratta, see Majidzadeh, Yousef, JNES 35 (1976), 105–113Google Scholar.

14 Cf. Hirsch, Hans, AfO 20 (1963), 73Google Scholar.

15 JESHO 20 (1977), 129–164Google Scholar.

16 Leemans, W. F., Foreign Trade, 139–140Google Scholar; and Sollberger, E., AfO 19 (1959–1960), 120–122Google Scholar. ITT IV 7808Google Scholar: 25 people from Anšan; cf. ITT V 26Google Scholar.

17 Leemans, W. F., Foreign Trade, 140Google Scholar. Also C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky concludes that various kinds of stones, etc. “were brought to Mesopotamia” and that chlorite objects were exported in finished form from Tepe Yahya to Mesopotamia (Ancient Civilization and Trade, 356).

18 Leemans, W. F., Foreign Trade, 106–108Google Scholar.

19 Eilers, W., Gesellschaftsformen im altbabylonischen Recht (1931)Google Scholar.

20 Cf. Leemans, W. F., Foreign Trade, 137Google Scholar.

21 Cf. Orlin, L. L., Assyrian Colonies in Cappadocia (1970), 228CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 Garelli, P., Les Assyriens en Cappadoce, 81 ffGoogle Scholar.

23 Mallowan, M. E. L., Iran 3 (1965), 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wright, Gary A., Obsidian Analyses, 57 ff., especially 81Google Scholar.

24 See for the different ways of acquiring goods from a distance: Dalton, George in Ancient Civilization and Trade, 104 ffGoogle Scholar.

25 Luckenbill, D. D., ARAB II, § 659 EGoogle Scholar; cf. Ahmed, Sami Said, Southern Mesopotamia in the time of Ashurbanipal, 149Google Scholar; Oppenheim, A. L. in Polanyi, K., Trade and Market in the Early Empires, 34–35Google Scholar.

26 See Oppenheim, A. L., JCS 21 (1967), 336–254Google Scholar; see in general also RIA, s.v. Handel.

27 Orlin, L. L., Assyrian Colonies in Cappadocia, 224 ffGoogle Scholar.

28 Cf. Hirsch, Hans, AJO 20 (1963), 37, 67 and 69Google Scholar.

29 Parrot, A., Le “Trésor” d'Ur (1968), especially 45 ffGoogle Scholar.

30 Cf. Leemans, W. F., JESHO 11 (1968), 225Google Scholar.

31 Cf. for Anatolia, Orlin, L. L., Assyrian Colonies in Cappadocia, 238Google Scholar. The Dutch merchant towns were aware of it when they were opposing the warlike policy of Prince Maurice, at the beginning of the 17th century.

32 Cf. Wright, Gary A., Obsidian Analyses, 70–75Google Scholar.

33 In the same way as was attempted for the Habiru (Bottéro, J., Le problème des Habiru, (1954), etcGoogle Scholar.