The banker of ancient times was employed within financial activities, during the ancient
Mesopotamian
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
,
ancient Greek and
ancient Roman
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom ...
periods.
Mesopotamia
While certain families of Mesopotamia might be thought of as banking families, according to one source, these families' economic activities were not banking proper. This is because the families charged the same for loans as they gave in interest on deposits, so accordingly, their situation with foreign enterprises was one in which they did not participate in
arbitrage
In economics and finance, arbitrage (, ) is the practice of taking advantage of a difference in prices in two or more markets; striking a combination of matching deals to capitalise on the difference, the profit being the difference between t ...
, in addition to the absence of an economic situation where-by credit provision might increase the quantity of
specie (i.e. coins) present with individuals. The
House of Egibi The House of Egibi was a family from within ancient Babylonia who were, amongst other things, involved in mercantile activities.
The family’s financial activities are known to archaeologists via an archive of about 1,700 clay tablets spanning fiv ...
were such a family, living during the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods, and the
House of Murashu were another, living at a time during the 5th century BCE. In addition to these two, the
Borsippa
Borsippa ( Sumerian: BAD.SI.(A).AB.BAKI; Akkadian: ''Barsip'' and ''Til-Barsip'')The Cambridge Ancient History: Prolegomena & Prehistory': Vol. 1, Part 1. Accessed 15 Dec 2010. or Birs Nimrud (having been identified with Nimrod) is an archeolo ...
based family, ''
Ea-iluta-bani'', were also active during the Neo-Babylonia time-period and later. All three families are classified as
merchant bank
A merchant bank is historically a bank dealing in commercial loans and investment. In modern British usage it is the same as an investment bank. Merchant banks were the first modern banks and evolved from medieval merchants who traded in commod ...
ers by Nemet-Nejat.
Following the unification of the
city-state
A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world since the dawn of history, including cities such as ...
s in
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...
and
Sumer by
Sargon of Akkad into a
single empire ruled from his
home city circa 2334 BC,
common Mesopotamian standards for
length,
area
Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while ''surface area'' refers to the area of an open s ...
,
volume,
weight, and
time used by
artisan
An artisan (from french: artisan, it, artigiano) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art, s ...
guilds in each city was promulgated by
Naram-Sin of Akkad (c. 2254–2218 BC), Sargon's grandson, including for
shekel
Shekel or sheqel ( akk, 𒅆𒅗𒇻 ''šiqlu'' or ''siqlu,'' he, שקל, plural he, שקלים or shekels, Phoenician: ) is an ancient Mesopotamian coin, usually of silver. A shekel was first a unit of weight—very roughly —and became c ...
s.
In December 1901 and January 1902, at the direction of archaeologist
Jacques de Morgan
Jean-Jacques de Morgan (3 June 1857, Huisseau-sur-Cosson, Loir-et-Cher – 14 June 1924) was a French mining engineer, geologist, and archaeologist. He was the director of antiquities in Egypt during the 19th century, and excavated in Memp ...
,
Father
A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fath ...
Jean-Vincent Scheil
Father Jean-Vincent Scheil (born 10 June 1858, Kœnigsmacker – died 21 September 1940, Paris) was a French Dominican scholar and Assyriologist. He is credited as the discoverer of the Code of Hammurabi in Persia. In 1911 he came into possessio ...
,
OP found a 2.25
meter (or 88.5
inch) tall
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90% of a ...
or
diorite stele in three pieces inscribed with
4,130 lines of
cuneiform law
Cuneiform law refers to any of the legal codes written in cuneiform script, that were developed and used throughout the ancient Middle East among the Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Elamites, Hurrians, Kassites, and Hittites. The Code of ...
dictated by
Hammurabi (c. 1792–1750 BC) of the
First Babylonian Empire
The Old Babylonian Empire, or First Babylonian Empire, is dated to BC – BC, and comes after the end of Sumerian power with the destruction of the Third Dynasty of Ur, and the subsequent Isin-Larsa period. The chronology of the first dynasty ...
in the city of
Shush, Iran
Shush ( fa, شوش; also Romanized as Shūsh, Shoosh, and by name of the ancient nearby city: Sūsa) is a city and capital of Shush County, Khuzestan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 53,897, in 10,689 families. Shush is ...
.
Code of Hammurabi
The Code of Hammurabi is a Babylonian legal text composed 1755–1750 BC. It is the longest, best-organised, and best-preserved legal text from the ancient Near East. It is written in the Old Babylonian dialect of Akkadian, purportedly by Hamm ...
Law 100 stipulated
repayment of a
loan by a
debtor to a
creditor on a
schedule with a
maturity date
Maturity or immaturity may refer to:
* Adulthood or age of majority
* Maturity model
** Capability Maturity Model, in software engineering, a model representing the degree of formality and optimization of processes in an organization
* Development ...
specified in
written
Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols.
Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...
contractual term
A contractual term is "any provision forming part of a contract". Each term gives rise to a contractual obligation, the breach of which may give rise to litigation. Not all terms are stated expressly and some terms carry less legal gravity as t ...
s. Laws 101 and 102 stipulated that a
shipping agent,
factor
Factor, a Latin word meaning "who/which acts", may refer to:
Commerce
* Factor (agent), a person who acts for, notably a mercantile and colonial agent
* Factor (Scotland), a person or firm managing a Scottish estate
* Factors of production, su ...
, or
ship charterer was only required to repay the
principal of a loan to their creditor in the event of a
net income loss or a
total loss due to an
Act of God
In legal usage in the English-speaking world, an act of God is a natural hazard outside human control, such as an earthquake or tsunami, for which no person can be held responsible. An act of God may amount to an exception to liability in con ...
. Law 103 stipulated that an agent, factor, or charterer was by ''
force majeure
In contract law, (from Law French: 'overwhelming force', ) is a common clause in contracts which essentially frees both parties from liability or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the control of the parties, such ...
''
relieved of their
liability for an entire loan in the event that the agent, factor, or charterer was the victim of
theft during the term of their
charterparty
A charterparty (sometimes charter-party) is a maritime contract between a shipowner and a "charterer" for the hire of either a ship for the carriage of passengers or cargo, or a yacht for pleasure purposes.
Charter party is a contract of carriage ...
upon provision of an
affidavit
An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or '' deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by law. Such a statemen ...
of the theft to their creditor.
Law 122 stipulated that a
depositor of
gold,
silver, or other
chattel/movable property for
safekeeping must present all articles and a signed
contract of
bailment
Bailment is a legal relationship in common law, where the owner transfers physical possession of personal property ("chattel") for a time, but retains ownership. The owner who surrenders custody to a property is called the "bailor" and the in ...
to a
notary before depositing the articles with a banker, and Law 123 stipulated that a banker was discharged of any
liability from a contract of bailment if the notary denied the existence of the contract. Law 124 stipulated that a depositor with a
notarized contract of bailment was entitled to
redeem the entire value of their deposit, and Law 125 stipulated that a banker was
liable
In law, liable means "responsible or answerable in law; legally obligated". Legal liability concerns both civil law and criminal law and can arise from various areas of law, such as contracts, torts, taxes, or fines given by government agencie ...
for replacement of deposits
stolen
Stolen may refer to:
* ''Stolen'' (2009 Australian film), a 2009 Australian film
* ''Stolen'' (2009 American film), a 2009 American film
* ''Stolen: The Baby Kahu Story'' (2010 film), a film based on the real life kidnapping of baby Kahu Durie ...
while in their
possession.
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek bankers were known as τραπεζίται (), or
trapezites, a term which arose from their use of τράπεζαι (''
trapeza''), a type of table. They were initially active during the 5th century BCE. The provided a variety of services, primarily, money-changing, providing interest payments on deposited monies, pawnbrokering, acting as
notaries
A notary is a person authorised to perform acts in legal affairs, in particular witnessing signatures on documents. The form that the notarial profession takes varies with local legal systems.
A notary, while a legal professional, is disti ...
and the safe-guarding of valuables.
At the earliest recorded time, are known to have participated as private enterprise, who in the first instance were greatly reliant on business generated by money-changing activity, but also accepted deposits and made and took payments from individuals.
Ancient Grecian bankers were in the first case
moneychangers (''kollybistḗs''
) and
pawnbrokers
A pawnbroker is an individual or business (pawnshop or pawn shop) that offers secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as collateral. The items having been ''pawned'' to the broker are themselves called ''pledges'' or ...
, who were present in the
marketplace
A marketplace or market place is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a '' souk'' (from the Arabic), ' ...
or festival sites, changing the coinage of foreign merchants into local currency.
Many early bankers in Greek city-states belonged to the
metic
In ancient Greece, a metic ( Ancient Greek: , : from , , indicating change, and , 'dwelling') was a foreign resident of Athens, one who did not have citizen rights in their Greek city-state ('' polis'') of residence.
Origin
The history of foreign ...
classification of citizenship. Money lending was very often an activity for foreigners living as so-called outsiders within society. Business and commercial activities were deemed wholly unsuited to the status and situation of the
noble elite of society because these activities were a source of corruption, and instead funds, and accordingly wealth, was obtained primarily by way of militancy, not commerce.
The task of keeping the deposited wealth provided to the temple of
Asklepios
Asclepius (; grc-gre, Ἀσκληπιός ''Asklēpiós'' ; la, Aesculapius) is a hero and god of medicine in ancient Greek religion and mythology. He is the son of Apollo and Coronis, or Arsinoe, or of Apollo alone. Asclepius represen ...
were allotted often to the
neokoros or
zakoros; or at
Kos the
hierophylakes
Hierophylakes, also known as hierodidaskaloi, hieronomoi, or hierophantai, were priests for the Eumolpidae involved in performing acts of sacrifice.
Pausanias stated that new hierophantai were elected every quadrennial, and so individuals did no ...
, who were also the record keepers of such exchanges.
It was an established pattern of behaviour for a banker in Athens, Aigina and elsewhere, in the interests of the security of the assets entrusted to him, to have his wife wed to his slave after his death, being that his slave had inherited his previous owners bank upon his death.
Individual bankers
The first person to have participated in ancient society to some degree as a banker was named Philostephanos (of Corinth).
A
slave named
Pasion
Pasion (also Pasio; grc, Πασίων; before 430 – 370 BC) was a slave in Ancient Athens in the early 4th century BC, who rose to become a successful banker and Athenian citizen.
Life
Pasion was born some time before 430 BC.
It is unkn ...
, for a time owned by Archestratos and Antisthenes, who were partners of a banking firm in
Peiraieus, was for a time
Athens' most important banker, after his
manumission to the metic class. Pasion operated as a banker from 394 BC to sometime during the 370's. His business was subsequently inherited by his own slave named Phormio.
Hermias was manumitted from Euboulos, and a
eunuch, who is attested to have behaved subsequently toward the islands of
Assos
Assos (; grc-gre, Ἄσσος, la, Assus) is a beautiful small and historically important town on the Aegean coast in the Ayvacık district of Çanakkale province, Turkey. It is on the southern side of Biga Peninsula (better known by its an ...
and
Atarneus
Atarneus (; grc, Ἀταρνεύς), also known as Atarna (Ἄταρνα) and Atarneites (Ἀταρνείτης), was an ancient Greek city in the region of Aeolis, Asia Minor. It lies on the mainland opposite the island of Lesbos. It was on th ...
somehow tyrannically. His adopted daughter married
Aristotle, the circumstances of this marriage arranged by Hermias himself.
Ancient Roman
Early bankers were known primarily as ''Mensarii'', ''Mensularii'' and ''Numularii'', or ''
argentarii''. Additionally to a lesser extent individuals involved in financial activities were known as ''
coactores'', , , and . Bankers operated from either appointment by the government and so were tasked with collecting taxes, or instead operated independently. Accordingly, ''Mensarii'' were distinguished from ''argenterii'' by the fact of the former operating under state assistance while the latter participating on the basis of private enterprise. ''Argenterii'' evolved to provide the function of credit provision on a short-term basis for individuals at auctions.
[(please see also the same source linked in ful]
here
[(also show]
Persons employed in the professional capacities of money-changing and assaying were known as ''argyramoiboi''.
Jean Andreau
Jean Andreau is a French historian, former student of the École normale supérieure (1960) and former member of the École française de Rome. As of 2016, he is research director at the EHESS.
He was a student of both Pierre Grimal, Julien Guey a ...
Banking and Business in the Roman World
Cambridge University Press 14 Oct 1999 (reprint), 176 pages, etrieved 2015-09-03/ref>
According to Callistratus, females were barred from activity as bankers by Roman law.
Individual bankers
L. Aemilius Papius, M. Atilius Regulus and M. Scribonius Libo were made a three ''mensarii'' commission during 216.
See also
*Eubulus Eubulus is the name of:
People:
* Eubulus (banker), 4th century BC Bithynian banker and ruler of Atarneus
* Eubulus (statesman) (c. 405 BC – c. 335 BC), Athenian statesman
* Eubulus (poet), 4th century BC Athenian poet
* Saint Eubulus (died 30 ...
*History of banking
The history of banking began with the first prototype banks, that is, the merchants of the world, who gave grain loans to farmers and traders who carried goods between cities. This was around 2000 BCE in Assyria, India and Sumeria. Later, in an ...
* List of banking families
References
{{Insurance
History of banking
Ancient history