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History Of Debt Relief
Debt relief, or debt forgiveness, has been practiced in many societies since antiquity. Periodic debt remission was institutionalised in the Ancient Near East and contributed to the stability of its societies. In ancient Greece and Rome the laws were more creditor-friendly and debt cancellation was one of the major demands of the poor, only occasionally implemented by the government. Medieval canon law contained provisions for the annulment of debts owed by borrowers in distress, which influenced modern personal bankruptcy law. Ancient Near East Debt relief existed in many societies of the Ancient Near East in the form of debt remission, whereby certain debts were declared void and the foreclosed property reverted to the original owners. Debts were often cancelled by a new ruler issuing a ''clean slate'' decree after assuming the throne or following a natural or man-made calamity. Usually only personal debt was cancelled, whereas debts incurred by merchants were unaffected. The p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shmita
The sabbath year (''shmita''; , literally "release"), also called the sabbatical year or ''shǝvi'it'' (, literally "seventh"), or "Sabbath of The Land", is the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by the Torah in the Land of Israel and is observed in Judaism. During ''shmita'', the land is left to lie fallow and all agricultural activity, including plowing, planting, pruning and harvesting, is forbidden by ''halakha'' (Jewish law). Other cultivation techniques (such as watering, fertilizing, weeding, spraying, trimming and mowing) may be performed as a preventive measure only, not to improve the growth of trees or other plants. Additionally, any fruits or herbs which grow of their own accord and where no watch is kept over them are deemed '' hefker'' (ownerless) and may be picked by anyone. A variety of laws also apply to the sale, consumption and disposal of ''shmita'' produce. All debts, except those of foreigners, were to be remitted. Chapter 25 of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Athenian Constitution
Constitution of the Athenians (Greek: ''Athenaion politeia'') may refer to either of two ancient treatises on the subject of the government of Athens: * Constitution of the Athenians (Aristotle), a treatise on the Athenian constitution written by Aristotle or one of his students * Constitution of the Athenians (Pseudo-Xenophon), a treatise preserved under the name of Xenophon, though not actually by him It may also refer to the following historical constitutional and legal codes under which Athens was governed at various periods: * Draconian constitution The Draconian constitution, or Draco's code, was a written law code enforced by Draco in Athens near the end of the 7th century BC; its composition started around 621 BC. It was written in response to the unjust interpretation and modificat ..., the code of laws in Athens written by Draco in the last quarter of the seventh century BC * Solonian constitution, the constitution implemented in Athens by Solon in the early six ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seisachtheia
Seisachtheia (, from σείειν ''seiein'', to shake, and ἄχθος ''achthos'', burden, i.e. the relief of burdens) was a set of laws instituted by the Athenian lawmaker Solon (c. 638 BC–558 BC) in order to rectify the widespread serfdom and slavery that had run rampant in Athens by the 6th century BCE, by debt relief. Debt in Athenian society Under the pre-existing legal status, according to the account of the '' Constitution of the Athenians'' attributed to Aristotle, debtors unable to repay their creditors would surrender their land to them, then becoming ''hektemoroi'', i.e. serfs who cultivated what used to be their own land and gave one sixth of produce to their creditors. Should the debt exceed the perceived value of the debtor's total assets, then the debtor and his family would become the creditor's slaves as well. The same would result if a man defaulted on a debt whose collateral was the debtor's personal freedom. Seisachtheia reforms The ''seisachtheia' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solon
Solon (; ; BC) was an Archaic Greece#Athens, archaic History of Athens, Athenian statesman, lawmaker, political philosopher, and poet. He is one of the Seven Sages of Greece and credited with laying the foundations for Athenian democracy.Stanton, G. R. ''Athenian Politics c. 800–500 BC: A Sourcebook'', Routledge, London (1990), p. 76.E. Harris, "A New Solution to the Riddle of the Seisachtheia", in ''The Development of the Polis in Archaic Greece'', eds. L. Mitchell and P. Rhodes (Routledge 1997) 103 Solon's efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral declineAristotle, ''Politics'', 1273b 35–1274a 21 resulted in his Solonian Constitution, constitutional reform overturning most of Draco (lawgiver), Draco's Draconian constitution, laws. Solon's reforms included debt relief later known and celebrated among Athenians as the (shaking off of burdens). He is described by Aristotle in the ''Constitution of the Athenians (Aristotle), Athenian Constitution'' as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Athens
Athens is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest named cities in the world, having been continuously inhabited for perhaps 5,000 years. Situated in southern Europe, Athens became the leading city of ancient Greece in the first millennium BC, and its cultural achievements during the 5th century BC laid the foundations of Western world, Western civilization. The earliest evidence for human habitation in Athens dates back to the Neolithic period. The Acropolis of Athens, Acropolis served as a fortified center during the Mycenaean Greece, Mycenaean era. By the 8th century BC, Athens had evolved into a prominent city-state, or Polis, ''polis'', within the region of Attica. The 7th and 6th centuries BC saw the establishment of legal codes, such as those by Draco (legislator), Draco, Solon and Cleisthenes, which aimed to address social inequalities and set the stage for the development of democracy. In the early 5th century BC, Athens played a central role in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Rome
In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC), the Roman Republic (50927 BC), and the Roman Empire (27 BC476 AD) until the fall of the western empire. Ancient Rome began as an Italic peoples, Italic settlement, traditionally dated to 753 BC, beside the River Tiber in the Italian peninsula. The settlement grew into the city and polity of Rome, and came to control its neighbours through a combination of treaties and military strength. It eventually controlled the Italian Peninsula, assimilating the Greece, Greek culture of southern Italy (Magna Graecia) and the Etruscans, Etruscan culture, and then became the dominant power in the Mediterranean region and parts of Europe. At its hei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically related city-states and communities. Prior to the Roman period, most of these regions were officially unified only once under the Kingdom of Macedon from 338 to 323 BC. In Western history, the era of classical antiquity was immediately followed by the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine period. Three centuries after the decline of Mycenaean Greece during the Bronze Age collapse, Greek urban poleis began to form in the 8th century BC, ushering in the Archaic period and the colonization of the Mediterranean Basin. This was followed by the age of Classical Greece, from the Greco-Persian Wars to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, and which included the Golden Age of Athens and the Peloponnesian War. The u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hadrian's Sestertius - The Cancellation Of Public Debt
Hadrian ( ; ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian was born in Italica, close to modern Seville in Spain, an Italic peoples, Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his branch of the Aelia gens, Aelia ''gens'', the ''Aeli Hadriani'', came from the town of Atri, Abruzzo, Hadria in eastern Italy. He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. Early in his political career, Hadrian married Vibia Sabina, grandniece of the ruling emperor, Trajan, and his second cousin once removed. The marriage and Hadrian's later succession as emperor were probably promoted by Trajan's wife Pompeia Plotina. Soon after his own succession, Hadrian had four leading senators unlawfully put to death, probably because they seemed to threaten the security of his reign; this earned him the senate's lifelong enmity. He earned further disapproval by abandoning Trajan's expansionist policies and territorial gains in Mesopotamia (Roman province), Mesopotamia, Assyria ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prozbul
The Prozbul (, borrowed from ) is a halachic mechanism allowing for the collection of debts against loans that have come due, and preventing their cancellation by the monetary Shmita process ( The Lord's Release). The Prozbul was established in the waning years of the Second Temple of Jerusalem by Hillel the Elder. The writ, issued historically by rabbis, changed the status of individual private loans into the public administration, which made them ineligible for cancellation on the year of Shmita. This allowed the poor to receive interest-free loans before the Sabbatical year while protecting the investments of the lenders. Historical background The Torah mandates a Sabbatical year, ''Shmita,'' every seventh year (not to be confused with the Jubilee, which is the year following seven cycles of Shmita). Among other things, the departure of the Sabbatical year cancels all debts. This is one of the many laws in the Torah meant to protect the poor and disadvantaged, affording t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hillel The Elder
Hillel ( ''Hīllēl''; variously called Hillel the Elder or Hillel the Babylonian; died c. 10 CE) was a Jewish religious leader, Sage (philosophy), sage and scholar associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud and the founder of the House of Hillel school of ''tannaim''. He was active during the end of the first century Common Era, BCE and the beginning of the first century CE. He is popularly known as the author of three sayings: * "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And being for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?" * "That which is hateful to you, do not do unto your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn." * "Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving mankind and drawing them close to the Torah." Biography He came from Talmudic academies in Babylonia, Babylon to Land of Israel, Israel, although he was descended from David. His descendent Judah ha-Nasi, Judah haNasi traced his lin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
