COMMERCIAL LIFE IN CODE OF HAMMURABI.
Hammurabi was having power at Mesopotamia from 1795BC to 1750BC as a leader of Babylonia. He decided that he needed a set code to keep a strong society. The well-known Code of Hammurabi' was written for this reason. This code consisted of 282 laws which were about family values, business, personal property and commercial life. Laws brought satisfactory solutions to the existing problems in commercial life in Mesopotamia.
The number of laws related to land and commerce reveal the importance of agriculture and trade in Mesopotamian society who lived in the region between Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Many laws dealt with landholding such as the establishment of conditions for renting farmland. Mesopotamian agriculture was based on land owners and tenant farmers. Tenant farmers usually paid their annual rent in crops rather than money. Laws dedicated to irrigation and land use were especially strict. "If anyone be too lazy to keep his dam in proper condition and does not so keep it; if then the dam break and all the fields be flooded, then shall he in whose dam the break occured be sold for money, and the money shall replace the corn which he has caused to be ruined.(Code 53) If he be no able to replace the corn, then he and his possessions shall be divided among the farmers whose corn he has flooded.(Code 54) Eye for an eye,a tooth for a tooth' can be stared in these laws. Rates of interest on loans were also watched carefully. If the lander increased his rate of interest after a loan was made, he lost all the amount of loan. In addition to this exact wages of laborans and artisans were described. .
"Trade was very extensive. A common way of doing business was for a merchant to entrust goods or money to a travelling agent who sought a market for his goods. The .
SarÝ 2.
