Two minas each, A and B, have as ḫarrânu. All that it makes, in town and country, is in common. Rent of the house to be paid from capital.[755]
The many varied details
They had a house, as shop and warehouse, the rent of which was a charge upon the business. Slaves might be partners with free men, even with their masters. A partner [pg 291] might merely furnish the capital or both might do so, and commit it to the hands of a slave or a free man with which to do business. The slave took his living out of such capital, and the free man received either provisions or a fixed payment. Thus we read:[756]
Five minas and six hundred and thirty pots of aromatics belong to A and B as partners. This stock is given to C, a slave, and D, another slave, with which to do business. Whatever it makes is A and B's in common. C and D take food and clothing from the profits where they go.
It is not unlikely that each slave was to look after his own master's interests. For we read:[757]
Six minas belong to A and B and are given to C the slave of B as capital. A and B share what it makes. A will give another slave D to help C.
Even women entered into business as agents. We read:[758]
Two-thirds of a mina belonging to A and B are given to a free woman with which to trade.
A formal dissolution of partnership
As in earlier times, the dissolution of partnership usually involved a reference to the law-courts. Thus we have[759] a reckoning before judges of two brothers and a third who were in a partnership from the eighth year of Nabopolassar to the eighteenth of Nebuchadrezzar. “The business is dissolved” (girru paṭrat). All the former contracts were broken and shares are assigned to each. The first two brothers were in possession of fifty shekels which were to be divided.