A History of Babylon, from the Foundation of the Monarchy to the Persian Conquest

by L. W. King

The use of such keleks can only have been general when through-river communication was general, but, since we know that Hammurabi included Assyria within his dominions, it is not impossible that they may date from at least as early a period as the First Dynasty. For purely local traffic in small bulk the gufa, or light coracle, may have been used in Babylonia at this time, for its representation on the Assyrian monuments corresponds exactly with its structure at the present time as used; on the lower Tigris and Euphrates. The gufa is formed of wicker-work coated with bitumen, but some of those represented on the sculptures from Nineveh appear to have been covered with skins as in the description of Herodotus.[25]

In the texts and inscriptions of the early period ships are referred to, and these were undoubtedly the only class of vessels employed on the canals for conveying supplies in bulk by water. The size of such ships, or barges, was reckoned by the amount of grain they were capable of carrying, measured by the gur, the largest measure of capacity. We find vessels of very different size referred to, varying from five to seventy-five gur and over. The larger class probably resembled the sailing barges and ferry-boats in use to-day,[26] which are built of heavy timbers and have flat bottoms when intended for the transport of beasts. In Babylon at the time of the First Dynasty a boat-builder's fee for constructing a vessel of sixty gur was fixed at two shekels of silver, and it was proportionately less for vessels of smaller capacity. A boat-builder was held responsible for unsound work, and should defects develop in a vessel within a year of its being launched, he was obliged to strengthen or rebuild it at his own expense. Boatmen and sailors formed a numerous class in the community, and the yearly wage of a man in such employment was fixed at sixty gur of corn. Larger vessels carried crews under the command of a captain, or chief boatman, and there is evidence that the vessels owned by the king included many of the larger type, which he employed for carrying grain, wool and dates, as well as wood and stone for building-operations.

FIG. 43.

ASSYRIAN RAFT OF LOGS ON THE TIGRIS.

(From a bas-relief in the British Museum.)

It is probable that there were regular officials, under the king's control, who collected dues and looked after the water-transport in the separate sections of the river, or canal, on which they were stationed. It would have been their duty to report any damage or defect in the channel to the king, who would send orders to the local governor that the necessary repairs should be put in hand. One of Hammurabi's letters deals with the blocking of a canal at Erech, about which he had received such reports. The dredging already undertaken had not been thoroughly done, so that the canal had soon silted up again and boats were prevented from reaching the city; in his letter Hammurabi sent pressing orders that the canal was to be rendered navigable within three days.[27] Special regulations were also in force with regard to the respective responsibilities of boat-owners, boatmen and their clients. If a boatman hired a boat from its owner, he was held responsible for it, and had to replace it should it be lost or sunk; but if he refloated it, he had only to pay the owner half its value for the damage it had sustained. Boatmen were also responsible for the safety of goods, such as corn, wool, oil or dates, which they had undertaken to carry for hire, and they had to make good any total loss due to their own carelessness. Collisions between two vessels were also provided for, and should one of the boats have been moored at the time, the boatman of the other vessel had to pay compensation for the boat that was sunk as well as for the lost cargo, the owner of the latter estimating its value upon oath. Many cases in the courts probably arose out of loss or damage to goods in course of transport by water.

The commercial activities of Babylon at the time of the First Dynasty led to a considerable growth in the size of the larger cities, which ceased to be merely local centres of distribution and began to engage in commerce farther afield. Between Babylonia and Elam close commercial relations had long been maintained, but Hammurabi's western conquests opened up new markets to the merchants of his capital. The great trade-route up the Euphrates and into Syria was no longer blocked by military outposts and fortifications, placed there in the vain attempt to keep back the invasion of Amorite tribes; and the trade in pottery with Carchemish, of which we have evidence under the later kings of the First Dynasty,[28] is significant of the new relations established between Babylonia and the West. The great merchants were, as a body, members of the upper class, and while they themselves continued to reside in Babylon, they employed traders who carried their goods abroad for them by caravan.

Even Hammurabi could not entirely guarantee the safety of such traders, for attacks by brigands were then as common in the Nearer East as at the present day; and there was always the additional risk that a caravan might be captured by the enemy, if it ventured too near a hostile frontier. In such circumstances the king saw to it that the loss of the goods was not borne by the agent, who had already risked his life and liberty in undertaking their transport. For, if such an agent had been forced in the course of his journey to give up some of the goods he was carrying, he had to specify the exact amount on oath on his return, and he was then acquitted of all responsibility. But if it could be proved before the elders of the city that he had attempted to cheat his employer by misappropriating money or goods to his own use, he was obliged to pay the merchant three times the value of the goods he had taken. The law was not one-sided and afforded the agent equal protection in relation to his more powerful employer; for should the latter be convicted of an attempt to defraud his agent, by denying that the due amount had been returned to him, he had to pay his agent as compensation six times the amount in dispute. The merchant always advanced the goods or money with which to trade, and the fact that he could, if he wished to do so, fix his own profit at double the value of the capital, is an indication of the very satisfactory returns obtained at this period from foreign commerce. But the more usual practice was for merchant and trader to share the profits between them, and, in the event of the latter making such bad bargains that there was a loss on his journey, he had to refund to the merchant the full value of the goods he had received. At the time of the First Dynasty asses and donkeys were the beasts of burden employed for carrying merchandise, for the horse was as yet a great rarity and was not in general use in Babylonia until after the Kassite conquest.[29]