BABYLON AND PERSIA

250 MEDIA. BABYLON. AND PERSIA.long, oblivion, in the Middle Ages, when the Jews and the Italianmerchants, hampered by the difficulties of transporting coined moneyand beset by innumerable risks, re-invented the letter of, exchange,but in the moreperfect form which has prevailed down to ourown times."There is no reason to suppose that the firm Egibi& Sons did not transact business of this order, andthey would therefore be, strictly speaking, entitledto the name of " banking-house," even though theirprincipal business was lending money, which theydid on a large scale like modern banks, which byno means confine their operations to the exchangeand transfer of values.19. It is certain that the documents recording thesalesof slaves, cattle, horses, houses, furniture,land, etc. are the most numerous, together withthose recording loans obligations we would callthem at shorter or longer dates, with the interestcomputed in money, or in grain,* sometimes evenin days of work, and often with the provision ofpenalties, .should the payment not be made on time,such as that, if not paid on a certain day, the debtshall be increased one third. There are usually sev¬eral witnesses : the scribe put down the name ofthose who could not write and they made a mark inthe soft clay with their nails. In many cases theloan was made on security given by a third party,or on mortgage of property, under which head theborrower frequently included his children, nay hisown person. We are told that, if tabulated, these* This was a convenient arrangement to both sides, as many ofthe government taxes were paid in grain.