OBERSTUFE: Debt crises in Mesopotamia & Ancient Greece

... was first introduced in Northern China and in Ancient Greece around 600 B.C.

... is something you give as a security to someone who becomes your creditor.

... is the condition of being under the total control of someone else working for them as their serf until the debt is repaid.

... is a person (or a bank) that lends money or goods to you. The debtor owes the money or the goods to this person or bank.

is the person who owes money or goods to another person or a bank.

... is a record of all the money (or commodities, goods) that a person or business receives and spends.

... were issued by Mesopotamian rulers since the 3rd millennium B.C. All debts, even those based on failure to pay fees to the temple, were forgiven and cancelled. Maximum interest rates were set. The king oversaw the ritual of "breaking the tablets", (that is, the debt records), by raising a torch, symbolizing the sun-god of justice. Persons held in bondage were released to rejoin their families, other debtors were restored to their lands.

... is the release from one's burden of sin and guilt: The end of history would be that moment when all slates are wiped clean and all debts finally lifted (= final Jubilee).

... stipulated (bestimmte) that all debts would be automatically cancelled in the Sabbath year (that is, after seven years had passed), and that all who bonded serfs would be released.

.... is something you give as a security to someone who becomes your creditor. If you do not pay back your debt, the creditor has the right to sell it.

... was first introduced in Northern China and in Ancient Greece around 600 B.C.

... is a record of all the money that a person or business receives and spends.

... is a sum of money that you have to pay as a percentage of a larger sum of money or an amount of goods which you have borrowed.

... is something that is produced in order to be sold for money. In times of slavery even human beings are sold for money at markets.