Re:Two hundred years ago, Jean-François Champollion decipher...
by ask_b123 on Thursday September 29, 2022 @03:26PM
(#33025814)
> It's not common knowledge that general debt amnesties were a common feature of ancient economic life
Is the Jubilee not generally known or do you mean that debt forgiveness was more widespread than generally known?
Re:Two hundred years ago, Jean-François Champollion decipher...
by dzdt on Thursday September 29, 2022 @04:24PM
(#33026630)
My impression is Jubilee is not generally known. Probably knowledge varies a lot by cultural context though (for me: American, non-Jewish).
Re:Two hundred years ago, Jean-François Champollion decipher...
by lostlogin on Thursday September 29, 2022 @03:51PM
(#33026150)
Thanks for this.
Wonder if it used to mean that borrowing for more than 7 years wasn’t a thing?
Re:Two hundred years ago, Jean-François Champollion decipher...
by jl6 on Thursday September 29, 2022 @02:26PM
(#33025056)
How did a debt amnesty work? Did that put private lenders out of pocket?
Re:Two hundred years ago, Jean-François Champollion decipher...
by dan-robertson on Thursday September 29, 2022 @02:58PM
(#33025450)
It was reasonably common in the ancient (Mediterranean) world iirc, so I guess there was some understanding or expectation around it from creditors. I think they didn’t really have bankruptcy and debts were inherited so this was the only way for them to be reset. I think there was also a story about Julius Caesar preventing a popular debt-resetting by himself taking on an enormous debt and then arguing that as Rome’s most indebted citizen, he would benefit the most and so it wouldn’t be fair for himself to forgive all debts and thereby his own.
Unfortunately, this article repeats this common half-truth. It neglects to mention the news that the text of the Rosetta Stone actually announces: general debt forgiveness.
If one reads past the Rosetta Stone's long-winded introduction about how royal and divine and legitimate Ptolemy V is, the text eventually gets to the point, which is an announcement of official acts:
>under his reign [and as regards the sums which were due to the royal house] from the people of Egypt, and likewise those [which were due] from every one who was in his august service, His Majesty remitted them altogether, howsoever great they were...
It goes on in detail. Of course, this act is intended to consolidate political power, but why tell any history if that's all we can say about it? It's not common knowledge that general debt amnesties were a common feature of ancient economic life, and this kind of writing is perhaps why. Reducing an official act to "propaganda" is often just a way to dismiss governance that one disagrees with.