des Gläubigers" whom he supplies a "Zahlungsgarantie."69 Could we then consider him a person found (and rewarded?) by the creditor, whom the debtor had to accept as his trustee? That would imply the availability of guarantors of a different kind, ready to assume liability on the basis of an agreement with a creditor, in the knowledge that they enjoyed the right of regress against the debtor, which might offer them certain advantages (exploiting the debtor, repayment of the debt with a surcharge?). They would be comparable to some Old Babylonian capitalists, who exploited debt-slaves taken over from their original creditors. Though perhaps not too far-fetched for
the inventive and money-minded Assyrian traders, |
there is no |
evidence |
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to support it. More insight into |
the |
identity |
and relations |
between |
|
C, D and G might help. |
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|
|
|
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The guarantor, in order to be |
able |
to live |
up |
to his obligation of |
|
"handing over" an (unwilling?) debtor, had to enjoy certain coercive |
|
powers. They are nowhere stated, |
but implied in EL 238, where the |
debtor himself agrees to supply |
a guarantor "who will not fail to |
hand you over." We may assume |
that the debtor in the other cases |
too had to accept the legal power granted to the guarantor, but since none of these contracts was found in its envelope, we have no seal-impressions of the debtors to prove it. There was also another justification for the power of the guarantor: his liability for subsidiary
payment |
must have |
been |
the basis for granting him powers similar |
||
to |
those |
any |
creditor |
had |
over a defaulting debtor, such as distraint |
or |
taking |
a |
pledge. |
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|
3. Guarantor and Debtor
Most debtors were members or employees of family firms and mutual guarantee must have been rather common among brothers, sons and business partners. It must have been less common for a defaulting, bad debtor than for somebody well known, who had a temporary cash shortage or had to leave for business reasons some time before his due date and needed to be helped. Further prosopographic studies in archives will probably shed more light on the relations between D and G. fn C C T 5, 8a:17ff., a daughter of the deceased Pushuken
69 Koschaker 1911: 67f.
reminds her brothers in Anatolia that they had registered as guar-
antors for a debt of thirty pounds of |
silver of their father.70 In EL |
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227:30ff. and kt v/k 156 the debtor's |
brother is his guarantor, in |
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EL 75 the debtor's wife, in EL |
215 a |
sister and son |
of the |
debtor, |
in EL 226:46f. a member of the |
same |
firm, and in kt |
91/k |
127 and |
200'1 a man for his father-in-law. The fact, noted above, that guarantors may appear as co-debtors or be included in the clause of joint liability, also implies a relationship between the two.
3.1. Risks and protection
Acting as guarantor for outsiders and strangers was unusual, and even inside the Assyrian community it could entail risks. The addressee of BIN 6, 27 voices concern when he heard that the writer was registering as guarantor: "Must I enter into debt-slavery with somebody?"72 His fear may have been somewhat exaggerated, but there are several examples of guarantors who could not escape their obligation to pay for an absent or defaulting debtor, even when this ereated problems for themselves. A well-documented case is that of a guarantor called Dadaja, who had to pay eight pounds of silver for the debtor M. and, having no silver at hand, was forced to take out a loan with a banker (tamkārum). The documentation reveals how he obtained a verdict of the City Assembly of Assur, which allowed him "to take M.'s silver wherever it is available" (also that invested in merchandise or assets). Moreover, according to a legal ruling on a
stele |
with Old |
Assyrian laws (referred |
to in a letter), he |
is author- |
ized |
to charge |
his debtor interest and |
compound interest |
("interest |
on interest"), apparently both the interest he was entitled to for the sum he had paid for him and that which he himself had to pay to the money-lender. The case, which I have analysed elsewhere in more detail,73 is important in showing that verdicts of the City of
70 An unpublished letter in Ankara, dealing with the financial situation of same family after the death of the father, states: "One mina of silver, for which our father had registered as guarantor of D, has been added to our debt." Refusing to consider a potential liability an actual debt, I take "our debt" as "debt owed to us." Because the father had paid as guarantor, he had the right of regress and his claim was thus an asset inherited by his sons.
71 |
Veenhof |
1997c. |
72 |
miššu ša aštanamme?u qātātim taltapputu, ana mamman ana wardūtim errab? |
|
73 |
Veenhof |
1995a: 1722ff. |
Assur were passed and even regulations drafted in order to help unlucky guarantors to get back what they had lost. While the regulation may have applied to all such cases of forced borrowing for the benefit of somebody else, the authorization granted by the verdiet, which was therefore the result of a separate decision, may have taken into account specific factors which are not mentioned (we do not have the text of the verdict itself).
Guarantors |
in turn |
could protect |
themselves against risks. From |
|
C C T |
5, 8a:15ff, mentioned above, we learn that the house in Assur |
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with its furniture served as security |
for a debt of P., for which his |
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son has registered as guarantor,74 and |
the same protection is recorded |
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in the |
contract kt 91/k |
173, where two Assyrians are guarantors for |
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a debt of 11 |
pounds of silver. Lines 9ff. state: "If the silver is col- |
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lected |
to the |
debit of |
(issēr) the guarantors, the debtor's house in |
|
Assur |
serves |
as pledge |
(erubbātum) for the silver."75 Something simi- |
|
lar may be the case in TPK 1, 170, where the question is asked whether a packet of meteoric iron, called "one pledge with my seals,"
has been given to any guarantors (mamman |
bēlū qātātirri). An inter- |
|
esting but not unique case is reported in the |
letter T C 3, 67,76 where |
|
the trader E. writes that he |
has registered as guarantor of his agent |
|
K. at a banker ("merchant's |
house"), where the latter had taken out |
|
a loan of thirty pounds of |
silver. Apparently K. was in financial |
|
difficulties, perhaps |
in fact because of debts to E., and to overcome |
|
them he had (been |
allowed |
to) borrow money for a business trip, if |
E. served as guarantor. E., |
aware of his risk and at the same time |
|
knowing that a profit realized by K. would enable the latter to pay off (part of) his debts, took measures to check and control K's com-
mercial activities. He established a claim ("laid his hand") on |
the |
silver shipped to Assur and asked his representatives in Assur to |
do |
the same, once the merchandise bought for it was shipped back to Anatolia. And there are other, similar cases.
74 |
Read |
lines 15ft". bēt Aššur |
ú |
ú-/ |
16 tù-up-tù-šu 17 [erasure] |
ana 30 |
mana 18 |
[/]a |
||
qātātišu 9י [n]alputāti71i. A verb is |
missing, since the next line |
has to be |
read: |
[a-w]a- |
||||||
tum |
i-za-ku-wa?. "When the affair is |
cleared up. . . . " |
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75 |
This device is already attested during the Ur ΠΙ period. According to Falkenstein |
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1956-7: no. 195 a slave-girl had |
been pledged to a guarantor, who had problems |
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in actually |
acquiring |
her |
after |
he |
had paid on behalf of the |
debtor. |
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|
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76 |
Edited |
Larsen |
1967: |
10, |
type 2:1. |
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