is an issue in TPK 1, 166, which reports a discussion between P. and his guarantor S., but is difficult to understand. When S advises P. to take (borrow?) a sum of silver, the latter has serious doubts: "Which silver then should I take? One might charge me interest where you are registered as my guarantor and should I then take (borrow?) silver?" S. answers: "Where you have received it in trust, you will add
20% |
interest, (but) |
where I |
have entrusted |
it (merchandise |
belong- |
|||
ing |
to P., |
handled |
by |
S, line 9) they will |
add |
for you 30% inter- |
||
est." |
The |
meaning |
of |
these |
words perhaps |
is |
that interest |
charged |
for money received in trust (qīptum) from a money-lender and secured
by a guarantor is less than |
a trader can charge himself when he |
|
sells goods on |
credit via an |
agent. |
The receipt |
kt 91 /k 127,77 |
which records that D paid back to G, |
concerns "the silver and the interest on it": either interest due to G
because D was late in paying |
him back, or rather interest due to |
||||
G, |
since the |
involvment of a |
guarantor |
implies |
payment problems |
of |
D (hence |
delay and default |
interest, |
which is |
a common feature |
in Old Assyrian debt-notes).78 In AKT 3, 59 a creditor urges his debtor to pay the remainder of his debt, secured by a guarantor; if not, he will charge interest79 and collect it "in accordance with the tablet where I. is registered as your guarantor." This probably means that he will collect it from the guarantor, who of course will indemnify himself at the expense of the debtor.
The law authorized a G who had to borrow in order to meet his obligation the right to charge D "interest and interest on interest" to cover the extra costs of the loan he had contracted with a moneylender (see above under II.3.1).
3.3. The debt-note
The rule was that when a debt was paid, C would return the debtnote to D; if G paid he would obtain it to return it to D when he was paid back. The unpublished letter kt 89/k 231 (courtesy Kawasaki) connects payment to G with the release of the debt-note: "Sell here the full amount (as much as is needed to pay the debt?) of mete-
77 |
Veenhof 1997c: 362f. |
|
78 |
See for problems concerning interest to be paid for a debt secured by a guar- |
|
antor |
also |
A K T 2, 31. |
79 |
Lines |
13ff. perhaps: "I will certainly not [waive]? the interest." |
oric iron for silver and give die silver to Α., so that we can give it to our guarantors (bēlū qātātini) and they may give up (waššurum) the debt-note which I. and his partners (the D's) have validated." But debt-notes could get lost, which is the issue of Kennedy-Garelli 1960: no. 1, a deposition by G:
As for the five pounds of silver which D owes to C and for which I am guarantor, when I asked him (C) for the debt-note he said: "It is lost!" I (G) am the one who has paid (with emphasis, anāku šaqqulāk1î).
Should the tablet of the five pounds of silver, D's debt, turn up, it is invalid.
G needs the tablet as proof of payment and as evidence of his claim on D, who in turn would ask him for it if he repaid. In the absence of the tablet he has this statement of the facts recorded before wit-
nesses, and the clause on |
the |
invalidity of |
the |
tablet |
has to |
protect |
||
G |
and in due time |
D. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The whereabouts |
of a debt-note for 15 pounds of silver, owed by |
||||||
D |
to C and secured by a |
G, |
are at stake |
in |
C C T |
1, 13a. |
ft must |
|
have been drawn up in connection with the liquidation of D's assets after his death (which is also the subject of other documents) and records that various persons have seen this tablet "with the seals of D and G in the house off . , among his memoranda and notes which are (now) in the possession of f.'s son Ρ . . ." The fact that this tablet was missing, without having been cancelled, must have been a worry, in particular to the guarantor, the well-known trader Pushuken. The
absence of a debt-note is also the reason |
why |
kt 91/k |
127 (see |
note |
|
77) |
records that the guarantor had been |
paid back by the debtor |
|||
(his |
father-in-law) adding, as is usual for |
Old |
Assyrian |
receipts, |
that |
it is |
invalid if it turns up. |
|
|
|
|
I I I . P L E D G E
Pledging has been analysed in Kienast 1976 and data on closely related features such as conditional sale, redemption, and acquisition of pledges of defaulting debtors in Kienast 1984: §§ 95-103. A substantial increase of data, thanks to new text editions,80 allows additions
80 |
Occasionally |
also by improved readings of old texts, e.g. EL 190:6fF. (see note |
90) |
and 179 (note |
90). |