The temple economy
Redistribution through the temple is the first large-scale economic institution.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 1 thousand years
- Known to
- ± 200 years
- Era
- Bronze Age, Holocene
Sumerian temples own land, employ thousands, store grain, lend at interest and keep meticulous accounts — the majority of surviving cuneiform is temple and palace administration. Silver functions as a unit of account long before coinage, debts are recorded and periodically cancelled by royal decree, and interest rates are fixed by custom. Much of what is usually treated as modern economic apparatus is present here in some form.