Foreign Merchants at Ugarit

Abstract

Cuneiform sources, of different periods and places, contain a wealth of information concerning the activities of the merchant (tamkarum). Especially noteworthy is the Old-Babylonian material, which has recently been the subject of a detailed monograph. No less important is the Old-Assyrian material from the trading centre of Kaniš, discovered in ever-growing quantities in the course of excavations which continue up to the present. All these are private documents, both legal and non-legal, giving a varied and detailed picture.When one turns to the various collections of legal rules, the results are rather disappointing. The only significant block of provisions is that in the Code of Hammurabi, commencing in the damaged part of the stele (sections U and V), and continuing in sections 100–107. They all concern, one way or another, trading operations; they purport to regulate the relations between a person who supplies capital or goods (the tamkarum), and his agent, acting on his behalf, going abroad to buy and to sell. One characteristic feature stands out at once: as a rule, though not necessarily always, the law merchant concerns itself with activities abroad, beyond the borders of the city-state. This general impression is confirmed also by such provisions as that of CH 32 (merchant ransoming prisoner of war), and CH 281/282 (purchase abroad of slave).