Kreditkauf and Lieferungskauf as economical phenomena in the practice of the agoranomoi. Reconsideration of the contract under BGU I 174 and 189

Abstract

Abstract In the Egyptian–Greek legal practice the “fictitious loan agreements” are known as specific constructions of deferred purchase contracts of the ancient legal practice. While Roman law is well known from its consensual contracts, such as the sales contract (emptio venditio), furthermore it acknowledged constructions of sales contracts with deferred payment as valid sale, Greek law always adhered to the prompt sale and besides this, only additional solutions were applied. One of these solutions was the so-called “fictitious loan agreements” (συγγραφὴ δανείου), where – as Fritz Pringsheim emphasized – if the seller provided the purchase price and “disguised” the sale as a loan, he had no claim on the basis of the sale, but could only sue on the basis of the loan. There remained several documents of this kind, however, in light of recent papyrological research, new evidence suggests a revision on how we are regarding these documents.