Selling Promises

Sell what you do not yet have, as a promise. Interest on a loan, the bill of exchange, insurance, shares, subscriptions — all are children of this river. And its age is genuinely startling. The first use humanity found for writing was not poetry and not prayer. What is cut into the clay tablets of Uruk is who deposited what, who borrowed, and who repaid — a ledger of debts. Writing may have been born in order to record promises. Mesopotamian records show silver lent at around twenty per cent a year, barley at around thirty. Because a promise cannot be seen, this river has always been a history of inventions for making credit visible. Cut it into clay; have a temple stand behind it; print it on paper; strike it off in a ledger. Four thousand years on, the job has not changed.