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HOW INTEREST RATES WERE SET, 2500 BC-1000 AD: Máš, tokos and foenus as Metaphors for Interest Accruals

In: Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient
Author:
Michael Hudson Peabody Museum, Harvard

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Online Publication Date:
01 Jan 2000
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Abstract

The earliest interest rates in Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome were set not "economically" to reflect profit or productivity rates, but by the dictates of mathematical simplicity of calculation. The interest that was "born" calendrically did not take the form of young animals, but rather of the "unit fraction," the smallest unit fraction in each of the above fractional systems: 1/60th in the Mesopotamia, 1/10th in Greece, and 1/12th in Rome. The "birth" or "calf/kid" metaphor for interest thus referred to "baby fractions", not literally baby animals.

Title:
HOW INTEREST RATES WERE SET, 2500 BC-1000 AD: Máš, tokos and foenus as Metaphors for Interest Accruals
Article Type:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/156852000511259
Language:
English
Pages:
132–161
In:
Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient
In:
Volume 43: Issue 2
Publisher:
Brill
E-ISSN:
1568-5209
Print ISSN:
0022-4995
Subjects:
General, Asian Studies, General, Ancient Near East and Egypt

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