{"product_id":"9789062580965","title":"Elusive Silver : In Search of a Role for a Market in an Agrarian Environment. Aspects of Mesopotamia's Society (Pihans)","description":"\u003cp\u003eMesopotamian society and its economy were basically agrarian, exhibiting \n\u003cbr\u003e cyclical long-term developments, as well as an unmistakable growth in \n\u003cbr\u003e political size. The combination contributed to severe strains in urban \n\u003cbr\u003e Mesopotamian society. Increasing political importance both complicated \n\u003cbr\u003e and concentrated government, which was compelled to change those massive \n\u003cbr\u003e quantities of agricultural bulk products, generated by its own \n\u003cbr\u003e agricultural activities and received as tax, into the more useful, \n\u003cbr\u003e liquid silver, which, however, was not produced in Mesopotamia itself. \n\u003cbr\u003e \n\u003cbr\u003eThe first study presented establishes that already by 2000 \n\u003cbr\u003e B.C. silver was to some extent current in Mesopotamia and could be \n\u003cbr\u003e exchanged internally for agricultural produce. The second study, dealing \n\u003cbr\u003e mainly with the remuneration of the Mesopotamian clergy, concludes that \n\u003cbr\u003e local elites, which played an essential role in maintaining the urban \n\u003cbr\u003e character of settled Mesopotamian society, possessed a stable economic \n\u003cbr\u003e basis, for which neither silver nor the functioning of a market played a \n\u003cbr\u003e decisive role. A third study deals with Neo-Babylonian-Achaemenid \n\u003cbr\u003e taxation, a topic which cannot be isolated from the exploitation of the \n\u003cbr\u003e land in general. It is evident that Mesopotamia made a considerable \n\u003cbr\u003e contribution to the Persian monarchy, both in silver and in human \n\u003cbr\u003e labour. Agricultural products could be marketed and exchanged within \n\u003cbr\u003e Mesopotamia but how the silver required was earned in the outside world, \n\u003cbr\u003e remains elusive.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten (NINO)","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49108158152939,"sku":"00000_00000_00000_00000","price":158.7,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/kinokuniya.com.sg\/ja\/products\/9789062580965","provider":"Books Kinokuniya Singapore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}