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| Sunday, 28 November 2004 |
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Debt salesmen and economic holocaust in Sri Lanka - Part II Solemn Thoughts by Wendell Solomons The mystery Today, lending money on interest has become commonplace. So here is a mystery. What factors made it disparaged? In the millennia that led up to the three leaders of faith, money had come into use in cities of the Indus Valley, Mesopotamia, the Nile Valley and other civilisations. Before money came into being it was product against product. In time, for buyers and sellers, ready money provided a clear advantage over barter. Many forms of money were first used. Black pepper was one, a prime source for it then being pepper cultivation in the country (the colonial tax annually paid by Canada till recent times was the equivalent of one pound of pepper). Many other items were used for circulation until silver and gold gained precedence. The two metals did not change in quality or weight in any major way when stored in damp conditions (for instance, during sea voyages in dhows and earlier small craft that sailed from the river Indus civilisation to Mesopotamia and the Nile valley). Money dealer impact on the city The popularity of metals led to the appearance of specialised trades. Metals would have to be assayed or proofed for purity. If coinage was minted in a different city, then the coins would have to be taken to a specialist money changer for exchange for local coin. Another property of metallic money was that it could be stocked for years. That supported professional money dealers who specialised in lending. From the study of recent Hindu temples, we find that in a division of labour, books of account were maintained not by sages or priests - but often by money dealers. Sometimes meetings of the money lenders were held in a temple room. Study of Hindu and Judaic temples reveals that money dealers sometime made arrangements to store their gold and silver stocks for safety within the temple compound. In addition, certain money dealers received stolen valuables and cemented ties with underworld gangs. In modern times the underworld ring of Meyer Lansky and Moe Dalitz convened the mustering of money adequate to erect the gambling dens that made Las Vegas famous in the Nevada desert. Even more recently 'reforms' in Latin America led by Harvard's Dr. Jeffrey Sachs (who you will notice according to the last quote in this account, in the role of a salesman for rich bankers) that led to several business firms going to the wall and switching to trading in Crack cocaine. So, Dr. Sachs and crime syndicates which imported the new drug into USA contributed to hitting Americans with the recent Crack epidemic. It is the same legacy that created several private banks in Hongkong, Shanghai and elsewhere in the Far East through the sale of opium in China, resisted by the opium wars (1839-60). In early urban settlements, if money dealers created an amalgamated and cumulative force, then in contrast to other traders and other lines of business, money lenders might exert an undue influence on the priesthood. In a temple where accounts are controlled by money-dealers, the priesthood would in time be deflected away from serving the community as a whole. An undermined priesthood could not save the community at large from ruin at the hands of the unified force of money lenders (who in this case would be dividing the market from within the temple). Undermined priests could not keep intact a community that was being reduced to chattel slavery. The population would be sold as goods to foreign nations. The community and city would fall into decline. We can now take up a narration that can be substantiated through accessing a modern bookshelf. The Bible narrates that the nearby Persian emperor Cyrus sent Nehemiah to lead Jews then in exile to reconstruct Jerusalem's walls. This happened in the era when sage Siddartha Gautama began his teachings. Here is Nehemiah's plaint during the reconstruction of Jerusalem: After serious thought, I rebuked the nobles and rulers, and said to them, "Each of you is exacting usury from his brother." So I called a great assembly against them. And I said to them, "According to our ability we have redeemed our Jewish brethren who were sold to the nations. Now indeed, will you even sell your brethren? Or should they be sold to us?" (Nehemiah 5:5-13 NKJ). (To be continued) |
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