The Oldest Code of Laws in the World | Page 7

and return the money he took, and the agent shall give to the
merchant.
section 102. If a merchant has given to the agent money as a favour,
and where he has gone he has seen loss, the full amount of money he
shall return to the merchant.
section 103. If while he goes on his journey the enemy has made him
quit whatever he was carrying, the agent shall swear by the name of
God and shall go free.
section 104. If the merchant has given to the agent corn, wool, oil, or
any sort of goods, to traffic with, the agent shall write down the price
and hand over to the merchant; the agent shall take a sealed
memorandum of the price which he shall give to the merchant.
section 105. If an agent has forgotten and has not taken a sealed
memorandum of the money he has given to the merchant, money that is
not sealed for, he shall not put in his accounts.
section 106. If an agent has taken money from a merchant and his
merchant has disputed with him, that merchant shall put the agent to
account before God and witnesses concerning the money taken, and the
agent shall give to the merchant the money as much as he has taken
threefold.
section 107. If a merchant has wronged an agent and the agent has

returned to his merchant whatever the merchant gave him, the merchant
has disputed with the agent as to what the agent gave him, that agent
shall put the merchant to account before God and witnesses, and the
merchant because he disputed the agent shall give to the agent whatever
he has taken sixfold.
section 108. If a wine merchant has not received corn as the price of
drink, has received silver by the great stone, and has made the price of
drink less than the price of corn, that wine merchant one shall put her to
account and throw her into the water.
section 109. If a wine merchant has collected a riotous assembly in her
house and has not seized those rioters and driven them to the palace,
that wine merchant shall be put to death.
section 110. If a votary, a lady, who is not living in the convent, has
opened a wine shop or has entered a wine shop for drink, that woman
one shall burn her.
section 111. If a wine merchant has given sixty KA of best beer at
harvest time for thirst, she shall take fifty KA of corn.
section 112. If a man stays away on a journey and has given silver, gold,
precious stones, or treasures of his hand to a man, has caused him to
take them for transport, and that man whatever was for transport, where
he has transported has not given and has taken to himself, the owner of
the transported object, that man, concerning whatever he had to
transport and gave not, shall put him to account, and that man shall
give to the owner of the transported object fivefold whatever was given
him.
section 113. If a man has corn or money upon a man, and without
consent of the owner of the corn has taken corn from the heap or from
the store, that man for taking of the corn without consent of the owner
of the corn from the heap or from the store, one shall put him to
account, and he shall return the corn as much as he has taken, and shall
lose all that he gave whatever it be.

section 114. If a man has not corn or money upon a man and levies a
distraint, for every single distraint he shall pay one-third of a mina.
section 115. If a man has corn or money upon a man and has levied a
distraint, and the distress in the house of his distrainer dies a natural
death, that case has no penalty.
section 116. If the distress has died in the house of his distrainer, of
blows or of want, the owner of the distress shall put his merchant to
account, and if he be the son of a freeman (that has died), his son one
shall kill; if the slave of a free-man, he shall pay one-third of a mina of
silver, and he shall lose all that he gave whatever it be.
section 117. If a man a debt has seized him, and he has given his wife,
his son, his daughter for the money, or has handed over to work off the
debt, for three years they shall work in the house of their buyer or
exploiter, in the fourth year he shall fix their liberty.
section 118. If he has handed over a manservant or a maidservant to
work