Forty Centuries of Wage and Price Controls

Appendix A

The Wage and Price Control Statutes From the Code of Hammurabi

The Code of Hammurabi was promulgated in Babylon approximately 4,000 years ago (the exact date is uncertain; the best estimate for the conckidingyear of the king’s reign is 2150 B.C.). The text is from The Hammurabi Code and the Sinaitic Legislation by Chilperic Edwards (Kennikat Press, N.Y., 1904, pp. 67–73). Provisions which do not refer to price and wage controls have been omitted, hence the gaps in the numbering of the clauses.

239. If a man hire a boatman, he shall give him six gur of corn per annum.

242. If a man hires for a year, the fee for a draught ox is four gur of corn.

243. The tee for a milch-cow is three gur of corn given to the owner.

245. If a man has hired an ox, and by neglect or by blows has caused its death, he shall replace ox by ox to the owner of the ox.

257. If a man hire a field-labourer, he shall give him eight gur of corn per annum.

258. If a man hire a herdsman, he shall give him six gur of corn per annum.

261. If a man hire a pasturer for cattle and sheep, he shall give him eight gur of corn per annum.

268. If a man has hired an ox for threshing, twenty qa of corn is its hire.

269. If an ass has been hired for threshing, ten qa of corn is its hire.

270. If a young animal has been hired for threshing, one qa of corn is its hire.

271. If a man hire cattle, wagon, and driver, he shall give 180 qa of corn per diem.

272. If a man has hired a wagon by itself, he shall give forty qa of corn per diem.

273. If a man hire a workman, then from the beginning of the year until the fifth month he shall give six grains of silver per diem. From the sixth month until the end of the year he shall give five grains of silver per diem.

274. If a man hire a son of the people,

he shall give per diem.

275. If a man hire a *[illegible], her hire is three grains of silver per diem.

276. If a man hire a makhirtu, he shall give two and a half grains of silver per diem for her hire.

277. If a man hire a sixty-ton boat, he shall give a sixth part of a shekel of silver per diem for her hire.

. . . The judgments of justice which Hammurabi, the mighty king, has established, conferring upon the land a sure guidance and a gracious rule.

Hammurabi, the protecting king, am I. I have not withdrawn myself from the blackheaded race that Bel has entrusted to me, and over whom Merodach has made me shepherd. I have not reposed myself upon my side; but I have given them places of peace. Difficult points have I made smooth, and radiance have I shed abroad. With the mighty weapon that Zamama and Ishtar have lent me; with the penetration with which Ea has endowed me; with the valour that Merodach lias given me, I have rooted out all enemies above and below; and the depths have I subjugated. The flesh of the land I have made rejoice: the resident people I have made secure; I have not suffered them to be afraid. . . .

* Partially legible provisions have been omitted.