Louis-Alexis Couture t05302140@ntu.edu.

tw
Rosie Chang b02607026@ntu.edu.tw
Fenja Doshoris t05701214@ntu.edu.tw
Meng Wuan t05701103@ntu.edu.tw
Assyrian Traders
Assur was a trading city and in an important emporium, inhabited by many
trading families, with a market and public and private warehouses. It was
surrounded by many town that had different resources. Assur attempted to
attract traders from the south to the market of Assur by giving them certain
privileges. Assur functioned import of woolen textiles , tin and lapis lazuli by
donkey caravans into Anatolia, where the Assyrians export these for silver
and gold that was shipped back to Assur. Assur imported the woolen textiles,
tin and lapis lazuli from other cities around Assur. The Assur gave as return
for the woolen textile etc. silver and gold that they got from the Anatolia.
Assur functioned as a trade city. Right in the middle of the city, the City Hall
acted as the mastermind It influenced the trade, but did not matermind it.
behind the assyrian commercial network. City Hall was the financial and
economic center of Assyrian and the main administrative power was located
there. Its main task was to collect taxes, check measures, weights and the
purity of metals, storing, selling, and marketing the textiles and coppers.

Basically, Assyrian took advantage of their central position in the Middle East.
Even though they lack ressources with which they could make business, they
gathered materials such as textiles in the north and metals in the south in

order to do business with nearby populations. Assyrian traders went around

with their donkey caravans and boats to emporia, market towns and ports of
trade all throughout the Middle East; Bahrain, Persian Gulf, Susa, Iran, etc.
The paper doesnt really say this. These are Mesopotamias trading partners
generally. They did not all deal with Assur.

This network encouraged the

coming of foreign traders, representing new buyers and sellers with new
products to offer. They established themselves as merchants whose activites
took part in particular district called karum. Those so called districts were
important to the Assyrian commercial network. Not only were they
connecting trading cities together, thus providing the lacking ressources to
needing cities, but they also stimulated economic activity and generated
income in the form of import taxes. The lesser karums were known as
wabartums. Wabartums were the trading stations in smaller cities and road
stations. Wabartums were usually under the administrative control of the
nearest karum.
Along the way, the assyrian commercial network saw the arrival of narruqum
which served as insurance for bad trading days. Essentially, the assyrian
commercial network gave life to some sort of finance : narruqqum was a
supplement by investors, members of tractors family and commercially
interested citizens who aimed at fairly long-term investments with safe
returns and good change of a share in the profit. In case of a bad day they
have these savings. The naruqqum was not really insurance and I am not
sure what you are thinking when you use the term bad day. But you are

right that they are long-term investments.

You should explain this a little

clearer.

In the end, the assyrian commercial network collapsed because they were
unable to adapt and grow as the other nearby cities because they were able
to developped their own trading systems.

We dont really know why the

system collapsed.
Some problems, but I think you generally understand most of the important
points.
8 / 10