The Old Assyrian Traders: The First Capitalists (2000 BC)

The Old Assyrian traders of Kanesh created the first capitalist system — 4,000 years before Adam Smith. In the Bronze Age, Assyrian merchants built a trade network stretching from Anatolia to Mesopotamia, using contracts, credit, and partnerships that would be familiar to any modern businessperson. In this episode of Empires & Economics: The Kanesh karum: the world's first merchant colony Cuneiform contracts and the invention of business law The donkey caravans that carried tin and textiles across 1,000 km Interest rates, partnerships, and the first joint ventures Why the Assyrian trade network collapsed Sources: Kültepe tablets, Larsen (2015), Veenhof (1972), Barjamovic (2011) #Assyrian #EconomicHistory #Kanesh #BronzeAge #AncientTrade #HistoryDocumentary #AncientEconomics #EmpiresAndEconomics #AncientHistory #EconomicHistory #HistoryDocumentary #AncientEconomics