Dumuzi-gamil

Dumuzi-gamil was a businessman of Old Babylonian Ur.

He began his career by borrowing 500g of silver from wealthy merchants with a partner, at the rate of 23.9 per cent, for a period of five years. With this start-up capital Dumuzi-gamil engaged in a variety of business activities, such as providing bread for the Nanna temple, lending out money himself, as well as acting as an agent to the lending section of the Nanna temple. He worked with different partners and contacts with different sectors of the Ur society, the temple, the merchants, and the palace who also depended on him for the provision of bread and possibly meat.

From his example it is obvious that the system worked well as an investment of surplus capital by moneyed individuals who did not wish to engage personally in time-consuming and risky business. For Dumuzi-gamil the different activities he could start up with the advanced money provided him with a good income.