purchase, by adoption, or by impressment into the royal service.

Farms were usually held on a sort of _metayer_ system, half the produce
going to the landlord as rent. Sometimes, however, the tenant received
only a third, a fourth, or even a tenth part of the produce, two-thirds
of the annual crop of dates being also assigned to the owner of the
land. The tenant had to keep the farm-buildings in order, and to build
any that were required. House-property seems to have been even more
valuable than farm-land. The deeds for the lease or sale of it enter
into the most minute particulars, and carefully define the limits of the
estate. The house was let for a term of years, the rent being paid
either twice or three times a year. At the expiration of the lease, the
property had to be returned in the state in which the tenant had found
it, and any infringement of the legal stipulations was punished with a
heavy fine. Agents were frequently employed in the sale or letting of
estates.

The cities were busy centres of trade. Commercial intercourse was
carried on with all parts of the known world. Wheat was exported in
large quantities, as well as dates and date-wine. The staple of
Babylonian industry, however, was the manufacture of cloths and carpets.
Vast flocks of sheep were kept on the western bank of the Euphrates, and
placed under the charge of Bedawin from Arabia. Their wool was made into
curtains and rugs, and dyed or embroidered fabrics of various kinds.
Even Belshazzar, the heir-apparent of Nabonidos, did not disdain to be a
wool-merchant, and we find him lending twenty manehs, the proceeds of
the sale of some of it, and taking as security for the repayment of the
debt certain house-property in Babylon. It was "a goodly Babylonish
garment," secreted by Achan from among the spoil of Jericho, that
brought destruction upon himself and his family.

Money-lending naturally occupied a prominent place in the transaction of
business. The ordinary rate of interest was 20 per cent, paid in monthly
instalments; in the time of Nebuchadrezzar, however, it tended to be
lower, and we find loans made at 13-1/2 per cent. The penalty was severe
if the capital were not repaid at the specified date. The payment was
occasionally in kind, but money was the usual medium of exchange. It
consisted of rings or tongue-like bars of gold, silver, and copper,
representing manehs and shekels. The maneh was divided into sixty
shekels, and the standar