Mesopotamian society and its economy were basically agrarian, exhibiting
cyclical long-term developments, as well as an unmistakable growth in
political size. The combination contributed to severe strains in urban
Mesopotamian society. Increasing political importance both complicated
and concentrated government, which was compelled to change those massive
quantities of agricultural bulk products, generated by its own
agricultural activities and received as tax, into the more useful,
liquid silver, which, however, was not produced in Mesopotamia itself.

The first study presented establishes that already by 2000
B.C. silver was to some extent current in Mesopotamia and could be
exchanged internally for agricultural produce. The second study, dealing
mainly with the remuneration of the Mesopotamian clergy, concludes that
local elites, which played an essential role in maintaining the urban
character of settled Mesopotamian society, possessed a stable economic
basis, for which neither silver nor the functioning of a market played a
decisive role. A third study deals with Neo-Babylonian-Achaemenid
taxation, a topic which cannot be isolated from the exploitation of the
land in general. It is evident that Mesopotamia made a considerable
contribution to the Persian monarchy, both in silver and in human
labour. Agricultural products could be marketed and exchanged within
Mesopotamia but how the silver required was earned in the outside world,
remains elusive.