两河流域乌尔第三王朝白银的货币功能探析  

The Monetary Function of Silver in Ur Ⅲ

作　　者：欧阳晓莉[1] 

机构地区：[1]复旦大学历史学系

出　　处：《世界历史》2016年第5期123-135,共13页World History

基　　金：上海市东方学者人才计划(批准文号:2013-02)资助

摘　　要：关于两河流域历史上是否使用货币以及何时开始使用货币的问题,学术界历来存在争论。在古代货币问题的研究上,卡尔·波兰尼所区分的四种货币功能,即支付手段、价值标准、交易媒介和储存手段,已成为探讨这一问题的共识和出发点。利用两河流域乌尔第三王朝时期(约公元前2112—前2004年)温马省的经济管理文献,可以追踪白银在该省经济活动中的流通过程,进而论证白银的上述四种货币功能对温马经济的促进作用。在乌尔第三王朝高度集中的再分配经济中,白银所执行的货币功能为参与经济活动的各方(包括缴纳赋税的依附民、温马省政府和王室)都提供了一定的弹性和自由度,发挥了不可或缺的作用。It remains an open question whether money existed in ancient Mesopotamia. Karl Polanyi developed an influential theory and elaborated upon four functions of money: a means of payment,a standard of value,a medium of exchange,and a means of storing wealth. This article proceeds from the above functions of money defined by Polanyi and analyzes the monetary function of silver attested in the economic documents from the Umma province in the Ur Ⅲ dynasty( 2112- 2004 BC). It tracks the movement of silver in the local economy and discovers that at that time the dependents of the Umma institutional economy had the option of paying taxes in silver instead of kind and could also substitute a silver payment for their corvée obligation. The merchants played a crucial role in channeling silver to the dependents in exchange for their side products. The provincial government represented by the governor collected the silver payments so as to pay special taxes to the crown. This article concludes that, through having these monetary functions, silver infused a certain degree of flexibility indispensable to the highly centralized redistributive economy of the Ur Ⅲ dynasty.

关 键 词：白银 货币 两河流域经济 乌尔第三王朝 卡尔·波兰尼 

分 类 号：K124[历史地理—历史学]