Julius Caesar: Hammurabi's Bankruptcy Law

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Julius Caesar was emperor of Rome for a scant five months, but in that short time he changed the course of financial history. A lifelong debtor himself, Julius Caesar gave the world bankruptcy laws. The world's earliest bankruptcy laws were discovered on the obelisk containing Hammurabi's code, but Caesar's laws generally are considered the root of modern bankruptcy laws. (To learn more about Hammurabi's code, check out The History Behind Insurance.) Caesar wanted to give debtors a second chance, with a clean slate, rather than the years of slavery faced by most debtors and their families. Unfortunately, he faced opposition from moneylenders who, unlike the senators he simply could replace, had the power to refuse him capital if he ruled against them. In a deft balancing act, Caesar gave moneylenders the power to confiscate the land of nobles in lieu of debt payments while at the same time ending the practice of selling plebeian delinquent debtors into slavery. Satisfied with their new collection powers, moneylenders were convinced of the prudence of allowing more concessions to debtors. These measures included: wiping the slate clean following a bankruptcy; allowing a man to keep the tools of his trade and related land; and limiting the personal liability of a debtor's immediate and extended family.…show more content…
At first, lords held the many sections of the country and their bankruptcy laws revolved around imprisonment in the 1200s. As commerce increased along with the frequency and popularity of contracts, bankruptcy law began to evolve with the need for legal debt solutions. By the 1500s, bankruptcy laws took shape into a crude resemblance of what most countries hold as standard bankruptcy laws. However, early bankruptcy laws were designed to protect the interest of creditors, whereas over the years laws have been changed to protect

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