Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 December 1907 — Egidu of Nineveh. [ARTICLE]

Egidu of Nineveh.

There was a kind of public record office attached to the palace and temple at Nineveh, In which it was customary to deposit important legal and other documents, such as contracts and agreements for the purchase and sale of property, marriage settlements, wills, etc. Among these there were discovered official statements as to the history and transactions of the eminent banking house of Egldu at Nineveh. Assyrian chronology proves that these refer to a date about 2.300 years before the Christian era, when Abraham dwelt at Ur of the Chaldees, as is stated in Genesis. We may therefore claim for thii? firm the reputation of being the oldest bank in the world at least of which we have any record or are likely to have. The accounts are very voluminous and cover_ the transactions of five generations of the house from father to son. The firm grew rapidly in importance during this period, during AVlfleh liiey attained great wealth, fepthey succeeded in securing from the king the appointment of collectors of taxes, a position which in the east always leads to fortune. Thev afterward farmed the revenue for several of the Assyrian provinces with very great gain to the firm.—T. P.’s London Weekly. ,