(M701) The word for plan, _ṭêmu_, means the basis of partnership, that is, its terms. Here it was “share and share alike.” The phrase _babtum_, “merchandise,” includes all the material in which they traded, excluding the living agents. The phrase _ša ḫarrânim_, literally “on the road,” may well have denoted the merchandise not in warehouse, but in circulation. Whether _ḫarrânu_ actually referred to a caravan may be doubtful. We often read of goods _ša suḳi_, “on the street,” in the same sense, “out on the market.” If the partners dealt in corn, and had a quantity lent out on interest, that was _ša suḳi_. Whether a distinction between _ša ḫarrânim_ and _ša suḳi_ was kept up is not clear. But if they invested their capital in merchandise which they sent to a distant market for sale, the former phrase would be more appropriate, while if they bought wool to manufacture into cloth or garments and to sell in the bazaars of their own town, _ša suḳi_ would be more suitable. The gate of the city was a market, and money or goods _ša bâbi_, “at the gate,” was as we should say “on the market.” In contrast to these phrases, _ina libbi alim_, “in the midst of the town,” answers to our “in stock.” While the term _mitḫariš_ literally means “altogether,” “without reservation,” it implies exact equality of share. The _amâtu_ was the “word,” literally, but, applied to business, means the agreement as to their mutual transactions. The completion of that was reached when they took the profits and divided them. It might include the mutual reckoning of profit and loss. The phrase “from mouth to interest” is very idiomatic. The “mouth,” or verbal relationships, included all they said, the terms they agreed upon. The word “interest” here replaces the more usual “gold;” both mean the “profit,” or the balance due to each. Usually we have the words “is complete,” the idea being that no verbal stipulation has been overlooked, no money or profit left out of reckoning. (M702) As will be remarked, such pregnant forms of expression evidently presuppose a long course of commercial activity. They can only have arisen as abbreviations of much longer sentences. Clear enough to the users of them, they do not admit of literal rendering, if they are to be intelligible to us. But they are eloquent witnesses of an advanced state of commerce. (M703) Traces of partnership are difficult to find in the Assyrian tablets which have reached us. We must not confuse with partnership the holding in common of property or lands, which may be due to heritage. Two or more brothers may sell their common property, for greater ease of division, but they are not exactly partners. (M704) In the later Babylonian times, as is natural to expect with the larger number of private documents, there is much evidence regarding the many forms of association for business. We have such simple forms as the following:(754)