Copper Trade Incident in Sumeria


 Commerce is one of the oldest concepts in human civilization, dating back to the time when we were nomadic hunter-gatherers travelling the wild. After all, it doesn’t take much to understand that when you see someone with something you want, you have three options: let it go, steal it or give them something they want in exchange. These kinds of interactions have given rise to multiple practices and professions, both good and bad. 

Our story today will cover the earliest known trade incident that was recorded. Considering that the record is nearly 4,000 years old, it is weirdly impressive. The culprit in question is a merchant from the city of Ur in Mesopotamia named Ea-Nāsir, who was transporting his goods between Ur and the city of Dilmun by boat. Nāsir was a long-time copper merchant importing well, copper, and selling it to his city. Archeological findings suggested that he was heavily invested in his trade with the royal palace and that he seemed quite successful at first. 

Unfortunately for our man, the good time wouldn’t last as his living quarters showed sign to have been partially reprocessed by his neighbor. Many suggest that with him focusing his attention on his palace-related work caused his domestic affairs to drop, as shown by Nāsir receiving the oldest recovered formal complaint letter. The document, inscribed on a clay tablet as it was customary in Sumeria, was written by another trader named Nanni. The translation of the document revealed that Nāsir was accused by Nanni of not only selling him bad quality copper but also being particularly rude to his emissaries. 

Now we don’t know for sure what happened after that, as we have no other documents related to this particular message. However, considering that our dishonest merchant continued his activities afterward, we can presume nothing major happened to him. Although we can assume that Nanni found another supplier of copper. 

This story has gained quite a bit of traction as an online meme, using the name of Ea-Nāsir in various mockery of bad business practices. This is probably due to the sheer absurdity of the situation, to imagine that one random complaint between traders would survive all the way to our days. 

In the end, this story shows us that even as far back as the Bronze Age, merchants and businessmen weren’t above cutting corners to further improve their profit. 

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