Sumeria:
First in Many Things
Part
2: It's All Business
 Businessmen
in Sumeria were concerned with maintaining their incomes and
their standing. They didn't want to get cheated or taken
advantage of. They came up with the idea of the written
contract. Both sides of a transaction would agree to terms,
and they would both write down those terms and then sign the
contract. If either party tried to pull a fast one, the
other party could point to the written contract as evidence
of being wronged. (It probably goes without saying that some
of these contracts were stored in libraries.)
These
businessmen also invented the idea of credit. The idea that
you could pay only part of what you owed was probably not
all that attractive to the seller, but Sumerian laws
protected the sellers and granted the buyers the right to
pay a little at a time. This practice contributed to a sort
of leveling of the playing field in the world of business in
that you as a consumer no longer needed huge sums of money
to be able to buy things: You could pay as you went.
 Lastly
but certainly not least, the Sumerians were the first
civilization to use the wheel effectively. Historians aren't
sure whether the Sumerians invented the wheel; historians do
agree, however, that the Sumerians were the first ancient
civilization to most effectively exploit the wheel's
capabilities. Carts had wheels, and shipments didn't take so
long. Plows had wheels, and farming didn't take so
long.
All
in all, the Sumerians contributed mightily to the
advancement of civilization. Their inability to build tall,
strong walls or muster a sturdy defense contributed to their
downfall, however.
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