Debt: At the Center of Every Interaction

I was prompted to dust my notes on this gem of a book I had picked up at a random coffee shop after I read the news that the author of this book, David Graeber, passed away. This is an anthropological account of Debt - how the concept of money and debt has evolved in the past 5000 years. I'll be honest it is a tough read - but if you persist, it has many wonderful concepts and ideas in it. This book used to be my companion during my commute for a few months couple of years ago. And I felt satisfied going through my first anthropological book of any kind.

Overall, he called debt “an assault on the very idea of community, and an assault on the commitments that we make to each other through the medium of government.” 

I think this article describes his work very well - How David Graeber Changed the Way We See Money. The book explores how debt is now at the center of everything we do and also at the center of all social problems - tonnes of debt on students, farmers, home owners and everything.

Quoting from the above article - this paragraph aptly describes the premise of the book. 

What was debt? What was its history, where did it come from, and how did it take such a central role in our personal and economic lives? Why was our language of obligation and morality the same as the one used to describe our credit card bills? Why does the Lord’s Prayer ask God to “forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors”? 

Below are my notes from the book -

• Adam Smith in his book "The Wealth of Nations" wanted to state that the discipline of Economics is governed by laws just as Physics.
  
  
• Money is an accounting tool. Example of IOU.
  
  
• It was Richard Nixon who unpegged the dollar from the Gold Standard and introduced the system of floating currency regimes.
  
  
• Debts have an underlying assumption that they have to be repaid. It is weird/intriguing how this assumption has solidified - because the lender is supposed to accept a certain degree of risk?
  
  
• On that note, in light of recent news about how China is buying out Africa? - by giving them loans which the African companies will never be able to payback and thus caught in the vicious cycle of being forever subservient to China.
  
  
• All revolutionary movements have a single program - cancel the debts and redistribute the land. 
  
  
• Money lenders have a consistently bad image. 
  
  
• "In the secular world, morality consists largely of fulfilling our obligations to others and we have a tendency to imagine those obligations as debts." 
  
  
• Even Karmic justice is viewed as a business deal.
  
  
• Credit Systems existed long before cash.
  
  
• All human relations have been reduced to an exchange infact even our relation with the cosmos.
  
  
• The author described Barter system as a double co-incidence of wants. 
  As from the book Macroeconomics - Finding someone who has the item you want and is willing to exchange that item for something you have is both difficult and time-consuming.
  
  
• As per him, it is not a particularly ancient phenomenon but really became widespread in modern times.
  
  
• And the author also strongly refutes the often popularly understood cycle of Barter -> Money -> Credit Systems.
  
  
• History of Money !=  History of coinage (not equal to).

Primordial Debts

• I remember struggling to understand what Primordial means. It means existing in or persisting from the beginning.
  
  
• Here the author explores how "debts" fit into the scheme of things in the ancient world. Interestingly, earlier the idea of taxes was unknown to the citizens of the ancient world. "Classical Greeks" even looked upon direct taxes as tyrannical. Usually, a tribute fee was levied on the people of conquered territories. 
  
  
• Fast forward to today, we pay our taxes so that the government can provide us with services. It is remarkable how this idea of "social contract" has evolved. Taxes are a measure of our debt to the society. The author also references ancient texts here like the Mesopotamian and Vedic texts where debts was synonymous with debt and guilt. In one of the passages in the Brahmans it says - we are born as a debt to the GODS.
  
  
• Also, in medieval times penalties/fines were in terms of things and items in the household.
  
  
• Also, just like we are considered to be in the debt of our ancestors - we are also in debt of our parents. In normal affairs, repaying a debt means you have nothing to do with that person anymore. Now keeping that in mind, will we want to be square with our parents?
  
  
• In ancient India - a man was viewed to be in debt of the GODS. So will "sacrifices" be considered as an interest payment in a loan or something like that?
  
  
• Also, much in contrast today - the Sumerian and later Babylonian Kings periodically announced general amnesties i.e "clean slates" - all debts waived off. Part of the reason they did so was because they wanted to think of themselves as the Cosmic Creator who had such a power!
  
  
• Now does it happen in present day? Maybe. Loan waiver of farmers in India would be such an example.
  
  
• Interestingly, since "man" was considered to be in the debt of GODS who have everything - in that case how would you negotiate or even pay him back.

 

Cruelty and Redemption 

• The author puts forward a very interesting argument between religion and debt. He links the argument by Nietzsche and Adam Smith that "our ideas about responsibilities to other people first take shape in strictly commercial terms".

  
  
• And even in religion, life and relationship with GOD is in commercial terms. No wonder in Christianity, Christ is called "The Redeemer" (the salvation itself, the sacrifice of GOD's own son to rescue humanity from eternal damnation should be framed in the language of a financial transaction).

  
  
• And it is the same in other religions too.
  

  Redemption was a release of one's burden of sin and guilt and the end of history would be that moment when all slates are wiped clean and all debts finally lifted.

• Even in society, ancestors are considered to be someone who we owe to. The tribe exists only because of its sacrifices and achievements of its ancestors and people have to pay them back with sacrifices. 
  
  In summary, Debt and religion are interlinked.
  

   

The Moral Grounds of Economic Relations

• The language of debt has come to pervade every aspect of human life even the moral and religious tones.
  The author then claims to try and understand the moral grounds of human life through the small things and details of human/social existence.
  
  
• Here it is worth remembering that a man gets his first sense of justice and morality from his/her parents.
  
  
• "From each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs". 
  Some might identify the above principle as "communism" but the author reminds us that one of the scandals of capitalism is that most capitalist firms operate communistically.
  
  
• Also, human society is based on the everyday morality of sharing. Solitary pleasures will always exist but for most human beings - most pleasurable activities almost always involve sharing something.
  
  
• Also, in many cultures sharing of food is an extension of friendship i.e never harm one other.
  
  
• In this chapter, the author is trying to link debt and our actions in the societal context. Debt features when you break bread with somebody.
  
  
• It is very fascinating to see how Debt affects gift accepting situations.
  Responding to a gift "requires infinite artistry" and involves lots of nuances.
  
  
  Suppose a friend of an economist takes him out for dinner. 
  i)  He would not feel diminished.
  ii) But if he was taken out by Bill Gates/George Soros, he would feel that he received something for nothing and leave it at that.
  iii) If he was taken out by a junior colleague or a grad student - he would assume he was doing the other person a favor by accepting the invitation.
  
  
• There is a certain element of hierarchy involved as well when it comes to debts. Remember, how famous works of poetry and philosophy are often prefaced with sycophantic praise for the patron who provided some meagre stipend.
  
  
• Debt is always between equals and later on one party becomes lower in stature. Funnily the quote, "always owe somebody something then he will be forever praying GOD to grant you a good, long and blessed life.
  
  
• Example of African tribes where there wasn't a government/authority who was in charge of circulating currency. Everything worked on the system of barter/human life. In case of any crime (like murder) - human life was equated to human life only and nothing else. To appease the victim party - precious gifts like shark teeth/camwood/roffia cloth were given with the understanding that a human life was still owed. 
  
  
• Usually, that "owed human life" was a young woman. The way the exchange/pawnship for women worked is definitely reprehensible by today's standards, but back then it was the norm. 
  Violence happened usually over claims over women. They were called pawns/wards. Interestingly. only men could have pawns and not women; thus confirming their second class stature back then. 
  
  
• There was a "human economy" in place where 
  

  Money almost always arises first from objects that are used primarily as adornment of the person. Eg - Breads, Shells, Feathers. 
  As a general rule, it is only when governments and then markets, enter the picture that we begin to see currencies like barley, cheese, tobacco or salt. 

• Islamic Law didn't eliminate slavery.
  
  
• The author I think tries to link slavery and debt. 
  In some medieval societies, cattle and people were the currency/denominations of currency. In Celtic systems, the law code was so defined that every free person in the society had a "honor price" - the price one had to pay for an insult to the person's dignity.
  Honors of kings/nobleman - was measured in slaves and the slaves were human beings whose honor was 0. More slaves would notch up the honor of the master.
  
  
• Another great point brought up here - Is honor the willingness to pay one's monetary debts?
  
  
• Origins of patriarchy can be traced back to Mesopotamian Civilization. 
  
  
• Also, based on the stories and the evidence shared - it was clear that the more militaristic the state, more harsher its laws towards women. 
  
  
• In the past, it has been like Conquest -> Taxes -> Markets.
  
  
• Explosion of debt turned everything including (for soldiers and administrators) - women into commodities and harmed the human relations. 
  
  
• As commercial economy arrived in Greece, people developed ways and means to settle debts and devise ways to punish those who couldn't repay their debts. As usual, those who were poor had to give away their daughters and women in their family while the rich (nobles/clergy) were left untouched. 
  This masked a steady deterioration of women rights as women honor started being equated with price and debt.
  
  
• Advent of commercial markets -developed all types of social problems like debt crises, debt resistance and political unrest.
  
  

The Axial Age

• That period is called the "Axial" as in pivotal. Karl Jaspers coined this term as he noted that eminent personalities like Pythagoras, Buddha and Confucius were present around the same time in history.
  
  
• Here the author takes us on a tour of how currency evolved which I found informative.
  
  
• Coinage started around the Yellow River in China, the Ganges valley in Northern India and the shores of the Aegean Sea. 
  
  
• Main driving reason was to turn chunks of metal into genuine currency - create enough coins that people begin to use them in everyday transactions and the existence of markets was convenient as you could provision large standing enemies. Also, coins were brought into prevalence by - (i) Paying soldiers (ii) Paying general public for attending townhalls.
  
  
• Typical Axial Age pattern : Fractured, political landscape, rise of trained professional armies and creation of coined money largely to pay them.
  
  
• Here in the Axial Age - people started thinking of profits/losses.

The Middle Ages

• In Middle Ages, the commodity markets and universal world religions begin to emerge. 
  
  
• Talks about how upper castes oppressed lower caste in India - there are accounts of molten lava being pored into the ears just over hearing recital of sacred texts. 
  
  
• Caste determined the interest rates in that case. Interestingly, it carried over for 3 generations.
  
  
• Confucian orthodoxy was overtly hostile to merchants and even the motive of profit. China for most of its history was anti-capitalist.
  
  
• Debt owed to parents cannot be paid. 
  
  
• "Military-coinage-slavery" 
  Slaves were the last people to be allowed near weapons. While under the Mughals they were employed as soldiers.
  
  
• During the Middle Ages - Islam started to have a view where profits were welcomed. But interests were not - which seems odd.
  
  

The Beginning of Something

• The Prophet seemed to say that in a "free market situation" - prices depend on the will of the GOD. 
  
  
• Middle Ages began with "coinage going out of fashion".
  
  
• In Christianity, views/attitudes towards usury were just as harsh as the Muslim ones and attitudes towards merchants considerably harsher.  
  It was said invoking Christ - 

  Treat the poor as you would treat the Christ himself.

  Giving without the expectation of returns and allowing the borrowers to decide on recompense.

•  "Unto a foreigner thou mayest lend upon usury, but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury."

• In 1179, usury was made a mortal sin and usurers were denied Christian burial.

• The words for "truck and barter" in almost all European languages were derived from terms meaning "swindler", "bamboozle" or "deceive". Such was the association of commerce with cheating!

• The word "knight" often perceived in a positive light has an interesting origin. Originally been a term for freelance worries drawn from the younger or bastard sort of minor nobility. 

• Overall slavery declined or disappeared as the overall level of violence in the Middle Ages. 

• I also learned about this often talked about conundrum or debates of Chinese Philosophers. 
  

  Is the world created by our minds, or our minds by the world?

  There are other versions of this quote something like how do we know we are not dreaming as a butterfly.

• Aristotle had argued that Gold and Silver had no intrinsic themselves; money was therefore around convention invented by human communities to facilitate exchange.

• In the Middle Ages, one philosopher said - 

  How is it possible for humans to have knowledge of GOD? How can we, whose knowledge is confined to what our senses can perceive of the material universe, have knowledge of a being whose nature is absolutely alien to that material universe?

• Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice has the phrase "pound of flesh" - it is an indirect reference to the practice of extraction of bodily parts in the case of inability to pay the creditors.