The Richest Man in Babylon

Babylonians were not always successful but had to learn how to acquire and keep wealth. After the Babylonians complete the city’s major infrastructure projects, such as temples and irrigation canals, people are out of work and, as a result, there is little transfer of wealth within the city: The people and their economy struggle. The Chancellor advises King Sargon that most people are poor because the city’s wealth is owned by a small handful of men, who understand how to manage finances.

King Sargon refuses to “take away from a man what he has fairly earned, to give to men of less ability” (19). Instead, he consults Arkad, the wealthy Babylonian from the previous parables. King Sargon requests that Arkad give his knowledge to a “school of teachers,” who will then instruct the populace in this knowledge (20). Arkad agrees and begins to teach his pupils how to “fatten their purses” (21).

Arkad asks his students how they earn their money, learning that many are scribes and farmers. They all agree they do not have enough money, and Arkad tells them the first “cure” for poverty is to always save 10% of their earnings. The second cure is to “control thy expenditures” by understanding what are “necessary expenses,” and what are merely “desires” (24).