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- Herausgeber: GAEditori
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
The Richest Man in Babylon is a 1926 book by George S. Clason that dispenses financial advice through a collection of parables set 4,000 years ago in ancient Babylon. The book remains in print almost a century after the parables were originally published, and is regarded as a classic of personal financial advice.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
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George S. Clason
Indice dei contenuti
An Historical Sketch of Babylon
The Man Who Desired Gold
The Richest Man In Babylon
Seven Cures For a Lean Purse
The First Cure
The Second Cure
The Third Cure
The Fourth Cure
The Fifth Cure
The Sixth Cure
The Seventh Cure
Meet the Goddess of Good Luck
The Five Laws of Gold
THE FIVE LAWS OF GOLD
The First Law of Gold
The Second Law of Gold
The Third Law of Gold
The Fourth Law of Gold
The Fifth Law of Gold
The Gold Lender of Babylon
The Walls of Babylon
The Camel Trader of Babylon
The Clay Tablets From Babylon
Tablet No. I
Tablet No. II
Tablet No. III
Tablet No. IV
Tablet No. V
The Luckiest Man In Babylon
George S. Clason
TheRichestManInBabylon
An Historical Sketch of Babylon
In the pages of history there lives no city more glamorous than Babylon. Itsvery name conjures visions of wealth and splendor. Its treasures of gold andjewelswerefabulous.Onenaturallypicturessuchawealthycityaslocatedina suitable setting of tropical luxury, surrounded by rich natural resources offorests, and mines. Such was not the case. It was located beside theEuphrates River, in a flat, arid valley. It had no forests, no mines—not evenstone for building. It was not even located upon a natural trade-route. Therainfallwas insufficienttoraisecrops.
Babylon is an outstanding example of man's ability to achieve greatobjectives, using whatever means are at his disposal. All of the resourcessupportingthislargecitywereman-developed.Allofitsricheswereman-made.
Babylon possessed just two natural resources—a fertile soil and water in theriver. With one of the greatest engineering accomplishments of this or anyotherday,Babylonianengineersdivertedthewatersfromtheriverbymeansof dams and immense irrigation canals. Far out across that arid valley wentthese canals to pour the life giving waters over the fertile soil. This ranksamong the first engineering feats known to history. Such abundant crops asweretherewardofthisirrigationsystemtheworld hadneverseen before.
Fortunately, duringitslongexistence, Babylon wasruledbysuccessive linesof kings to whom conquest and plunder were but incidental. While it engagedin many wars, most of these were local or defensive against ambitiousconquerors from other countries who coveted the fabulous treasures ofBabylon. The outstanding rulers of Babylon live in history because of theirwisdom, enterprise and justice. Babylon produced no strutting monarchs whosought to conquer the known world that all nations might pay homage to theiregotism.
As a city, Babylon exists no more. When those energizing human forces thatbuilt and maintained the city for thousands of years were withdrawn, it soonbecameadesertedruin.ThesiteofthecityisinAsia aboutsixhundredmileseast of the Suez Canal, just north of the Persian Gulf. The latitude is aboutthirtydegreesabovethe Equator,practicallythesameasthatofYuma,
Arizona.Itpossessed aclimatesimilartothatofthisAmericancity,hotanddry.
Today,thisvalleyoftheEuphrates,onceapopulousirrigatedfarmingdistrict, is again a wind-swept arid waste. Scant grass and desert shrubs strivefor existence against the windblown sands. Gone are the fertile fields, themammoth cities and the long caravans of rich merchandise. Nomadic bands ofArabs,securingascant livingbytendingsmallherds,aretheonlyinhabitants.Such ithas been sinceaboutthebeginningof theChristianera.
Dotting this valley are earthen hills. For centuries, they were considered bytravelers to be nothing else. The attention of archaeologists were finallyattractedtothembecauseofbrokenpiecesofpotteryandbrickwasheddown by the occasional rain storms. Expeditions, financed by European andAmerican museums, were sent here to excavate and see what could be found.Picks and shovels soon proved these hills to be ancient cities. City graves,theymightwell becalled.
Babylon was one of these. Over it for something like twenty centuries, thewinds had scattered the desert dust. Built originally of brick, all exposedwalls had disintegrated and gone back to earth once more. Such is Babylon,the wealthy city, today. A heap of dirt, so long abandoned that no livingpersonevenknewitsnameuntilitwasdiscoveredbycarefullyremovingtherefuse of centuries from the streets and the fallen wreckage of its nobletemplesandpalaces.
Many scientists consider the civilization of Babylon and other cities in thisvalleytobetheoldestofwhichthereisadefiniterecord.Positivedateshavebeenprovedreaching back8000years.
Aninterestingfactinthisconnectionisthemeansusedtodeterminethesedates. Uncovered in the ruins of Babylon were descriptions of an eclipse ofthe sun. Modern astronomers readily computed the time when such aneclipse, visible in Babylon, occurred and thus established a knownrelationshipbetweentheircalendarandourown.
In this way, we have proved that 8000 years ago, the Sumerites, whoinhabitedBabylonia,werelivinginwalledcities.Onecanonlyconjectureforhowmanycenturiesprevioussuchcitieshadexisted.Theirinhabitantswere
not mere barbarians living within protecting walls. They were an educatedand enlightened people. So far as written history goes, they were the firstengineers,thefirstastronomers,thefirstmathematicians,thefirstfinanciersandthefirstpeopletohavea writtenlanguage.
Mention has already been made of the irrigation systems which transformedthearidvalleyintoanagriculturalparadise.Theremainsofthesecanalscanstill be traced, although they are mostly filled with accumulated sand. Someof them were of such size that, when empty of water, a dozen horses couldbe ridden abreast along their bottoms. In size they compare favorably withthe largestcanals inColorado andUtah.
In addition to irrigating the valley lands, Babylonian engineers completedanother project of similar magnitude. By means of an elaborate drainagesystemthey reclaimedanimmenseareaofswamplandatthemouthsoftheEuphratesand TigrisRiversandputthisalsoundercultivation.
Herodotus,theGreektravelerandhistorian,visitedBabylonwhileitwasinits prime and has given us the only known description by an outsider. Hiswritings give a graphic description of the city and some of the unusualcustoms of its people. He mentions the remarkable fertility of the soil andthebountifulharvestofwheatand barleywhichtheyproduced.
The glory of Babylon has faded but its wisdom has been preserved for us. Forthis we are indebted to their form of records. In that distant day, the use ofpaperhadnotbeeninvented.Instead,theylaboriouslyengravedtheirwritingupon tablets of moist clay. When completed, these were baked and becamehard tile. In size, they were about six by eight inches, and an inch inthickness.
These clay tablets, as they are commonly called, were used much as we usemodern forms of writing. Upon them were engraved legends, poetry, history,transcriptions of royal decrees, the laws of the land, titles to property,promissory notes and even letters which were dispatched by messengers todistant cities. From these clay tablets we are permitted an insight into theintimate, personal affairs of the people. For example, one tablet, evidentlyfrom the records of a country storekeeper, relates that upon the given date acertainnamedcustomerbroughtinacowandexchangeditforsevensacksofwheat, three being delivered at the time and the other four to await thecustomer'spleasure.
Safely buried in the wrecked cities, archaeologists have recovered entirelibrariesofthesetablets,hundredsof thousandsof them.
One of the outstanding wonders of Babylon was the immense wallssurrounding the city. The ancients ranked them with the great pyramid ofEgypt as belonging to the "seven wonders of the world." Queen Semiramis iscredited with having erected the first walls during the early history of thecity. Modern excavators have been unable to find any trace of the originalwalls.Noristheirexactheightknown.Frommentionmadeby earlywriters,it is estimated they were about fifty to sixty feet high, faced on the outersidewithburntbrickandfurther protectedbyadeep moatofwater.
Thelaterandmorefamouswallswerestartedaboutsixhundredyearsbeforethe time of Christ by King Nabopolassar. Upon such a gigantic scale did heplan the rebuilding, he did not live to see the work finished. This was left tohisson,Nebuchadnezzar,whosenameisfamiliarin Biblicalhistory.
The height and length of these later walls staggers belief. They are reportedupon reliable authority to have been about one hundred and sixty feet high,the equivalent of the height of a modern fifteen story office building. Thetotal length is estimated as between nine and eleven miles. So wide was thetopthatasix-horsechariot couldbedrivenaroundthem.Ofthistremendousstructure, little now remains except portions of the foundations and themoat. In addition to the ravages of the elements, the Arabs completed thedestructionbyquarryingthebrick forbuildingpurposeselsewhere.
AgainstthewallsofBabylonmarched,inturn,thevictoriousarmiesofalmostevery conqueror of that age of wars of conquest. A host of kings laid siege toBabylon, but always in vain. Invading armies of that day were not to beconsideredlightly.Historiansspeakofsuchunitsas10,000horsemen,
25,000 chariots, 1200 regiments of foot soldiers with 1000 men to theregiment. Often two or three years of preparation would be required toassemble war materials and depots of food along the proposed line of march.The city of Babylon was organized much like a modern city. There werestreetsandshops.
Peddlers offered their wares through residential districts. Priests officiated inmagnificenttemples.
Within the city was an inner enclosure for the royal palaces. The walls aboutthisweresaidto havebeenhigherthanthoseaboutthecity.
TheBabylonianswereskilledinthearts.Theseincludedsculpture,painting,weaving, gold working and the manufacture of metal weapons andagriculturalimplements.TheirJewellerscreatedmostartisticjewellery.
Manysampleshavebeenrecoveredfromthegravesof itswealthycitizensandare now on exhibitionintheleading museumsoftheworld.
At a very early period when the rest of the world was still hacking at treeswith stone-headed axes, or hunting and fighting with flint-pointed spears andarrows,theBabylonianswereusingaxes,spearsandarrowswithmetalheads.The Babylonians were clever financiers and traders. So far as we know, theywere the original inventors of money as a means of exchange, of promissorynotesandwrittentitles to property.
Babylon was never entered by hostile armies until about 540 years before thebirthof Christ.
Even then the walls were not captured. The story of the fall of Babylon ismostunusual.Cyrus,oneofthegreatconquerorsofthatperiod,intendedtoattackthecityandhopedtotakeitsimpregnablewalls.
AdvisorsofNabonidus, theKingofBabylon, persuadedhimtogoforth tomeetCyrusandgivehim battlewithoutwaitingforthecitytobebesieged.InthesucceedingdefeattotheBabylonianarmy,itfledawayfromthe city.
Cyrus, thereupon, entered the open gates and took possession withoutresistance.
Thereafter the power and prestige of the city gradually waned until, in thecourse of a few hundred years, it was eventually abandoned, deserted, leftfor the winds and storms to level once again to that desert earth from whichits grandeur had originally been built. Babylon had fallen, never to rise again,butto itcivilizationowes much.
Theeonsoftime havecrumbledtodusttheproudwallsofits temples,butthewisdomof Babylonendures.
Moneyisthemediumbywhichearthlysuccessismeasured.
Moneymakespossibletheenjoymentofthebesttheearthaffords.
Money is plentiful for those who understand the simple laws which govern itsacquisition.
Money is governed today by the same laws which controlled it whenprosperousmenthrongedthestreetsofBabylon,sixthousandyearsago.
The Man Who Desired Gold
Bansir, the chariot builder of Babylon, was thoroughly discouraged. From hisseatuponthelowwallsurroundinghisproperty,hegazedsadlyat hissimplehomeandtheopenworkshopinwhichstoodapartiallycompletedchariot.
His wife frequently appeared at the open door. Her furtive glances in hisdirectionremindedhimthatthemealbagwasalmostemptyandheshouldbeat work finishing the chariot, hammering and hewing, polishing and painting,stretchingtauttheleather overthewheelrims,preparingitfordelivery
sohecouldcollectfromhiswealthy customer.
Nevertheless,hisfat,muscularbodysatstolidlyuponthewall.Hisslowmindwasstrugglingpatientlywithaproblemforwhichhecouldfindnoanswer.
The hot, tropical sun, so typical of this valley of the Euphrates, beat downupon him mercilessly. Beads of perspiration formed upon his brow andtrickleddownunnoticedtolosethemselvesintiehairyjungleonhischest.
Beyond his home towered the high terraced wall surrounding the king'spalace. Nearby, cleaving the blue heavens, was the painted tower of theTemple of Bel. In the shadow of such grandeur was his simple home and manyothers far less neat and well cared for. Babylon was like this—a mixture ofgrandeur and squalor, of dazzling wealth and direst poverty, crowdedtogetherwithoutplanorsystemwithinthe protectingwallsofthecity.
Behind him, had he cared to turn and look, the noisy chariots of the richjostled and crowded aside the sandaled tradesmen as well as the barefootedbeggars. Even the rich were forced to turn into the gutters to clear the wayfor the long lines of slave water carriers, on the "King's Business," eachbearinga heavygoatskinofwatertobepouredupon thehanginggardens.
Bansir was too engrossed in his own problem to hear or heed the confusedhubbub of the busy city. It was the unexpected twanging of the strings from afamiliarlyrethatarousedhimfromhisreverie.Heturnedandlookedintothesensitive,smilingfaceofhisbestfriend—Kobbi,the musician.
"MaytheGodsblesstheewithgreatliberality,mygoodfriend,"beganKobbiwithanelaboratesalute."Yet,itdoesappear theyhavealreadybeenso
generous thou needest not to labor. I rejoice with thee in thy good fortune.More, I would even share it with thee. Pray, from thy purse which must bebulging else thou wouldst be busy in your shop, extract but two humbleshekelsandlendthemtomeuntilafterthenoblemen'sfeastthisnight.Thouwiltnotmiss themeretheyarereturned."
"If I did have two shekels," Bansir responded gloomily, "to no one could I lendthem—not even to you, my best of friends; for they would be my fortune—myentirefortune.Noonelendshisentirefortune,noteventohisbestfriend."
"What,"exclaimedKobbiwithgenuinesurprise,"Thouhastnotoneshekelinthy purse, yet sit like a statue upon a wall! Why not complete that chariot?How else canst thou provide for thy noble appetite? Tis not like thee, myfriend.Whereisthy endlessenergy?Dothsomethingdistressthee?Have
theGodsbroughttotheetroubles?"
"A torment from the Gods it must be," Bansir agreed. "It began with a dream,a senseless dream, in which I thought I was a man of means. From my belthung a handsome purse, heavy with coins. There were shekels which I castwithcarelessfreedomtothebeggars;therewerepiecesofsilverwithwhichIdid buy finery for my wife and whatever I did desire for myself; there werepieces of gold which made me feel assured of the future and unafraid tospend the silver. A glorious feeling of contentment was within me! You wouldnot have known me for thy hardworking friend. Nor wouldst have known mywife, so free from wrinkles was her face and shining with happiness. She wasagainthesmilingmaidenofourearlymarrieddays."
"Apleasantdream,indeed,"commentedKobbi,"butwhyshouldsuchpleasantfeelingsasitarousedturnthee intoaglumstatue uponthewall?"
"Why, indeed! Because when I awoke and remembered how empty was mypurse, a feeling of rebellion swept over me. Let us talk it over together, for,as the sailors do say, we ride in the same boat, we two. As youngsters, wewent together to the priests to learn wisdom. As young men, we shared eachother's pleasures.Asgrownmen,wehavealwaysbeenclosefriends.Wehavebeen contented subjects of our kind. We have been satisfied to work longhours and spend our earnings freely. We have earned much coin in the yearsthat have passed, yet to know the joys that come from wealth, we mustdream about them.Bah!Arewemorethandumb sheep?Weliveintherichest cityinalltheworld.Thetravelersdosaynoneequalsitinwealth.
Aboutusismuchdisplayofwealth,butofitweourselveshavenaught.Afterhalf a lifetime of hard labor, thou, my best of friends, hast an empty purseand sayest to me, "May I borrow such a trifle as two shekels until after thenoblemen's feast this night?" Then, what do I reply? Do I say, "Here is mypurse; its contents will I gladly share?' No, I admit that my purse is as emptyas thine. What is the matter? Why cannot we acquire silver and gold—morethanenoughforfoodandrobes?
"Consider,also,oursons,"Bansircontinued,"arethey not17followinginthefootsteps of their fathers? Need they and their families and their sons andtheir sons' families live all their lives in the midst of such treasurers of gold,andyet,likeus,becontenttobanquet uponsourgoat'smilkandporridge?"
"Never,inalltheyearsof ourfriendship,didstthoutalklikethisbefore,Bansir."Kobbi was puzzled.
