The Rise and fall of modern World Commerce can be trace to Mesopotamia
Certainly religious and political elements of human society are traceable to the days of Nimrod son of Kush who thousands of years ago founded Babylon. This is also true, although perhaps less well known, of certain elements in the world of business and commerce.-Genesis 10:8-12.
Mankind's Creator, the One who rightly determines standards for good and bad, could easily have devised an economic system capable of equitably providing for the needs of the large human family he envisaged. But once the first couple rejected divine direction and were expelled from Paradise, humans were on their own. (Genesis 3:1-24) Independently of divine guidance, men subsequently developed their own brand of religion and their own kind of government. And as soon as it became apparent that some system of household management was necessary to provide the material needs for their expanding family, they set about developing what we call an economic system. This they likewise did independently of divine guidance.
Apparently by Nimrod's time (c. 2270 B.C.E.), the basis for such a system was largely in place. The Collins Atlas of World History explains that "from the third millennium onwards Mesopotamia [Babylon] developed powerful corporations of businessmen. They stocked goods, speculated, used various types of goods as currency, and used ingots, especially of silver, carved into particular weights and sizes and sometimes bearing authentication marks." The Encyclopedia Americana says that the ancient inhabitants of Shinar-the original name for what was later called Babylonia-carried on "a surprisingly complex system of lending, borrowing, holding money on deposit, and providing letters of credit."
A practice evidently peculiar to Mesopotamia was that of using capital as a commodity and charging interest for its use. Thus, money became a means of exerting economic pressure. Records unearthed in Babylonian ruins reveal business transactions that exploited the unfortunate circumstances of some of its citizens. Even then, the modern practice of unjustly profiting at the expense of others was in vogue. No wonder the merchants of Babylon and Nineveh were often spoken of with hatred and contempt.
Commercial activities in Nimrod's day are not directly referred to in the Bible. Yet, expressions found in its first book, such as "to buy," "to sell," and "carry on business," indicate that at least a few hundred years later, commercial activities were commonplace.-See Genesis 25:31; 34:10, 21; 39:1; 41:56, 57.
It is also true that for a prolonged period of time, cuneiform texts are silent with respect to commercial activities in Babylonian society. Admitting that this is difficult to explain, the book Ancient Mesopotamia nevertheless concludes that "one cannot assume that trade relations ceased through that millennium, especially since they are known to have flourished greatly in the subsequent period." This work suggests that at that time trade may have rested mainly in Aramaic hands and that papyrus and leather were used as writing materials.
Both Mesopotamia and Egypt were noted for their caravan trade. Later, to a great extent, the Phoenicians replaced land trade with commerce by sea routes. The ports of Carthage, Tyre, and Sidon became noted commercial centers. Trade was done on the basis of exchanging goods for goods until about the eighth century B.C.E., when the Greeks began using coined money as a medium of exchange. And according to The Collins Atlas of World History, "the centuries that followed [500 B.C.E.] were so marked by the development of trade, money, banks, transport, that several historians have compared them to the capitalist era, an understandable if exaggerated opinion."