Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
In his recent massive work on MNEs Dunning states that, "... earlier
examples of embryonic MNEs can, most surely, be found in the colonizing
activities of the Phoenicians and the Romans, and before that, in the more
ancient civilisations ... However, this sort of history ... remains to be written"
(1993, p. 96). Considerable literature has recorded the evolution of MNEs in
Europe since the early Middle Ages (Rostow 1978, North 1981, Chandler
1990, Powelson 1994). There have also been a number of books and articles
written on the economic history of the ancient world (e.g. Orlin 1970, Larsen
1976, Aubet 1987). However, little has been written concerning the earliest
recorded MNEs.
The ancient city of Ashur, around 100 km south of the modern Iraqi city
of Mosul, was situated on the banks of the river Tigris at the intersection of a
number of important long-distance trade routes. At the beginning of the
second millennium B.C. it became self governing, following the collapse of
the so-called Third Dynasty of Ur, to which it had belonged. Early rulers,
such as Ilu-shuma and his son Erishum I (c. 1939-1900 B.C.), did much to
exploit the commercial potential offered by the geographic location of
Ashur. Inscriptions have been recovered which record the granting of tax
and other concessions to traders from the more southerly cities of
Mesopotamia.
However, the richest source of documentation comes not for Ashur itself
but from a city 1200 km. away: the ancient site of Kanesh, chief city of what
was later known as the kingdom of Cappadocia, near the modern Turkish
city of Kayseri. Nearly 20,000 clay tablets with texts in Assyrian cuneiform
have been unearthed at the site. Of the documents which have been
published from Kanesh, over 85% are of an economic nature, attesting to the
existence of a thriving trade center, active between around 1910 and 1830
B.C. (Veenhof 1995).
Not merely a way station for traders, the lower city of Kanesh was largely
given over to a permanent settlement of international businesspeople,
especially Assyrian businesspeople from Ashur (Veenhof 1995).
Archaeological evidence elsewhere from this period, states Veenhof, "at
Acemhuyuk; ancient Puruskhanda, south of the Salt Lake - reveal business
connections with Mari and Karkamish on the Euphrates as well ... [it was] a
great trading city with a network of international relations" (1995, p. 862). It
is this network of international activity to which we will return presently.
A key economic element of the region was tin, which had probably been
imported to Ashur from Afghanistan. It was wrapped in saleable textiles and
transported by donkey caravan for the five- or six-week journey to Kanesh,
where it, the textiles and the donkeys were sold for silver, copper and
finished bronze goods. The tablets record the day-to-day business
transactions of the Ashur merchants and others involved in this trade.
Assyria was chosen as the subject for this article because there is more
evidence that MNEs existed in this region than for other nations of antiquity.
The first known human system of writing was invented in Southern
Mesopotamia around 3100 B.C. (Hawkins 1979) in order to record
economic and accounting transactions. Several even more ancient sites than
Kanesh have produced an abundance of tablets (Adams/Nissen 1972).
However, the site of Kanesh provides the first detailed evidence of large-
scale multinational private enterprise, albeit with some "state assistance".(3)
Historians have suggested that, while writing does not create or cause
social complexity it does act as an enabling factor, in this case perhaps
allowing for more complex business forms to arise (Gough 1968). As noted
previously, a large number of clay tablets with texts in Assyrian cuneiform
have been uncovered at Kanesh, of the documents which have been
published from this site over 85% are of an economic nature. The result is
that, "... we know a great deal about the procedures involved in the long
distance trade conducted between the mother-city Ashur(5) and the [trade]
colonies.(6) It was trade conducted by private persons and firms" (Larsen
1976, p. 376).
Ownership Advantages
Today most historians agree that Assyria's tin came from Afghanistan,
several thousand kilometers away. This argues for some type of ownership
advantage or market-seeking behavior to support the necessity of
transporting metal considerable distances both to Ashur and then again for
export from Ashur to other places. Indeed the need to acquire resources or
markets is one of the three critical factors suggested by Dunning (1993, p.
96) as central drivers for "international value-adding activity to occur."
Market knowledge, both of the tin and bronze markets in Ashur and
Anatolia but also in other countries-another ownership advantage-was also
highly valued in these cities. Aubet (1987) indicates that market and price
fluctuations existed from at least the end of the fourth millennium B.C. With
these market fluctuations market knowledge became even more valuable.
The historical record indicates that Sumerian writing developed in response
to the need to keep business inventories, indicating the value of market
knowledge in ancient times. The textiles shipped from Ashur to Anatolia
were most probably produced in Ashur from imported wool (Larsen 1976),
suggesting the possibility that the specific skills necessary for textile
manufacture necessitated the shipment of wool to Ashur and then from
Ashur to other locales, rather than directly to these other locales, again
indicating both ownership and location advantages at Ashur.
As was typical of firms in this age, non-Assyrian natives of the area, from
Pusu-ken's view foreigners, were usually limited to inferior and peripheral
jobs (Orlin 1970, Lasswell/Kaplan 1950). In contrast, Assyrians residing in
Anatolia were allowed the same rights and status as if they had resided in
Assyria proper (Orlin 1970), in a manner similar to many of today's
expatriates. Evidence is found in the cuneiform tablets of the era of
businesspeople of varied origins, including Syrian and Eblaite, suggesting
the possibility of a multi-cultural workforce.
Conclusion
Notes
References
Aubet, M., The Phoenicians and the West: Politics, Colonies and Trade,
translated from the Spanish by Mary Turton, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press 1987.
Casson, M., The Firm and the Market, Oxford: Basil Blackwell 1987.
Larsen, M., The Old Assyrian City-State and Its Colonies, Copenhagen:
Akademisk Forlag 1976.
Lasswell, H. and Kaplan, A., Power and Society, New Haven 1950.
North, D., Structure and Change in Economic History, New York: W.W.
Norton 1981.
Rostow, W., The World Economy: History and Prospect, Austin, TX:
University of Texas Press 1978.
Authors