Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

362 THE EARLIEST CONTRACT OF FISHINGit is true, had to pay to the Government a quarter of the valueof their catch (rfrropr?? a\itioi>), but this seems to have beena regular tax. Later on we find fishermen paying to thepriests of Lake Moeris a ^ojooc (not to be confounded with^ixOvnpa dfivn&v, or state tax) which presumably included thepurchase of the right to fish, as well as the hire of boats. Butthis was in the nature of a royalty or rent, was a continuousobligation, and proportioned- to the catch, whereas in oursecond document the time is limited, and the payment fixed,not proportioned.!(B) The second contract demonstrates that the custom ofadditional guarantors is no mere modern institution.(C) It also tends to show that the system, previously knownas employed by Babylonian landlords, of letting their farms totenants for a fixed proportion of the crops, extended occasionallyto their waters as well.^ See antea, 333 f., and Tebtunis Papyri, vol. II. pp. 180-181. B. P.GrenfeU and A. S. Hunt, 1907.