Reply #40: 7th year was the year of release; [View All]

[Igel]

slaves (lic. 'indentured servants', at least in part) were freed; debts forgiven; land fallow. The 7th year was the same for everybody.

50th year was the jubilee. Land returned to the families that sold it. Simply put, you couldn't sell land for more than 49 years' worth of income from it, and at the end your clan would get it back.

It meant poverty, as long as population was under control, was temporary. It prevented build-up of wealth. It was also highly contrary to "big" capitalism, where large-scale factories could be built. After all, presumably any loan would vanish in the year of release. Need money for a new car and it's year 6, you don't get it; need money for a house and you can't pay it back before the year of release, it means anybody who loans it to you is giving you money. Need to float bonds to build a school or a factory? They vanish in the year of release.

I've heard it 'corrected' to only mean personal loans, since business and government loans weren't contemplated. But then a 10-year mortgage for a house is still ruled out. It's only suited to a deeply agrarian society.