 These always constituted a separate kind of credit. Lenders normally had some experience of sea trade. A trader or naukleros, in other words a ship owner, would lend out money to buy cargo. The sum would normally be from 1,000 to 4,500 drachmae or more, with a mean average of 3,000 drachmae. This loan was in force so long as the voyage lasted. Trading voyages being a risky business, shipping interest rates were fairly high. In fourth-century Athens, they varied between 12.5% and 30%. As a guarantee against fraud, the ship (or to be more precise the ship's keel) and its cargo were given as security, and a written contract was drawn up stating the terms of the loan. Should the cargo be lost, responsibility for the loss lay with the lender. All that we know about how ship loans worked is packed into four speeches by Demosthenes in the mid-fourth century B.C. |
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Here (as has been said) amicable interest-free loans or a kind of social assistance from family and friends was involved. But there was more to it than that: the structure of the classical Athenian credit mechanism was complex. Its main feature was the eranos. This might or might not be interest-free, and was organized by family and friends. The loan, the object of which was to make a profit out of bankers and private persons, was at the disposal of the inhabitants, and more particularly the traders, of Attica.
Eranos-type loans were not intended as gifts. Valuable assets of the acceptor were frequently mortgaged in order to secure repayment. A person who defaulted on payment was liable to be prosecuted and taken to court. An eranos, in contrast to a khreos (a conventional debt), was assembled from various sources. In one case there is reference to repayment by instalments.
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