Next week, I’m planning to publish the next edition of WORK IS FOUR LETTERS — I had a delightful conversation with historian, podcaster, and author Patrick Wyman about the work he does, how he got started doing it, and why it matters. He started a new podcast this year, has a book coming out next week, and I’m very grateful to him for sharing his time with me, given everything he’s got going on.
But because I am both terminally online and unable to stop myself, I had to ask him about the infamous copper merchant, Ea-nāṣir, and whether he thought the man was, indeed, a crook, or might be unfairly maligned throughout history.
Here’s what Patrick had to say.
I think that our dear friend, the copper merchant, was both a crook and unfairly maligned.
I’m gonna have my cake and I’m gonna eat it, too. There is no question in my mind that he was a cheat. But based on what we know about trade, I think they were all cheaters.
Imagine you’re a trader coming up from the Indus Valley civilization, traveling along some real estate that is today disputed, heading up toward Mesopotamia. Yes, you need people to continue buying from you, I guess — but, like, do they actually know what your products are? Can they evaluate them? Can they evaluate your costs? There’s no currency! Not that these people couldn’t do sophisticated trade, but maybe the people who were complaining about Ea-Nāṣir shouldn’t have been throwing stones from their own glass houses, because what did their customer complaints looked like?
Yes, he was a crook, but, glass houses, stones, pots, kettles. I’m guessing there were a lot of unclean hands amongst the merchants of Mesopotamia.
I love Ea-nāṣir so much. I am convinced that if we looked hard enough, we would find a lot of these complaint letters. People would be mad about this shit all the time. How could you not be? You’re talking about people traveling hundreds of miles with no common standard of value, no common understanding of what quality accounts for, relying on these really informal institutions and networks, of course people are gonna cheat you, you’ve got to keep your head on a swivel.
What are you writing a customer complaint letter for, you should expect to be cheated! Not to live in an entirely Trumpian world, but, like, my god, man, if you trust this shifty copper guy? That’s on you.
Check back next week for my full interview with Patrick, it was a delight.
GOLIKEHELLMACHINE 