The Origins of Debt

Why was it that the debtor's protests seemed to carry such greater moral weight? Why were debtors so much more effective in winning the year of priests, prophets, officials and social reformers? Some have suggested practical reasons. Deat crises destroyed the free peasantry. Free peasants who were drafted into ancient armies to fight in wars. It is something more fundamental. What makes debt different is that it is premised on an assumption of equality. We are dealing with relations of unadulterated hierarchy.