ABSTRACT
In 1956 the first edition of Samuel Noah Kramer’s bestselling History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-nine Firsts in Recorded History appeared, a good place if any to look for the origins of business ethics. The earliest written records acknowledged by historians come from the ruins of ancient Sumer, predating the earliest Chinese and European texts by many centuries. And the second-last of his historical firsts is, as Kramer labels it, the “The Pickaxe and the Plow: Labor’s first victory.” The passage, dating from the third millennium bc, takes a typical Sumerian form: that of a disputation. It begins with a pickaxe challenging a plow to see which implement is superior. The plow states that it is “the faithful farmer of mankind … the great nobles walk by my side, All the lands are full of admiration.” The pickaxe, retorts in turn, that it is used in many more industries than the plow is, and furthermore:
You, whose accomplishments are meager
(but) whose ways are proud,
My working time is twelve months,
(But) the time you are present (for work) is four months,
(While) the time you disappear is eight months,
You are absent twice the time you are present.
(Kramer 1956: 345, trans. Kramer)