Huh! I knew that this was illegal today but thought it in the general class of fraud; I didn't know that there are inspectors who enforce this! Thanks for the education.
Modernly, we think of "wholesalers" as manufacturers
Do we? I've always thought of wholesalers as the bulk distributors, not necessarily manufacturers. Their function is to broker what would otherwise be a big many-to-many mapping among original producers and end buyers. Not every farmer wants to run a store; selling your entire crop to one person who'll take care of it from there, though it brings a lower price than selling directly to buyers, can be worth it. Even today, when I was selling self-published books and musical recordings, I was quite happy to sell larger lots at a discount to stores so I didn't have to handle (as many) individual sales myself. (One always has CDs on hand at concerts, of course.)
Off to google the etymology of "retail"!
What'd you find?
P.S. On further thought, I wonder if frequent cleaning would wear the weights/measures, making them (oops!) lighter, which would be rather counterproductive.
That's a good question! The Rambam says don't make weights out of iron, lead, or other metals because they can rust (reducing their weight), though I can't tell if he's stating law or giving advice. He says to make them out of "marble, glass, diamond, and the like". I don't see anything about what liquid measures were made of; I wonder if, at least in the time of the mishna, they would have been earthenware? Does earthenware erode with washing?
Hoobah! If in your literary perambulations you come across any historical case law examples, please send them my way.
Will do! Does any of this come up in the code of Hamarabi, I wonder? I've heard that he covers many of the same topics that the torah does (not always in the same way of course), but I don't know much about it myself. I've seen the occasional "here's the torah passage, and here's the corresponding part of Hamarabi" in classes.
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Date: 2017-04-24 03:06 am (UTC)Modernly, we think of "wholesalers" as manufacturers
Do we? I've always thought of wholesalers as the bulk distributors, not necessarily manufacturers. Their function is to broker what would otherwise be a big many-to-many mapping among original producers and end buyers. Not every farmer wants to run a store; selling your entire crop to one person who'll take care of it from there, though it brings a lower price than selling directly to buyers, can be worth it. Even today, when I was selling self-published books and musical recordings, I was quite happy to sell larger lots at a discount to stores so I didn't have to handle (as many) individual sales myself. (One always has CDs on hand at concerts, of course.)
Off to google the etymology of "retail"!
What'd you find?
P.S. On further thought, I wonder if frequent cleaning would wear the weights/measures, making them (oops!) lighter, which would be rather counterproductive.
That's a good question! The Rambam says don't make weights out of iron, lead, or other metals because they can rust (reducing their weight), though I can't tell if he's stating law or giving advice. He says to make them out of "marble, glass, diamond, and the like". I don't see anything about what liquid measures were made of; I wonder if, at least in the time of the mishna, they would have been earthenware? Does earthenware erode with washing?
Hoobah! If in your literary perambulations you come across any historical case law examples, please send them my way.
Will do! Does any of this come up in the code of Hamarabi, I wonder? I've heard that he covers many of the same topics that the torah does (not always in the same way of course), but I don't know much about it myself. I've seen the occasional "here's the torah passage, and here's the corresponding part of Hamarabi" in classes.