Editing Assyria (section)

=== Economy ===
[[File:Cuneiform tablet case impressed with four cylinder seals Old Assyrian.png|thumb|upright=1.35|An old Assyrian cuneiform tablet from Kültepe recording the repayment of a loan, impressed with four different [[cylinder seal]]s]]
In the Old Assyrian period, a major portion of Assur's population was involved in the city's international trade.{{sfn|Michel|2017|p=80}} As can be gathered from hiring contracts and other records, the trade involved people of many different occupations, including porters, guides, donkey drivers, agents, traders, bakers and bankers.{{sfn|Michel|2017|p=83}} Because of the extensive cuneiform records known from the period, details of the trade are relatively well-known. It has been estimated that just in the period {{Circa}} 1950–1836 BC, twenty-five tons of Anatolian silver was transported to Assur, and that approximately one hundred tons of tin and 100,000 textiles were transported to Anatolia in return.{{Sfn|Düring|2020|p=34}} The Assyrians also sold livestock, processed goods and reed products.{{Sfn|Garfinkle|2007|p=64}} In many cases, the materials sold by Assyrian colonists came from far-away places; the textiles sold by Assyrians in Anatolia were imported from southern Mesopotamia and the tin came from the east in the [[Zagros Mountains]].{{Sfn|Garfinkle|2007|p=66}}

After international trade declined in the 19th century BC,{{Sfn|Garfinkle|2007|p=67}} the Assyrian economy became increasingly oriented toward the state. In the Neo-Assyrian period, the wealth generated through private investments was dwarfed by the wealth of the state, which was by far the largest employer in the empire and had a [[monopoly]] on agriculture, manufacturing and exploitation of minerals. The imperial economy advantaged mainly the elite, since it was structured in a way that ensured that surplus wealth flowed to the government and was then used for the maintenance of the state throughout the empire. Though all [[means of production]] were owned by the state, there continued to be a vibrant private economic sector within the empire, with property rights of individuals ensured by the government.{{Sfn|Bedford|2009|pp=36, 38}}