Originally published on this site here, in Italian.
Author: George Samuel Clason
Year: 1926
Editor: Penguin Books
ISBN: 978-0451205360
First, I found the English version of the (hopefully) complete audiobook on YouTube: here it is!
WARNING – THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
As many people do, I think, especially in hard times like these, I often read about economics, even just domestic economy, savings, personal growth, etc.. Surfing the Internet, among the videos of the various YouTube gurus, I came across references, summaries and quotations from The Richest Man in Babylon, a book halfway between a historical novel and an economics essay, written by the American George Samuel Clason in the not so distant 1926.
Even though I had the vague idea of looking for a copy of the book, I had already purchased various other texts, many of which were still to be read, and, wanting to give the operation a stronger flavor of research or, if we want, quest, I never thought about ordering a copy online or scouring the bookstores until I found it. Instead, some weeks ago, I came across the complete audiobook on YouTube by ABP Editore, immersing myself in it during my long commutes on the never-enough-improved Italian railways.
Let’s say straight away that it is a novel, or rather a series of stories linked by a narrative frame, all focused on money and the emancipation of the individual through it. The main story is about an ancient chariot maker who stares thoughtfully at his latest, still unfinished work. A musician friend of his arrives, in need of money until his next job. The two friends discuss how they, like many of their acquaintances, have somehow remained on the margins of the economic life of the prosperous city-state of Babylon, governed at that time by Sargon the Great. Yet, one of their old friends, Arkad, managed to emerge, to the point of becoming the richest man in Babylon, highly listened to by Sargon himself.
And so the two, together with other friends, visit Arkad seeking for his advice, asking why he, who had never surpassed them either in studies or in the arts, could achieve such success, while they remained backwards.
Thus begins a series of stories, partly narrated by Arkad himself and partly by other of his fellow citizens, up to modern Western archaeologists, which have as their themes saving, motivation, perseverance in achieving objectives. The issues of debt, career, the differences between employed work and entrepreneurship or freelance work, compound interest and business risk are addressed. All in a simple and evocative way.
The air we breathe is that of Socratic dialogue or the evangelical parable. We follow the adventures of wasters of wealth who became bandits and slaves and finally redeemed themselves, of money lenders who become teachers of life, breeders and merchants, all racing towards economic independence and, essentially, towards freedom.
And furthermore, since this is, albeit metaphorically, also an essay on domestic economy and motivation, the stories are then associated with principles, sometimes illustrated during lessons, which today could be called professional courses or seminars, held by Arkad to Babylonian officials and citizens, as part of a large-scale financial education project.
And what immediately catches the eye? Precisely the main theme, that is, money. Today in Italy we are used to seeing informative texts on mortgages, careers and financial investments in bookshops or newsstands, but it has not always been like this. For decades, until perhaps at least the 1980s, talking publicly about money was something unusual, perhaps even frowned upon, demeaning for supposedly “higher” topics. After all, we are the Country in which only a recent EU Directive (which however requires domestic application) has somehow allowed workers to know the average salary of their peers in the individual company; Furthermore, we are a country still permeated by a strange Catholicism, for which villas by the sea, luxury cars, high fashion, luxury restaurants contrast with a conception of life for which, in public discourse, money is essentially a negative thing, which, if possible, it would also be good to do without.
And, if it does not seem that things in Italy were so different in 1926, the ruling classes of the United States had already learned the importance of the economy the hard way when, in a fit of vainglory (or perhaps desperation), the States of the South had formed the Confederation, counting on individual heroism and the ability of the generals, without understanding that progress now made industrial production, infrastructure and supplies from abroad much more crucial.
And even Clason’s book, in fact, is not a unique case in the American panorama of the time: a few years later, Napoleon Hill would publish the famous Think and Grow Rich, Elizabeth Magie would patent the first Monopoly game, and the American finance, which also experienced the Wall Street Crash of 1929, recovered in a few years thanks, among other things, to the second European suicide of 1939.
Is this perhaps the secret of success on a global scale, a literate population, a progressive press, an economy that stands on its own two feet and that encourages individual participation in the market and in improving their standard of living? Posterity will judge [in Italian: Ai posteri l’ardua sentenza (Alessandro Manzoni, Il cinque maggio)]; what is certain is that this is a surprising book, both for its contents and for the choice of a setting that is unusual at first sight, but in reality, judging by the contents of the tablets found in the archaeological excavations (mostly accounts and balance sheets of companies, inventories, contracts), largely realistic.
In short, if you have a few hours of time, listen to the secrets hidden 4000 years ago in the tablets of Babylon: you might be surprised by their relevance.
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Sitography
Fanpage, 2023/08/22 – Stop al segreto salariale, si potrà sapere lo stipendio medio dei colleghi: la nuova direttiva Ue (last visit 2023/11/17): https://www.fanpage.it/politica/stop-al-segreto-salariale-si-potranno-conoscere-le-buste-paga-dei-colleghi-la-nuova-direttiva-ue/
YouTube – Complete audiobook, English version (last visit 2023/12/10): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wglndSWrvsM
YouTube – Complete audiobook, Italian version (last visit 2023/11/17): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPaLH6W2ggI