[ncmncm]

At the time it was very common to flee the city to escape debts that would put you into effective slavery.

The origin of the Jubilee was an occasion when all personal debts were forgiven and people could come out of hiding. These would happen every 10 to 20 years, and were necessary to keep the cities populated enough to function.

Actual currency would not be invented until thousands of years later, so money was all about ledger entries recording assets and debts.

The English Queen's recent Jubilee was weak sauce.