What happens when research means a huge re-write?
Apparently, the Persians had debt-slavery for a while, but it was abolished under the Achaemenides, one of which is my story-King. Oops! My hero’s best friend cannot have been sold to the palace for debt slavery!
Wikipedia = most bestest source evah, right? Except that here they’re quoting from encyclopedia iranica, so I’m going to go with it.
“
Slavery had already undergone important changes by the time of the emergence of the Persian state. Debt slavery was no longer common. The practice of pledging one’s person for debt, not to mention self-sale, had totally disappeared by the Persian period. In the case of nonpayment of a debt by the appointed deadline, the creditor could turn the children of the debtor into slaves. A creditor could arrest an insolvent debtor and confine him to debtor’s prison. However, the creditor could not sell a debtor into slavery to a third party. Usually the debtor paid off the loan by free work for the creditor, thereby retaining his freedom.
”
Oh, wait. BestFriend couldn’t be sold for Friend’s own debt, only for Dad’s debt? That’s crappy. And I don’t think Friend’s family would do that - better to borrow from other people to pay the first debt, than to sell children.
Back to the drawing board.