In the 19th century BCE, Ur was the port authority that imported a majority of Mesopotamia's copper via overseas trade with Dilmun. The merchant Ea-nasir was part of this venture. Trade was negotiated through the Temples of Nanna and Ningal, which imposed a 10% tariff on copper and other goods.

Copper was one of two major metals during the Bronze Age, the other being tin, for obvious reasons. North of Ur, the city of Assur had a monopoly on tin trade, which moved the metal from Central Asia to Anatolia. Anatolian polities imposed a 12% import tax on it with an additional 12% export fee.

Both Ur and Assur also belonged to a 'Golden Age' of Mesopotamian history to quote the President here, though historians usually tie this to the proliferation of science and culture, and a thriving economy under the King Hammurabi of Babylon, a ruler also obsessed with loyalty and rule of law.

Where the city walls of Ur were removed by the Babylonian state after a revolt in 1744 BCE, leaving its citizens to ruin, Assur continued its trade without interruption, their king having focused on different concerns: the defense of rights and privileges that supported booming economic activities.