was Cyrene (630 B.C.) situated on the edge of a range of hills ten miles from the shore, where it had a port called Apollonia. The climate was healthy and the soil fertile, and in time Cyrene itself founded four other towns, the whole five being then known as the Pentapolis or confederacy of five cities, the most important of which was Barca. The Pentapolis carried on an active trade, both by land and sea, with Egypt, Nubia, and the interior of Africa, exporting thence to Greece, Asia Minor, and Italy, wool, sheep, horses, the plant sylphium much used by the ancients as a spice, grain, oil, saffron, dates, amethysts, onyxes, and other precious stones, and importing to Africa in return Greek manufactures of cloth with wine and corn. And, as we shall see, the Greek colonists carried on most of the commerce of Egypt, both interior and exterior.

It is to be remembered in considering the commerce of antiquity, that almost all great industries, among the Greeks and Romans, were conducted by means of slaves, of whom rich men owned very large gangs. About the year 400 B.C. a slave could be purchased in Athens for about £4, and slaves were a very common form of investment. These slaves were either employed by the owner in his own business or were let out for hire. Some of them, of exceptional skill, were allowed to open shops, paying a large royalty to their owners, as was usual also in Russia before the recent emancipation of the serfs.

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NOTE ON CURRENCY.-The earliest commercial transactions were, no doubt, merely barter, conducted with much haggling, and with only a vague reference to some unit of value, such as a cow. The Phenicians apparently learnt from the Babylonians, and popularised throughout the Mediterranean, the use of gold and silver and of standard weights and measures. The weights used by maritime peoples bore everywhere the following proportions, viz. I talent = 60 minae = 3000 shekels, but the standard shekel or talent varied in different places. Ingots or rings of gold and silver were used very early, but must have been weighed on delivery. The invention of coins, i.e. of pieces of precious metal stamped and purporting to be of a certain weight, is ascribed to the Lydians of the seventh century B.C. Gold was not struck by Phenicians or Greeks before about B.C. 330, but Persian gold coins were familiar enough

in commerce and exchanged for thirteen times their weight of silver. The commonest Phenician (and Jewish) coin was a silver shekel of about 230 grains, worth about 24 shillings. The commonest Greek coin was ultimately the silver stater (shekel) or didrachmon of 135 grains, worth about two francs. The Greek silver drachma, worth about one franc, was imitated by the Romans in their silver denarius, first issued B. C. 269. Bills of exchange were used freely in the fourth century B.C.

CHAPTER III

GREECE AND ROME

17. Corinth.-It is rather curious that only a few of the cities of Greece itself distinguished themselves in commerce, and hardly any of them did so to such an extent as their colonies. Corinth was, perhaps, the most distinctly commercial city, being well situated on the isthmus between the Ægean Sea and the Adriatic. Light ships could be dragged over this isthmus on rollers, thus avoiding the rather dangerous voyage round the Peloponnesus, while heavy ships unloaded their goods there which were then carried across and re-shipped on the other side. Thus in those days Corinth was naturally the centre of an important traffic, though now improved navigation has long since drawn the stream of shipping away from it to a more direct route. It was also an important manufacturing town, carrying on the weaving and dyeing of cloth, and works in metal, which were exported all over the ancient world. It founded a colony in the island of Corcyra (Corfu), which grew very rich and possessed a large fleet, and though the colony and the mother city often quarrelled, they united in founding four other settlements upon the west coast of Greece-Leucas, Anactorium, Apollonia, and Epidamnus.

18. Athens.-Athens was likewise distinguished for its commerce and manufactures, being the market and centre for the whole of Greece. Its manufactures consisted chiefly of tools and utensils of metal, the ore for which came from Etruria, and of pottery made from the clay in which the soil of Attica abounded. Thus its exports were mainly

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metal wares (in copper and bronze), pottery, and objects of art; for it is well known that Athens was the artistic centre of the ancient world. The imports were: fish, dainties for the table, wine, oil, and spices, together with stones, minerals, and timber of all kinds for artistic purposes, ivory for covering statues, wool and leather to manufacture; and finally large quantities of corn, for the soil of Attica could not grow enough to supply its own population. Athens carried on a considerable trade with Italy, Sicily, and even with Carthage and the western Mediterranean, and there is little doubt that the great expedition to Sicily in 415 B.C. was undertaken with a view of extending her growing commercial power in the West, and of finally forming a great western colonial empire. But this dream came to a disastrous close.

19. Decay of the Grecian States. In the days of the independence of the Greek republics trade, manufactures, and commerce flourished and increased exceedingly, but their fall, resulting from their own internecine quarrels, and the subjugation of Greece to the Macedonian power under Philip after the battle of Charonæa (338 B.C.), caused their decay. This was hastened by the results of the eastern conquest of Alexander the Great (336-323 B.C.), which caused the cities of Asia Minor, such as Seleucia and Antioch, to acquire most of the Greek manufactures, while Alexandria in Egypt and other ports gained most of the maritime trade, especially under the rule of the Ptolemies (after 323 B.C.) Alexandria became the commercial metropolis of the world, and Greek merchants deserted Greece to go to Egypt and northern Africa, while the rapidly increasing power of Rome caused a new direction to be given to trade. The centre of the political world was shifted from Greece to Italy, and consequently the conditions of trade became considerably altered. The history of commerce is now involved in that of Rome.

20. Egyptian Commerce.—But before discussing the commerce of the Romans we may just glance briefly at that of Egypt. This oldest of empires has well been called the China of antiquity, for, like the Chinese, its people, though

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industrious at home, did not care to go abroad or engage in foreign trade. Yet Egypt from its situation naturally had a good deal of commerce, but this was carried on chiefly by foreigners, i.e. Greeks and Arabians. The fertile valley of the Nile produced large quantities of corn, rice, cotton, and flax; and the Egyptians were assiduous agriculturists, besides making quantities of linen and cotton cloth, as well as utensils and pottery. The Arabian merchants brought them, in return for these products, wool, ivory, gold-dust, spices, and slaves from Africa, Arabia, and farther east; and as Egypt has no metals or timber, the Phenicians brought the wood of Lebanon, as well as copper and iron which the Egyptians wrought into weapons. it was the Phenicians and Greeks who did all the foreign maritime trade, though the Egyptians did some in the interior in boats on the Nile and on their numerous canals. The Pharaoh Psammetichus deserves credit for his enlightened policy of admitting these foreign merchants as settlers in the country (about 650 B.C.), for formerly they had only been allowed to visit it strictly as traders, and then were confined to the coast. After this even the interior trade of Egypt fell almost entirely into the hands of Greeks, and, as mentioned above, after the fall of Greek independence and the conquests of Alexander the Great, the port of Alexandria became the commercial metropolis of the world, while Greek merchants settled in large numbers in that and other towns of Egypt. In fact, the Egyptians at no time of their history did much foreign trade themselves, but left it to the Greeks.

21. Rome and Roman Merchants. Trade - Gilds.— The Romans, who succeeded to the empire of the ancient world a century or two after the death of Alexander, were not a commercial nation. They were splendid warriors and statesmen; they have taught law and the science of politics, such as it is, to the modern world; and marvellous their influence has been. But their function was rather to govern than to work or trade, and they did the business of government upon the whole fairly well.

Yet it must not be supposed that because the Romans