Page:Craik History of British Commerce Vol 1.djvu/25

Rh been opposed to foreign intercourse of every kind, the prohibition or systematic discouragement of which the priests doubtless regarded as one of their most important securities for the preservation of their influence and authority; and very probably such may also have been the spirit of the Celtic or Druidical religion. It is remarkable, at least, that the well ascertained Celtic tribes of Europe, though distributed for the most part along the sea-coast, have never exhibited any striking aptitude either for navigation or for any employment in connexion with the sea.

The most particular account of the exports and imports constituting the most ancient British trade is that quoted above from Strabo, and it is probably not very complete. It only adds the single article of skins to the tin and lead mentioned by Festus Avienus and others. It is probable, however, that the island was known for a few other products besides these, even before the first Roman invasion. Cæsar expressly mentions iron as found, although in small quantities, in the maritime districts. And it appears from some passages in the Letters of Cicero, that the fame of the British war-chariots had already reached Rome. Writing to Trebatius, while the latter was here with Cæsar, B.C. 55, after observing that he hears Britain yielded neither gold nor silver, the orator playfully exhorts his friend to get hold of one of the esseda of the island, and make his way back to them at Rome with his best speed. In another epistle he cautions Trebatius to take care that he be not snatched up and carried off before he knows where he is, by some driver of one of these rapid vehicles. Strabo's account of the foreign commodities imported into Britain in those days is, that they consisted of earthenware, salt, and articles of bronze, which last expression is undoubtedly to be understood as meaning not mere toys, but articles of use, in the fabrication of which bronze, as we have explained above, was the great material made use of in early times, Caesar also testifies that all the bronze made use of by the Britons was obtained from abroad. The metal, however, as we