Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/53



CHAPTER I.

Maritime commerce of Antiquity—Coasting—Tyre—Argonautic Expedition—Queen Semiramis—The Phœnicians—Early notices of them—The prophecy of Ezekiel—Trade in tin—Origin of the name "Cassiterides Insulæ."—Amber—Mainland trade of Phœnicia—Cause of prosperity—Carthage—Utica—Commercial policy—Trade with Spain—Trade in Africa—The commercial policy of Carthage—Limits of trade.

When different tribes were desirous of exchanging with each other the commodities their countries respectively produced, their first consideration would naturally be the means of transport; and though we may not be able to fix the period when it commenced, the interchange of goods by barter must have been nearly coexistent with the existence of man himself. In the most ancient times the chief commercial routes were undoubtedly overland; but it may safely be assumed that at a scarcely less early period trading vessels had begun to creep along the shores of the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and Mediterranean, and to pass from island to island amid the land-locked waters of the Levant.

There can, indeed, be no doubt that, till a period comparatively recent, the characteristic of all early