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.
Maritime commerce of Antiquity.
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.
Coasting.
There can, indeed, be no doubt that, till a period comparatively recent, the characteristic of all early navigation was that of a coasting trade, the mariners seldom quitting the land except when constrained to do so by some unavoidable necessity, such as the violence of a gale or the force of currents, or when a great saving of distance could be effected by crossing the mouths of deep bays where the headlands were at a moderate distance from each other. But a coasting navigation is really subject to greater difficulties and dangers than any other, and hence has in all times had the property of forming the most expert seamen. Thus it was that the seamen of Tyre found their way to Carthage, and ultimately through the pillars of Hercules to Gades and the tin-bearing islands of the West: and thus, too, the States of Tyre and of her great colony, Carthage, for centuries maintained their power and lofty position in the midst of nations in other respects greatly their superiors. By the prosecution, too, of coasting voyages the Portuguese, in later ages, passed the Cape of Good Hope, and reached the East Indies. Indeed nothing was more likely to advance discovery than voyages of such a character, for which the position of the three continents of the ancient world afforded considerable natural facilities, especially when taken in connection with the two long narrow seas known as the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Again, the Mediterranean, with its subordinate portions, comprising the Adriatic and the Levant, with the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, was peculiarly adapted for the commencement of an over-sea trade with a shipping still rude and with sailors little skilled; while its position in the centre, as it were, of these three continents, surrounded by the most fruitful and civilized regions of the then known world, prepared it, naturally, to be the principal scene of such an intercourse.
It should also be remembered that the Mediterranean possesses the singular advantages of a very considerable number of excellent harbours and roadsteads, with numerous islands, projecting promontories, and deep bays, affording excellent shelter for small undecked craft; and, more than this, that the two nations who were, in remote ages, the most eminent among its merchant navigators, the Tyrians and Carthaginians, were, as a rule, peaceful traders, and slow to take up arms except in self-defence. The Indian Ocean, within prescribed limits, and the Persian and Arabian Gulfs, afforded somewhat similar facilities, from the moderate distance between the opposite shores, and from the periodical winds, which change their direction twice in the year—a fact which could hardly fail to have been early recognised, though the reason of this change may have remained long unsuspected. Bearing, therefore, these physical facts and conditions in mind, it is not unreasonable to believe that long and distant voyages were accomplished with no greater nautical science than has been generally conceded to the most ancient mariners.
Tyre.
We find, too, as might be supposed, that the nations who held in their hands the means of conducting the largest amount of maritime commerce were the most prosperous as well as the most powerful. The small state of Phœnicia, of which, in its most prosperous days, Tyre was the capital, though insignificant in territory and population, as compared with either Syria or Egypt, possessed in some respects far greater power than either. Holding, during many centuries, the command of the sea, she was able, in great measure, to control them as she pleased, and to prohibit their intercourse with any nations that could not be reached by their caravans. Phœnicia, therefore, as the leading maritime state at the earliest period to which any reliable records ascend, is entitled to the first consideration in any work having for its object an historical account of Merchant Shipping. To trace the course of the extensive maritime trade of the Phœnicians is to elucidate the progress of navigation in ancient times.
Argonautic Expedition.
Before, however, we speak of the Phœnicians we must briefly notice two maritime adventures, which, though fabulous in most of their details, were highly estimated by the ancients, and had, doubtless, some foundation in fact. The first of these, the Argonautic Expedition, as it was called, was evidently a commercial enterprise, promoted by reports of abundant deposits of gold along the eastern shores of the Black Sea. It is remarkable that the name of the ship from which the expedition itself derived its appellation is almost certainly taken from the Semitic word arek, “long,”[58] suggesting that it was perhaps the first “long” ship, and indicating a direct connection with the Phœnicians, who spoke the dialect to which this name belongs.
Queen Semiramis.
The second is the celebrated legend of Queen Semiramis, and of the fleet she employed the Phœnicians in building, which is given at great length by Diodorus.[59] That such a fleet was ever built, or that Semiramis invaded India by its means, may well be questioned; but, since the interpretation by Sir Henry Rawlinson of the Assyrian inscriptions, we know that Semiramis is not a mythical personage, but a real queen within historical times. In the Assyrian Hall at the British Museum stand two statues of the god Nebo, each bearing a cuneiform inscription, with the statement that they were made for Queen Semiramis by a sculptor of Nineveh. Semiramis was, in fact, the wife of the Assyrian king who is mentioned in the Bible under the name of Pul.[60]
The Phœnicians.
To recur to the Phœnicians. There has been much discussion as to whence they came; and many able writers a few years since, as Bochart and Heeren, held the view that they were the same as the Canaanites. Modern research, however, fully confirms the judgment of Herodotus,[61] that they were really immigrants from the shores of the Persian Gulf; thereby, in themselves, affording an illustration of that great law of migration westwards, of which that of Abraham and of his family, and that of Chedorlaomer from Elam to the valley of the Jordan, are the earliest recorded instances. There seems, indeed, to have been a marked distinction between the Phœnicians and the Canaanites; the former having been a peaceable mercantile population, generally on terms of good will with the Jews, while the Canaanites were a fierce and warlike race. The names, too, of many of the Phœnician cities in Syria are believed to be of Hamite, and not of Semitic origin, as, for instance, those of Askalon, Arka, Aradus, Gaza, and, most probably, those also of Sidon and Tyre.
It is remarkable that a district, whose people became so famous in the early history of the world, should have been confined within so limited an area; for the average breadth of Phœnicia never exceeded twelve miles, while sometimes it is considerably less. In length it was about two hundred and twenty-five miles, from Aradus in the north to Joppa in the south.
Early notices of them.
But if its territory was small, its position was admirably fitted for the grandest development of over-sea trade; and Tyre itself occupied pre-eminently the situation best fitted for carrying on the commerce of the then known world. We shall, therefore, briefly trace the course of that commerce, with a sketch of the chief places to which the Tyrians traded, and with some notice of the colonies they founded in the prosecution of this object; for to the activity of this remarkable people we owe the first link connecting the civilization of the East with Europe and Western Africa.[62]
The inhabitants of Phœnicia are first mentioned as Sidonians of the coast (though the name Phœnician also occurs), whose trinkets, like those of Autolycus, captivated the maidens of the Grecian islands,[63] and the produce of the Sidonian looms is said in the Iliad[64] to have been used for the most costly offerings to the gods. A little later we are able to trace them to Cyprus, Carthage, Malta, Sicily, the Balearic Islands, and, through the Pillars of Hercules, to Cadiz on the shores of the Atlantic. At first, probably, kidnapping went hand-in-hand with more legitimate trade; but, even in remote times, the presence of the Phœnicians must have been deemed beneficial, or Pindar would not have compared his own relations with his patron Hiero to those of a Phœnician merchant.[65] Indeed there is no recognised value in the dealings of the civilized with the uncivilized when they first meet; hence those Phœnicians need not be deemed unjust who exchanged the pottery of Athens against the ivory of Africa.[66]
The prophecy of Ezekiel.
Phœnician commerce was probably at its highest when Nebuchadnezzar, with the view, it is likely, of obtaining a powerful navy, made his famous attack upon Tyre. Hence the description of Tyre, and of her dealings with the nations around her, in the celebrated prophecy of Ezekiel, ch. xxvii., has great value as showing what her state was (about B.C. 588) when ruin was immediately impending over her; and it becomes worth while to give an attentive consideration to the statements of the prophet, who was evidently well acquainted with the history of Tyre. Thus, after stating that Tyre was “a merchant of the people for many isles,”[67] Ezekiel tells us that her “ship boards” were made “of fir-trees of Senir,” her masts of “cedars from Lebanon,” her oars “of the oaks of Bashan,” and the benches of her galleys “of ivory, brought out of the isles of Chittim.”[68] It is true that doubts have been expressed as to the fitness of some of these materials for the purposes mentioned; but it is, perhaps, best not to strain to the uttermost a description obviously poetical. The “ivory” here noticed is most likely box-wood,[69] the abundant produce of Corsica, Italy, and Spain, of the “Isles of Chittim,” or Western Europe.
“The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad” (Aradus, now Ruad,) “were thy mariners;”[70] but Tyre kept the command of her ships in her own hands, for “thy wise men, O Tyrus, that were in thee, were thy pilots.”[71] “The ancients of Gebal,” Ezekiel continues, “and the wise men thereof were in thee thy calkers. All the ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to occupy their merchandise;”[72] that is, besides their own shipping, they largely employed those of surrounding and seafaring peoples, as those of Cyprus, and probably of Rhodes and Crete. “Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was that which covered thee.”[73] The isles of Elishah are generally supposed to be the Greek Archipelago, and Pausanias states that the purple of the coast of Laconia, which was but little inferior to that of Tyre itself, was used for the decoration of awnings.[74] “Javan” (the Ionian Greeks) “Tubal, and Meshech” (probably the people of the southern coasts of the Black Sea) “they were thy merchants; they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market;”[75] a trade in slaves which has survived to the present day from the neighbouring district of Circassia; as, also, many of the brazen vessels procurable at Mosul and other Turkish entrepôts derive their copper from the mountain districts of the Taurus.
Again, “They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen and mules,”[76] a species of merchandise equally existent now in Armenia (or Togarmah),[77] that country being still as famous for its horses and mules as it was then. The constant denunciations of the prophets show how the baneful trade in slaves prevailed of old.[78] The Mossynoeci and Chalybes were famous for their mineral wealth;[79] and the prophet adds, “Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs.”[80] “The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market.”[81] Tarshish has been identified by some with Tartessus in Spain, by others with other places; but the probability is that the phrase “ships of Tarshish” was an accepted term for any vessels with large and rich cargoes, like our name “Indiamen.” Ancient history abounds with notices of the mineral wealth of the Spanish Peninsula. Aristotle tells us that silver was once so abundant there, that the Phœnicians not only freighted their ships with it, but even made their anchors of that precious metal;[82] and iron, lead, salt, corn, and wine, were among its most common productions.[83]
Trade in tin.
Tin, which has been often attributed, as by the prophet, to Spain, probably came thence only in small quantities;[84] though some is, indeed, still found in Porto, Beira, and Bragança, and was exhibited in the Exhibition of 1862. The great bulk, however, of this metal was brought from the Cassiterides Insulæ, unquestionably the Scilly Islands, and from Cornwall; partly, as may be readily believed, by Phœnician vessels which sailed thither from Gades, and partly from St. Michael’s Mount, whence it was conveyed, through France, on the backs of horses, as Diodorus has pointed out, to the great Roman colonies of Marseilles and Narbonne.[85]
In the Museum at Truro is still preserved a pig of tin, supposed by some to be one of the original Phœnician blocks. It is impossible to assign even a probable period for the commencement of the tin trade; but this is certain, that some of the earliest objects in metal which have come down to us, are formed of an alloy of copper with tin, generally in nearly the same proportions, viz. ten to twelve per cent. of tin. Such monuments are the nails which fastened on the plates of the so-called Treasury of Atreus at Mycenæ, the instruments found in the earliest Egyptian tombs, the bowls and lion-weights from Nineveh, and the so-called “celts” from European graves. All these facts tend to show that the ancient world must have been acquainted with tin at a very remote period.
Origin of the name “Insulæ Cassiterides.”
There has been much discussion as to the meaning of the word cassiteros, which has no equivalent in either the Semitic or the Greek families of languages; on the other hand, the Sanscrit name for tin, kastira, is almost the same. It seems, therefore, not improbable that the Phœnicians, while still in their old homes on the Persian Gulf, may have found their way in pre-historic ages to India, and may there have met with it, as it is abundant at Banka in the Straits of Sumatra; then, when in later days they found it again in even greater abundance in England, that they gave it the name they had previously adopted from the far East.[86] The trade in tin was so valuable that the Phœnicians did their best to keep secret the locality whence they obtained it; and Strabo tells a curious tale of a merchant captain, whose ship was pursued by the Romans, and who preferred stranding his vessel to allowing her to fall into their hands, whereby the secret would have been discovered; and moreover, that on his return home, he recovered from his government the value of the ship he had thus sacrificed for the public weal of his country.[87]
Amber.
Another very important trade may be noticed here, though it is not strictly of Phœnician origin, that in amber. This semi-mineral substance, as is well known, is procured chiefly from the shores of the Baltic, though it is not unknown elsewhere. There is a curious record of what was supposed to be its discovery, in Pliny’s account[88] of an exploratory voyage by Pytheas, of Marseilles, who named the island whence he obtained it Abulus. Xenophon of Lampsacus, however, calls the island Baltia—whence obviously our Baltic. The amber trade is strangely mixed up with one of the most poetical of ancient legends, that of the daughters of Phaethon, who are said to have been changed into poplars, and to have wept amber by the banks of a river called Eridanus, generally identified with the great river of Italy, the Po. But there was also an Eridanus on the Baltic shores, which has left traces of its name in that of a small river still flowing near the modern town of Dantzig. Tacitus, referring to amber as an article of commerce—the native name of which he states to be glesum (glass?)—refers to the Suionæ, who dwelt along those shores, and had vessels differing from the Roman type in that they were equally high at prow and stern. This is even now characteristic of what are called Norway yawls.[89]
Mainland trade of Phœnicia.
It is not so easy to trace the course of Phœnician commerce with the countries on the mainland to the north, east, and south, as it is in the case of the islands of the west. But here, too, the statements of the Prophet come to our aid, and enable us to fill up an outline which would have been otherwise very incomplete. Thus we find Ezekiel saying, “The men of Dedan were thy merchants ... they brought thee for a present horns of ivory and ebony,”[90] and “precious cloths for chariots.”[91] So Syria,[92] Dan and Javan,[93] and “the merchants of Sheba and Raamah,”[94] dealt with Tyre in precious stones, fine linen, broidered work, and gold. From “Judah and the land of Israel,” from “Minnith and Pannag,” she obtained “wheat and honey, and oil and balm;”[95] from Damascus, “the wine of Helbon and white wool;”[96] and from “Arabia and all the princes of Kedar,” lambs and rams and goats.[97] Lastly, to those “of Persia, and of Lud, and of Phut,” she was indebted for her mercenaries, for they “were in thine army, thy men of war: they hanged the shield and helmet in thee; they set forth thy comeliness. The men of Arvad with thine army were upon thy walls round about, and the Gammadims were in thy towers: they hanged their shields upon thy walls round about; they have made thy beauty perfect.”[98]
The probability is that most of the Tyrian commerce with the East was carried on by the aid of caravans passing through Arabia Felix to Petra, and thence to the western seaports of Gaza, Askalon, and Ashdod.[99] Many of the more precious articles were obtainable direct from Arabia;[100] spices, of which cinnamon and cassia (the produce of the same plant, Laurus cassia), were of great importance, were best procured thence up to the discovery of Ceylon;[101] while some, like the “bright iron” and the calamus (Calamus aromaticus) point to India itself for their origin. The “bright iron,” for which Diodorus states that the Arabians exchanged equal weights of gold,[102] is perhaps the famous Wootz steel.[103] Asshur and Chilmad, who were “thy merchants in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar,”[104] point to articles of commerce for which, from a very early period, Babylon and Nineveh were famous.[105] We may also gather that it must have been for the extension of Babylonian commerce, from the Persian Gulf to Damascus on the north, that Nebuchadnezzar built Teredon, near the present Bussorah.[106] The mode of packing rich garments, like those described in Ezekiel, is one still in use among the natives of Upper India.
We may add that civilization owes to the Phœnicians the invention of the alphabet; and, probably, that of the well-known weight of ancient Greece, the mna, or mina, which is found on certain lion-weights from Nineveh, bearing bilingual legends in Assyrian and Phœnician, their value being expressed in the latter tongue:[107] they also discovered the Cynosure (called after them, Phœnice), the last star in the Little Bear, which, as nearly identical with the Pole Star, gave superior fixity to their observations;[108] while they are said to have noticed at Gades the connection between the moon and the oceanic tides.[109]
Cause of prosperity.
It is not difficult to discern the principal causes of the success and prosperity of these Phœnician traders, which we may be sure did not rest, as some writers[110] have supposed, on an extensive system of piracy. This, and other evils of a similar character, may have existed among them, as elsewhere, for a certain period; but they would not have ruled the maritime commerce of the world, had not their power rested on foundations far more firm than those of robbery and plunder. No nation has ever become great merely by lawless acts. We believe their success was chiefly due to the practice of dealing with any one who was willing to deal with them, and to the encouragement they invariably gave to perfect freedom of intercourse. Nor must it be forgotten that they largely imported the raw materials of other countries, assorting their various products to suit the demand, and transporting them when thus assorted, together with their own manufactures, to all parts of the world.
Their practice, indeed, was as perfect as their policy was wise. The merchants of Tyre were the first to establish the system of factories or agencies, where they were able not only to dispose of their several cargoes to the best advantage, but to collect the produce of other lands so as to be ready for shipment on the arrival of their fleets. Every nation was, in fact, their merchant; just as every nation is, at the present moment, manufacturing or producing something for England.
Again, to the Tyrians belongs the credit of the establishment of the first regular colonies; some of which, as Carthage, probably far surpassed in wealth and power those of the mother city—nay, what is more, they succeeded in planting their colonies on terms so liberal as to retain through all time an affectionate remembrance from their children; for we know that, as Tyre refused the aid of her fleet to Cambyses when he wished to attack Carthage[111] so Carthage offered a refuge to the inhabitants of Tyre when besieged by Alexander.[112] Thus, without the aid of conquering armies, this remarkable people spread over the remotest parts of the then known world, establishing the arts of peace among nations previously buried in darkness and barbarism, and making the “solitary places of the earth to rejoice.” No commercial nation of either ancient or modern times presents a history, so far as we can trace it, more worthy of imitation than that of Phœnicia. Liberal, by comparison, in its policy, and enlightened in its intercourse with other peoples, it offered, in the plenitude of its power, an example to the ancient world of what industry and a sound policy could effect—a course worthy of imitation, even now. All nations “were merchants of Tyre;” that is, all nations found it to their advantage to be on good terms with such a people; and it would be well if some of the nations of our own times could be persuaded to act on Tyrian principles, and if, instead of checking free intercourse by the imposition of high protective duties, they would do as Tyre did 2600 years ago, invite all nations to be their merchants.[113]
Carthage.
Utica.
Of all her colonies, Carthage was the one of which Tyre had the best reason to be proud. Situated on a peninsula, in Lat. 36° 55´ N., 10° 20´ E., with a long narrow neck of land westward, forming a double harbour for ships of war and commerce, it is believed to have been founded between B.C. 878 and B.C. 826, the Roman writers, as a rule, assuming Carthage to have been only a collection of huts till Dido[114] came. On the other hand, Utica[115] is distinctly stated from Phœnician records to have been in existence two hundred and eighty years before Carthage. As, too, it was earlier in date, so did it long survive the greater city, being, according to Strabo, in his time, the metropolis of Northern Africa. Utica appears also as an independent power in the treaties between Carthage and the Romans.
The headland first occupied by the Tyrians, near the harbour now called the Goletta, is exactly the kind of place Thucydides[116] says the Phœnicians always selected; a promontory easy of defence and commanding an adjoining port. Modern travellers have recognized in the “Hill of St. Louis,”[117] the site of the ancient Byrsa (itself a genuine Phœnician word, meaning fortress).
Commercial policy.
Unfortunately, no ancient historian has given us any reliable information as to the means whereby Carthage raised herself so far above the other Phœnician colonies. But these may be in part traced to the natural fertility of her soil, the excellent situation of the city for carrying on a large inland as well as maritime commerce, and, above all, to the firmness with which she adhered to the enlightened policy of her founders. The Carthaginians closely followed the example of the Tyrians, in establishing colonies of their own, whenever they could do so advantageously, their first object being maritime commerce, a preference being, therefore, naturally given by them to islands such as Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, the Baleares, and Melita (Malta). “Carthage,” says Aristotle,[118] “continually sent out colonies composed of her citizens into the districts around her, and by these means gave them wealth. It is a proof,” he adds, “of a mild and intelligent government, that it assists the poor by accustoming them to labour.” Thus the Carthaginians, while they enriched themselves, increased the prosperity of surrounding states and tribes; and, by promoting colonization, prevented the too great increase of their home population. Many of their colonies embraced the rich provinces to the west of Carthage, and the territory under the immediate control of the republic was little less than two hundred geographical miles in length. As the native population of these provinces comprised many of the nomad tribes, the Carthaginians were enabled to direct their attention to the inland trade of Africa, by caravans which crossed the Libyan Desert, and penetrated as far as the Niger and Æthiopia on the one hand, and to Upper Egypt and the Nile on the other.
There is no justice in the assertion that Carthage ever exhibited a lust of conquest. Throughout her whole career she seems to have acted in the spirit of her Tyrian ancestors; as long as her merchants were free to trade, her neighbours were not disturbed, her naval reputation in later days having been mainly caused by the necessity of protecting her commerce and her colonies from the piratical attacks of other nations. With Spain, for instance, she maintained for centuries extensive and peaceful commercial relations: nor was it till the Greeks and Romans had become the most daring marauders in the Mediterranean, that Carthage, in self-defence, fitted out a navy, and thus became a great naval power. That these peaceful employments were crowned with success, we learn from the universal testimony of antiquity, it being generally admitted that, in the manufactures she had transplanted from Tyre and Sidon, she greatly surpassed in excellence whatever reputation the parent state had acquired. Moreover, we have still extant a series of coins of extraordinary beauty, struck for her no doubt, in many instances, by Greek artists of Sicily and Magna Græcia, yet which could hardly have been intended, as some numismatists have thought, for only her colonial cities of Panormus, Segesta, &c.[119]
Acknowledged by Polybius[120] to have possessed hereditary pre-eminence in nautical matters, with the undisputed dominion of the sea for a long period, it may be fairly assumed that her ships were then unrivalled. Indeed Aristotle states that the Carthaginians were the first to increase the size of their galleys from three to four banks of oars.
Trade with Spain.
As the Carthaginians followed in the wake of the Phœnicians, it is impossible to ascertain the exact period of their colonization of Spain; but it is well known that Gades (Cadiz) was one of their earliest and most important commercial entrepôts, and that thence they sent expeditions to the south and to the north, along the western shores of Africa and Europe, securing for themselves the most favourable positions as marts for their merchandise.
Their first expedition to the western shores of Africa was that of Hanno, it is said, with sixty ships, of fifty oars each, and an incredible number of emigrants. Though all traces of their settlements have long since been obliterated, there is no reason to question the fact that such a voyage was really made, that Hanno did reach the small island of Cerne (probably the modern Arguin in N. Lat. 20.5), that he laid the foundations of six towns, or trading stations, and that he proceeded farther along a coast, inhabited by negro races, for a period of twenty-six days, in all probability passing Cape Verde, even if he did not visit the islands of that name.[121]
About the same time Himilco[122] was sent to explore the north-western coasts of Europe, founding, as he proceeded, if we may believe the very curious poem of Festus Avienus, settlements even in Britain and Ireland. The whole of this story (which has been carefully translated by Heeren, “Asiatic Nations,” i., p. 502, and appendix) is well worthy perusal; and is almost certainly based on reliable traditions or records. Among other things, the navigator speaks of men who dwelt in lands rich in tin and lead; who used boats made of skins and leather; of the Œstrymnades, or Scilly Islands; of the ancient trade between them and Tartessus; and of a sea where weeds abounded so much that navigation was impeded (probably part of the Sargasso). Nor ought it to be forgotten that many antiquaries, more perhaps formerly than now, have been of the opinion that metallic objects of unquestionably Phœnician workmanship have been found in Irish bogs.
Trade in Africa.
On the western coast of Africa, the island of Cerne was the chief Carthaginian depôt; the goods from the merchant vessels being here unladen, and placed under tents, to be conveyed thence in smaller vessels to the continent. This trade itself was conducted wholly by barter. The method is well described by Herodotus. “The Carthaginians,” says he,[123] “are wont to sail to a nation beyond the Pillars of Hercules, on the Libyan coast. When they come there, they transport their wares on shore and leave them, and, after kindling a fire, go back to their ships. Upon this signal the natives come down to the sea, and placing gold against the wares, again return. The Carthaginians then again approach, and see whether what they have left be sufficient. If it be, they take it and depart; should it, however, not be enough for their wares, they again go back to their ships and wait; and the other party bring more gold, until the strangers are satisfied. But neither party deals unfairly by the other, for the one touches not the gold till the value of the wares be brought, nor the other the wares until the gold be taken away.”
A similar system of silent barter has been noticed by many travellers. Thus Captain Lyon states that “In Soudan, beyond the desert, in the countries abounding in gold, there dwells an invisible nation who are said to trade only by night. Those who come to traffic for their gold, lay their merchandise in heaps, and retire. In the morning they find a certain quantity of gold dust placed against every heap, which, if they think sufficient, they leave the goods, if not, they let them both remain until more of the precious ore is added.”[124] Hoest says the same thing in the case of very large caravans, from Marocco to Timbuctoo. “The Moors enter not into the Negro country, but only go to a certain place on the frontiers, where one of each party exhibits and exchanges the goods, without scarcely opening their lips.”[125]
The commercial policy of Carthage.
The commercial treaties between Carthage and Rome, to which fuller reference will hereafter be made, show that if the duties levied were in some cases heavy, they were not differential or protective, but chiefly with the object of securing a sufficient revenue. That, like all commercial nations, the Carthaginians were jealous of competitors need not be doubted, but while other nations were content with profits derived from intercourse among their own people, Tyre and Carthage sought the trade of all nations and erected entrepôts where required for this commerce.
At the same time, it must be borne in mind that free trade, pure and simple, as now understood, could, in ancient times, have been possible only with a very considerable modification; especially where, as was the case with Carthage and Tyre, a large portion of the dealings with barbarous nations was by barter; for competition, while tending seriously to reduce the profits, could not then have increased the demand to an extent equivalent to the reduction in price. As long as the savage is kept in ignorance, he is ready to exchange goods of great value for mere trifles, and rivalry would only serve to enlighten him as to their actual value. Moreover with uncivilized nations whose wants are limited, it is impossible to create a demand adequate to the loss accruing from open competition. Hence Carthage watched these branches of her trade with peculiar jealousy, and, while throwing wide open the harbours of the capital, closed as far as possible her colonial ports to the shipping of rival nations.
It seems, therefore, unreasonable for Heeren to call the commercial policy of Carthage “paltry and selfish:”[126] for if she did guard the colonial trade which her genius and industry had created, her policy generally, as compared with that of contemporaneous nations, was as liberal as that of Great Britain now is in comparison with that of the United States of America. Carthage acted on principles of reciprocity, while her neighbours were rigid protectionists. She was ready to grant, as her treaties show, reciprocal privileges to all nations ready to deal with her on similar conditions; and on such terms, she dealt largely with Greece and with Egypt during the reign of the Ptolemies, and even with Rome.
Limits of trade.
The trade of Carthage, as might be anticipated from her position, was almost entirely with the west, her chief rivals being Sicily, Italy, and Massalia (Marseilles), who prevented her from obtaining anything like an exclusive monopoly. Yet the abundant details given by Herodotus, Diodorus, Aristotle, Strabo, Terence, and Plautus, show clearly that, even with these places, her commercial relations attained considerable dimensions. The wines and oils of Sicily and Italy found their best market in Carthage, the return being black slaves from Central Africa. Malta, Corsica, Elba, produced fine cloths, wax and honey, and iron, respectively; while the mines of Spain, with her great port Cadiz, the entrepôt for tin from Britain, before the Massalians brought it overland through France, produced the largest and most enduring portion of her revenue.
To her commerce with the interior of Africa by means of caravans mention has already been made; and it is scarcely necessary to add that the details which Herodotus and other ancient writers give of this trade, read much like a page out of Livingstone, or Baker, or Du Chaillu. Then, as now, the wants of the respective populations were much the same; if the interior could send abundance of ivory or gold-dust, salt, a need of their daily life, could be procured only from the Mediterranean shores. Lastly, it is certain that Carthage, like the United States of America in modern times, was mainly indebted for her navy to her merchant service, inasmuch as in times of peace she set apart scarcely any shipping for merely warlike purposes.