Fig. 204.
wholesale and retail traders seems to have been somewhat sharper in Greek antiquity than at the present day, partly because the former were not only merchants but also seafarers. The wholesale dealers as a rule were owners of ships; they fetched their goods themselves on their journeys, or commissioned responsible subordinates in their place. The ship was laden at home with goods which were likely to find a good sale at the port to which she journeyed; of course the owner made inquiries beforehand about the best places for disposing of his goods, the private conditions, possible competition, etc. It was, therefore, very important to hit the right moment, and artificial manoeuvres for sending up the price of goods were not unknown. Arrived at their destination, the wares were publicly sold, for which purpose bazaars were erected in large harbours; then the goods were either bought collectively by a wholesale dealer, or in small quantities by smaller traders; there were also agents who undertook the mediation between the buyer and seller in return for a commission. As a rule, therefore, goods were purchased with the money, chiefly products of the country which might be sold with advantage at home; it was almost necessary to make fresh purchases, since the money of another state would have no value at home, though Attic money could pass current anywhere. A merchant did not always content himself with putting in at one single port; he often visited a succession of neighbouring ports, calling at smaller stations on the way, sometimes selling, sometimes buying, and often the cargo of a ship changed three or four times during a journey. Probably these wholesale dealers did not deal only with particular goods as at the present day, but took anything which was likely to find a good sale, such as corn, wine, oil, honey, skins, wool, clothes, textile ware, metal work, even statues and books. Payment was made in coined money, and the calculation cannot always have been an easy one, owing to the variety of money systems prevailing in antiquity. In the Homeric age barter was usual, but afterwards this ceased in civilised countries, though in some districts, as for instance the neighbourhood of the Black Sea, it continued for some time longer.
Very different was the position and occupation of the retail dealer or pedlar. He did not travel by sea, scarcely even by land, but usually carried on his business at one place; he either bought his goods direct from the producers or from the wholesale dealers, and offered them for sale in open shops or in booths on the market-place; in large towns there were special stands or markets for particular goods, but those who offered their wares at these places were usually the producers themselves, thus at the Pot Market at Athens, the wares were offered by real potters, who had doubtless made them themselves. We must therefore distinguish between shopkeepers who lived only by trade, and did not themselves produce, and producers, who brought their own goods to market; the latter were regarded as merchants by the ancients, and the hatred, where it existed, was chiefly directed at the small shopkeepers, who sold their wares for as high prices as possible. In small cities the circumstances may have been somewhat different, for it was only the most important trades connected with food and clothing that were carried on there, and many branches were not represented at all; consequently many kinds of goods had to be imported for sale by the small shopkeepers. No doubt the inhabitants of the small towns and even the country people often went to the capital to satisfy their wants, especially to the great markets held on fixed days of the month, usually on the first; the national festivals too provided opportunities for many kinds of purchases, since a sort of fair was usually connected with them.
In the market-places of large towns there were usually covered arcades in which the merchants and dealers set up their wares; in some places there were market-halls of this kind for special goods, such as corn, oil, ointments, etc. Besides these permanent places of sale, there were light booths of a temporary nature, constructed in tent fashion of woven reeds and linen. The life in the market-place probably resembled that of the present day in the south; the custom of calling out and extolling goods existed in ancient Greece as well, and so did the excessive demands of the seller and the depreciation on the part of the purchaser, and even the notorious rudeness of the fish-wives seems to have been known to the Greeks. We find mention also of peddling, and carrying wares from house to house, and this was chiefly the case with provisions.
Greek art supplies very few pictures from the trader’s life. Fig. [205], taken from a vase-painting, though a caricature, has an especial interest on account of its subject: a certain king Arcesilas of Cyrene (probably mythical), is represented as a dealer in silphium; it is well known that the silphium plant, so much valued by ancient epicures, came from Cyrene, and was an important article of trade. Under a canopy, the curtains of which are suspended by rings, stands a large pair of scales, at which five men are weighing goods, some of which are heaped up on the scales and others lying about on the ground.
Fig. 205.