CHAPTER XI.
EXPORTS AND IMPORTS.
Although we have above glanced slightly at the exports and imports of Athens and several other states, we ought here perhaps to enter into greater detail, for the purpose of rendering as complete as possible our idea of the vigorous and extensive commerce carried on by the Greeks. It will not of course be understood, that all the articles enumerated in the present chapters constituted at any one time the floating materials of Hellenic trade; the probability being, that some grew out of fashion and were succeeded by others, for which at a later period they may again have been substituted. But the mind must suppose itself to be dealing with the whole extent of authentic Grecian history, within the limits of which it will be found, that everything we here mention was trafficked in, though it seems to be now impossible to observe in these matters a strict chronology and fix the epoch at which each particular commodity came into vogue, or was abandoned for something else.
Attica itself exported comparatively few of its own natural productions;[[1751]] but having obtained the raw materials from other regions, it expended upon them so much skill, and taste, and industry, that they appeared to undergo a new creation, and were issued from the Peiræeus like the native growth of the soil. This was the case with various kinds of arms and armour, as sabres, and scimitars, greaves, cuirasses, and helmets.[[1752]] These were sometimes richly gilt or inlaid with gold, and adorned with embossed figures of rare workmanship.[[1753]]
Perfumes,[[1754]] also, with unguents and essences,[[1755]] and odoriferous oils were among the exports of Athens, which, indeed, at one period retailed to the rest of Greece the manufactures of every country in the civilised world.
Among the articles of merchandise,[[1756]] the peculiar produce of her own soil, were the fragrant gold-coloured honey of Hymettos, the best in the ancient world; olives, and olive oil,[[1757]] which likewise appear to have been unrivalled; fruits of various kinds, but more especially figs,[[1758]] which were transported to Persia and most of the other regions of the East.[[1759]]
A trade was carried on too in herbs and plants, which being more fragrant and possessing greater virtues here than in any other country, the citizens of the neighbouring states sought to obtain the like, by procuring slips and seeds from Athens. Thus strangers having observed that the knolls and uplands of Attica were covered with thyme,[[1760]] which, flowering about midsummer, filled the air with sweetness, and enabled the owners of bees to foretell with exactness whether honey would be scarce or plentiful, desired to transplant it to the neighbourhood of their own cities. It was found however by experience, that it flourished and attained its natural luxuriance only in such situations as were reached by the sea breezes.[[1761]] In Arcadia, for example, it refused to be naturalised, though the climate of that country was found to agree very well with the marjoram, and the summer savory. Among the simples employed by the ancients in their materia medica were the Attic valerian,[[1762]] hemlock,[[1763]] and melilot.[[1764]] Kermes also were produced in this country.[[1765]]
The Athenian pottery,[[1766]] being the most tasteful and beautiful known to the ancient world, was consequently in great request and exported in immense quantities to all the countries on the shores of the Mediterranean.[[1767]] At one time, however, the people of Ægina and Argos, partly out of resentment,[[1768]] and partly to encourage some less costly manufacture of their own, prohibited its introduction; while the people of Aulis,[[1769]] Samos,[[1770]] and Rhodes,[[1771]] became, in this branch of industry, the rivals of the Athenians, whom they endeavoured to undersell by producing an inferior article.[[1772]]
Among the other exports of Athens we find enumerated soft fine wool,[[1773]] linen and woollen cloths,[[1774]] slippers,[[1775]] beds, chests, books,[[1776]] wine,[[1777]] Sphettian vinegar,[[1778]] sweetmeats,[[1779]] glaucisci,[[1780]] anchovies,[[1781]] sheep,[[1782]] live fowls,[[1783]] Hymettian[[1784]] and Pentelic[[1785]] marbles, quicksilver,[[1786]] ochre,[[1787]] and cinnabar.[[1788]]
Another class of exports consisted of statues and works of arts of all kinds, in gold, marble, bronze, and ivory, jewellery, and engraved gems.
But the most valuable and commodious of all her merchandise was that silver[[1789]] of unrivalled purity and fineness which so long placed her foremost among the commercial states of antiquity, and was one of the great props of her empire both by sea and land.