Reference has already incidentally been made to a few of the caravan routes of very ancient times: these and other more important routes will now and hereafter be considered somewhat more in detail, as, antecedently to the invention of boats, there must have existed some interchange of commodities between different nations and tribes on land, by the agencies of different kinds of beasts of burthen; and, here, the records of Holy Writ are, as in so many other cases, the first available; the earliest caravan noticed in history being that mentioned in the 37th chapter of the book of Genesis, v. 25: “behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt;” and again, v. 28: “Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver.”
Here there is a clearly defined trade at a very remote period of authentic history, and one which there is no reason to suppose was even then new or unusual.
Moreover, a somewhat subsequent statement, “all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn” (Gen. xli. 57), proves that Egypt was already what it remained for many centuries, the granary of adjacent, and even of distant nations; while some of the goods she received from Palestine in exchange were in great demand for the embalmment of the Egyptian dead.
This the first regular trade appears to have been conducted wholly by camels, the “ships of the desert:” an animal marvellously adapted by Providence for the toil it has to undergo in traversing for many continuous days almost waterless deserts.
It is worthy of note, too, that in the earliest notice we have of any trade at all, we find slave-dealing in full operation; and, supposing for a moment the Biblical date B.C. 1862 to be correct, it is an interesting though accidental coincidence, that in the year 1862 after Christ, the same inhuman commerce was finally put a stop to in the United States by the direct action of its government.
But the brief words of Genesis imply more than is at first obvious—they imply a trade with Arabia—possibly even with the yet more remote India; for balsam and myrrh are products of the Arabian province, Hadramaut, and the spices may have come either thence or from India. In like manner there is reasonable probability for believing that in the remotest ages there was a trade between Egypt and the borders of the Persian Gulf and Indian Oceans; indeed, recent researches strongly lead to the belief that the Egyptians, like the Phœnicians, were immigrants from the same neighbourhood, and connected, therefore, with the chief cities of Chaldæa, such as “Ur of the Chaldees,” the primitive Babel, and other sites, the great mounds of which have been partially explored by Loftus and Taylor, though it is not as yet possible in all cases to assign to them their true ancient names. Babylon, the great city of Nebuchadnezzar, did not then exist, nor could Nineveh have been of importance, at least commercially. All the evidence available, and especially that obtainable through the latest interpretation of the Cuneiform Inscriptions, tends to show that the greatest people in the earliest period were the Chaldæans—a race probably older than the Egyptians, and like them of Hamite origin—the true inventors of alphabetic writing, astronomy, agriculture, navigation, and of other sciences, which the Semites, in after days, claimed as their own exclusive discoveries.
It was in connexion with this trade that the ports at the head of the Ælanitic gulf came first into existence. As the caravans of Edom or Idumæa passed to and fro between Egypt and the borders of Arabia, the foundation of Elath and Ezion-geber would be but the satisfying of a necessary want; becoming, when seized by King David, places of much greater importance than they could have been in the hands of Hadad, or of any other petty Idumæan prince.
Ophir.
David would seem to have been the first, in connection with caravans from Petra and from the west, to open up, by means of a line of ships, that trade with “Ophir” which his son Solomon afterwards made so famous. Where and what “Ophir” was, has been the subject of innumerable essays by men of learning, but to enter into a discussion of this uncertain though interesting inquiry, would be out of our province. Let it suffice that the first notice in the Bible[127] clearly means by “Ophir” someplace in Arabia, where great wealth was found, and was no doubt applicable afterwards to all other similar places. Those writers who, relying on the native Indian names of some of the products said to have come thence, assert Ophir to be the name of a people near the mouths of the Indus, advance opinions more ingenious than convincing. If Ophir were an Arabian entrepôt for the trade of India, the occurrence of Indian names for certain Indian products would be as natural as the use in English of the Persian word shâl, which we pronounce as they do, “shawl.” Then David’s “gold of Ophir” may have been simply descriptive of quality, as we used to speak of “guinea-gold.”[128]
Be this, however, as it may, it is certain that to David the Jews owe their first practical knowledge of the result of successful commerce, though a careful consideration of the story of his life suggests that his coffers were filled, not so much by any legitimate trade, however extended, as by the conquest and plunder of his neighbours. Though probably not averse to royal monopolies, the fashion of his day, David was a great warrior, and it is likely, indeed it is so stated on more than one occasion, that it was by the capture of Philistine (Phœnician) towns, the overthrow of Moab, the plunder of Hadadezer, the garrisoning of Syria and of its chief city, Damascus, and the extortion of heavy tribute as the condition of peace, that David accumulated the enormous wealth which he proposed devoting to the building and decoration of the future Temple at Jerusalem:[129] but God said, “Thou shalt not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight.”[130]