Trade Books
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Berkley Trade (01 January 1999)Price: $10.20 -
Penguin (Non-Classics) (28 January 2003)Price: $10.40 -
NAL Trade (01 April 2003)Price: $10.20 -
Random House Trade Paperbacks (12 March 2010)Price: $11.53 -
Random House Trade Paperbacks (06 May 2003)Price: $11.56
Definition
Trade is believed to have taken place throughout much of recorded human history. There is evidence of the exchange of obsidian and flint during the stone age. Materials used for creating jewelry were traded with Egypt since 3000 BC. Long-range trade routes first appeared in the 3rd millennium BC, when Sumerians in Mesopotamia traded with the Harappan civilization of the Indus Valley.
The Phoenicians were noted sea traders, traveling across the Mediterranean Sea, and as far north as Britain for sources of tin to manufacture bronze. For this purpose they established trade colonies the Greeks called emporia. From the beginning of Greek civilization until the fall of the Roman empire in the 5th century, a financially lucrative trade brought valuable spice to Europe from the far east, including China.
Roman commerce allowed its empire to flourish and endure. The Roman empire produced a stable and secure transportation network that enabled the shipment of trade goods without fear of significant piracy.
The Phoenicians were noted sea traders, traveling across the Mediterranean Sea, and as far north as Britain for sources of tin to manufacture bronze. For this purpose they established trade colonies the Greeks called emporia. From the beginning of Greek civilization until the fall of the Roman empire in the 5th century, a financially lucrative trade brought valuable spice to Europe from the far east, including China.
Roman commerce allowed its empire to flourish and endure. The Roman empire produced a stable and secure transportation network that enabled the shipment of trade goods without fear of significant piracy.
Articles
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Very early on, the geographic position of Greece and the necessity of importing wheat forced the Greek world to engage in maritime trade. The areas which provisioned Greece with wheat were Cyrenaica, Egypt, Italy (specifically the Magna Graecia area and Sicily), and regions surrounding the Black Sea. Athens and Corinth served as way-stations of exchange for the islands of the Aegean Sea. Other imported products included papyrus, spices, fabrics, metals, and shipbuilding materials such as wood, linen, and pitch. For their part, Greek cities exported wine, pottery, and olive oil. Athens sold marble extracted from Penteli, renown in the Greek world, and also silver coins, known for their elegant workmanship and high proportion of silver. These served not only as a means of exchange, but also as a source of metal: in places that did not use money, they were melted back into silver. Available sources do not provide enough information to evaluate with moderate precision the volume of goods exchanged in Greek trade.
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Originally, the Ancient Greeks employed a barter system in order to trade goods and services. This likely worked well before sea trade became prevalent in the region, and trading large goods such as sacks of wheat or large farm animals would have been quite cumbersome. Around the eighth century B.C., the Greeks began minting and using silver coins (some areas of Greece were slower to begin minting coins, and used other, more compact forms of currency, such as the Athenian obol). This streamlined business and industry, and led to a standardization of currency, weights, and measures that has continued to influence our own monies and measures today.
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Like the Ancient Greeks, the Romans employed a barter system in the early days if their history. During the Republic, around the fifth century B.C., Roman merchants and citizens exchanged goods and services with one another. The customary barter good was the pecus, or cow (the Latin word for money is pecunia). This worked well when Rome was just Rome. But as the city grew into a republic, and the Republic grew and expansion occurred, bartering became more and more inconvenient and ineffective.
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Today, traveling an hour by ferry from Piraeus, the port of Athens, the first remnant of Aegina’s great past a visitor will see is the lonely pillar of Apollo rising from the trees on the hill of Kolona. Once a splendid complex of three buildings (the Temple of Apollo itself rose on eleven large pillars and six smaller ones) and a cemetery (in which a large collection of gold and jewelry was found in the tombs, now housed in the British Museum) the pillar of Apollo is all that remains. This seems a fitting symbol for the whole of Aegina’s history: the island which once boasted the best wine, a high standard of living and a naval fleet which rivaled that of Athens is, today, known as the leading producer of pistachio nuts in Greece.
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Illustrations
