INDUSTRIAL AND POLITICAL HISTORY OF COMMERCE. 



Oh* Kilgano. salfscano or sAglUno. Imp. Che saliiisi, oh aliisi. cho 

 aliKto ; one Huliuituo, cbe to) is to, che mUiNwro. 



After this example conjugate the following: 

 Aittliro, U attack. I BMMlire, to attack again. 



Uisuiiro, (o go up again. \ Soprualire, lo attack uut 



INDUSTRIAL AND POLITICAL HISTORY 



OF ro.M.MKKCE. 



CHAPTER IX.-EGYPT BEFORE THE ERA OP ALEXANDER. 

 THE ancient commercial history of Egypt ia divided by strongly 

 marked features into two epochs that before and that after the 

 time of Alexander. How far back the first period extended we 

 know not. We see through the haze of time a nation apart and 

 (\<-lii-ive, its civilisation arrested and passive for years, emerging 

 at length into fellowship with the outer world, chiefly through 

 the persistence of Phoenician and Greek merchants, and much 

 in tin- same manner as the peculiar nations of China and Japan 

 are, in our own day, gradually being opened to Western com- 

 merce. There ia reason to believe that Egypt was a settled 

 nation long before the foundation of Nineveh and Babylon, and 

 that these states derived their civilisation from Egypt ; but 

 Egypt did not enter into free intercourse with the rest of the 

 world till after the time of Alexander. Two sea boundaries 

 gave it an extensive line of coast. It is united to Asia by the 

 isthmus of Suez, and lies open to the interior of Africa, the 

 Nile forming a grand channel of communication with the 

 south. The country, as now, was flooded three months in every 

 year by the overflow of its river, and was likewise artificially 

 irrigated by a network of canals, as well as from Lake Moeris, 

 constructed by the king whose name it bears as a reservoir for 

 the superabundant waters at the time of inundation. Inland 

 boats and barges made of boards of papyrus were in general 

 use on the Nile and on the canals as the common means of 

 communication between the towns. A sailor caste is spoken 

 of, and boats occupied a conspicuous place in the religious 

 festivals. 



Later in history Egypt owned a fleet of 400 vessels, used in 

 the coasting trade, and even venturing as far as India. The 

 wood, copper, and iron necessary for their construction were ob- 

 tained from the Phoenicians. The Egyptians reached, perhaps, 

 the highest development possible to a people excluding them- 

 selves from association with all others. Their system of castes 

 confined trades and professions to certain families, and made 

 productive skill in the various arts and handicrafts descend as 

 an heirloom from parent to child. Resulting from this practice, 

 a superior degree of excellence was manifested in their works 

 of metal and wood. Their harps excelled those of modern 

 make in beauty of form, and their chairs and couches were 

 of chaste designs. Even in wicker-work they showed artistic 

 skill. For many purposes of art and utility they used a com- 

 pound metal of a green colour, the method of alloying which is 

 now lost. Their cutlery and weapons of war were also made 

 of a compound metal, a kind of brass or bronze. Elegance 

 was specially aimed at in their pottery ; the examples now 

 in our museums are made of fine clay, and are very beautiful. 

 Excellent cotton cloths and muslins, together with woollen 

 fabrics and embroidered work or tapestry, were among the pro- 

 ducts of their industry. Buying and selling fell to the lot of 

 the women. Household duties were attended to by the men. 

 In accordance with this custom, it was the daughter, not the 

 son, on whom devolved the duty of supporting a helpless parent. 

 The laws promoted self-dependence. Securities for loans were 

 contrived, usury was forbidden, and the rights of creditors 

 were limited to the property of their debtors. They were a 

 grave and unsociable people, of quiet, temperate habits, and 

 submissive under control. 



Every patch of the country that water could reach was culti- 

 vated, and good roads were formed. The Egyptians consumed 

 more of vegetable than of animal food. The rich brown deposit 

 of the Nile yielded grain, garlic, the lotus, and gourds in exube- 

 rance. The crops succeeded each other at intervals of six 

 or eight weeks, and the whole soil was literally, as well as 

 metaphorically, the " gift of the Nile." 



Higher up the river valley were quarried the massive syenite 

 trials used in the erection of the temples, and the obelisks or 

 needles, which, at a later date, took Cleopatra's name. East- 



ward, between the river and the Bed Sea, a mountainous strip 

 produced marble and the only metals found in Egypt. Camels 

 were numerous ; and the celebrated horses of the Delta were, 

 from the flatness of the district, of great utility for chariots and 

 warlike purposes. Long before Egypt owned Teasels fit to nari- 

 gate the aea, caravans traversed the country in all directions, 

 frankincense, spices, and wines were thus obtained from Arabia 

 an<l Syria. Gold, ivory, feathers, skins, and slaves cam* 

 through Ethiopia from Central Africa, and fine salt was alsc 

 impor' 



The jealousy of the Egyptians regarding the intrucion of 

 foreigners by sea was the effect of fear. PoHseHnhiK no timber 

 for shipbuilding, and having a distaste for navigation, they 

 were ill prepared to resist invasion ; and as the first sailors 

 were as much pirates as traders, no vessels, for a long period, 

 were allowed to anchor in the Nile. Caravan traders only, not 

 being formidable, were tolerated, with a kind of contempt. 



Psammetichus, who ruled over Egypt B.C. 671-617, was the 

 first king that dared to break in upon ancient prescription. 

 He not only opened the country to Phoenician and Greek vessels, 

 but employed Greek mercenaries in his army. These measures 

 brought wealth to the state, but gave offence to the warrior 

 caste, the whole of whom, in a body of about a quarter of a 

 million of men, emigrated into Ethiopia, where they had 

 district assigned to them as a habitation. 



Amasis, the foreigner's friend, the heir of Psammetichus, 

 allowed the Greeks to erect temples and warehouses, and in 

 the last year of his reign, 526 B.C., he removed all previous 

 restrictions upon vessels by declaring the months of the river 

 free to navigation. Many Greek merchants, therefore, settled 

 in Egypt, introducing the manners and customs of their own 

 country. Egyptian youths were placed with these families in 

 order to learn the Greek language, and thus to facilitate trade. 

 In this way there gradually arose a class of interpreters whc 

 became imbued with Greek habits and modes of thought, which 

 they communicated to their own families. The Persians con- 

 quered the country, 525 B.C. Camhyses committed unheard-of 

 atrocities, but the fate of his expedition against Ammonium 

 and Ethiopia put an end to the commotions of war, and the 

 gentler government of Darius Hystaspes left the Egyptians 

 free to do as they pleased, so long as they did not fail in 

 the payment of their yearly quota of a tribute of 700 talents, 

 equal to 125, 000, which was raised partly in Libya, Barca, 

 and Cyrene, as well as in Egypt. Besides this, the country 

 had to provide with corn a Persian garrison of 120,000 men, 

 stationed at Memphis. The fishing in Lake Moeris was like- 

 wise monopolised by the conquerors. Under these compara- 

 tively easy conditions, commerce resumed its prosperous 

 career. The Persian supremacy lasted from 525 B.C. till 332 

 B.C., when Alexander the Great conquered the country. During 

 these two centuries trade and manufactures became much ex- 

 tended, but it is difficult to distinguish the wealth of the Greeks 

 and Phoenicians from that of the natives. The paintings and 

 sculptures in the tombs depict weavers and dyers using orna- 

 mented distaffs and looms. Linen and cotton fabrics, and silk 

 from the byssus of the pinna, were worked and dyed of various 

 tints, unmixed white, red, yellow, blue, green, or black. These 

 stuffs were renowned for their quality and costliness in every 

 country which Egyptian produce reached. 



At this period the population of Egypt was very much larger 

 than it is now. Greek writers affirm that 30,000 cities existed, 

 and many millions of people. This was the era of the erection 

 of those huge monuments whose ruins astonish the modern 

 world. Kings fought hard against oblivion. Lifetimes were 

 devoted to render imperishable the records of great rulers whoso 

 names are now forgotten, whose conquests are deemed fabulous, 

 and whose embalmed bodies are indistinguishable amongst 

 millions of other mummies. Lake Moeris, on the other hand, 

 and the canals of Sesostris remain, as evidences of wisdom and 

 skill applied to domestic improvement, and to the development 

 of natural resources. 



CHAPTER X.-EGYPT (continued) AFTER THE ERA OP 



ALEXANDER - ALEXANDRIA. 



ALEXANDER'S ambition urged him to leave behind him per- 

 manent monuments of his fame. He destroyed some cities, 

 but built greater. After the destruction of Tyre, Egypt sub- 

 mitted to the conqueror without an effort in self-defence. His 



