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THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



INDUSTRIAL AND POLITICAL HISTORY 

 OF COMMERCE. 



CHAPTER XI. GREECE. 



GREECE presents in its history many contrasts to the other 

 commercial states of antiquity, owing chiefly to its physical 

 conditions. We have seen wealth flow along many converging 

 routes into Babylon and Alexandria, raising those cities to a 

 height of prosperity beyond the reach of rivalry. Geographical 

 position favoured them as commercial centres of exchange. 

 Greece proper, in ancient times, occupied about the same area 

 as the modern kingdom. Washed on three sides by the Mediter- 

 ranean, and its coast deeply indented, every part of the country 

 is within easy reach of the sea, and, though united to the main- 

 land, its character is insular. Off the western coast there is a 

 range of large islands, stretching from Corcyra (Corfu) to 

 Cythera (Cerigo), and on the east lie the Cyclades. The diver- 

 sity of feature and produce which marked this classic soil was 

 reflected in the Greek character and institutions. We possess 

 no authentic record of the founding of Greece. In its natural 

 characteristics it was eminently original a land to which the 

 world is indebted for new thoughts, for departure from Oriental 

 monotony. Just as passive repose was the ruling principle in 

 Egypt, so restless energy distinguished Greece. It was com- 

 posed of a number of states, differing in dialect, laws, and in- 

 dustry ; but all inspired with the love of freedom and enterprise. 

 Such a people, thus situated, became of necessity colonisers and 

 merchants. No single city of Greece ever contained in itself 

 the wealth of Carthage or Tyre ; but the Republic of Athens in 

 its best days attained a prosperity never reached even by 

 Babylon. 



There are many allusions to the early intimate relations 

 between the Greeks and Phoenicians ; and monuments have 

 been found in Athens itself, with Phoenician inscriptions, com- 

 memorating sojourners from Tyre, Sidon, and Citium, one of 

 which may be seen in the British Museum. Phoenicians opened 

 the Greek mines, and worked them. They supplied the Greeks 

 with tin, which came into extensive use ; from the Greeks they 

 obtained polished iron, unwrought iron being procured from 

 Carthage. The Greeks, however, soon assumed the control of 

 their own commerce, shook off their dependence on the Phosni- 

 cians, and became their keenest rivals. 



Corinth, Elis, Argos, Messenia, and Attica were the leading 

 commercial states, from which colonists spread over the neigh- 

 bouring archipelago, and multiplied the marts of trade. Coloni- 

 sation was a distinctive feature of Greek enterprise and policy, 

 .ffiolian, Doric, and Ionian settlements were founded in Asia 

 Minor, where numerous towns arose, of which Miletus, Ephesus, 

 Smyrna, and Phocea especially, disputed with the Phoenicians 

 the profit of the eastern and western traffic. The famous royal 

 caravan track between Sardis and Susa competed with the mari- 

 time route for the treasures of Persia, and all the above cities 

 shared in the proceeds. "Smyrna was the lovely crown of 

 Ionia, the ornament of Asia ; and Ephesus was celebrated for 

 its riches and splendour. Miletus was scarcely second to Tyro 

 in luxury and wealth. From it colonists went forth who 

 settled round the Euxine, opening up the traffic of another 

 Mediterranean, and who founded the first Greek station in 

 Egypt. Naucratis on the Nile was established by Milesian 

 traders ; Cyrene, in Africa, was likewise founded by the Greeks. 

 Marseilles was a settlement of the Phoceans, the inhabitants 

 still fancifully designating themselves by the ancient name. 

 Tarentum, Sybaris, and Croton were the principal towns that 

 sprang up in Magna Grecia; Syracuse and Agrigentum the 

 chief in Sicily. 



Patriotism caused the Greeks to extend to their colonies the 

 name of the mother country, and to call the colonists by the 

 common appellation of Hellenes. 



The Greeks, like sea-rovers generally, were first induced to build 

 ships for the sake of plunder, rather than of commerce. Thucy- 

 dides graphically pictures the inhabitants of the shores or the 

 isles as people who, once having risked the journey across from 

 one coast to another, grew thievish, and wandering abroad in 

 quest of booty, would fall upon any straggling town, rifle 

 it of everything worth carrying off, and regard the act as 

 glorious. Bred a race of hardy sailors, and afterwards better 

 engaged in colonisation and peaceful commerce, there arose, 

 distinct from the nobility, a wealthy class, holding property, 



not in lands but in portable goods. They congregated in cities, 

 instituted governments for the protection of life and wealth, 

 and continued trading and accumulating riches. When the 

 necessaries of life had been supplied, a taste for comfort and 

 luxury soon arose. Architecture and sculpture, pottery, and 

 work in the precious metals, attained a perfection since emulated 

 in vain. They devoted themselves also to study and contem- 

 plation ; and Greek philosophers have ever since influenced 

 human thought. 



Athens and Corinth were the chief seats of commerce in 

 Greece proper. Athens possessed three harbours, of which the 

 Pirteus was the most important. A wall, sixty feet high, and 

 wide enough for two chariots to run abreast, encircled the port, 

 which was also united to the city by another double wall, five 

 miles long. 



Attica did not yield more than half the grain consumed by 

 the Athenians, and corn was, consequently, the most important 

 commodity imported. It came from Egypt, Palestine, and 

 Sicily ; but the great granary of Greece was then, as it is now 

 for Europe, the Crimea and the Ukraine. Thrace and Mace- 

 donia sent timber ; from Africa came ivory and gold ; from 

 Egypt, linen and paper ; while the universal custom of selling 

 into bondage the prisoners taken in war provided endless con- 

 signments of black and white slaves from the outlying parts of 

 Europe and Africa. A trade in furs was carried on with the 

 Scythians north of the Sea of Azov; and from the same people, 

 probably, were procured gold, horses, and skins. 



Athens monopolised Greek commerce for more than 150 

 years. The chief export trade consisted of wine, oil, figs, wax, 

 and honey, the finest in the world, from Mount Hymettus ; and 

 representatives from every mart then known were to be found 

 in the warehouses of the Piraeus. The entire freedom of trade 

 permitted by the Athenians attracted to their harbour all the 

 choicest productions of the known world, from the snow-clad 

 regions of the north to the glowing sands of the south. In 

 return, the exquisite creations of Athenian looms, forges, and 

 chisels went forth to ennoble and refine the manners of man- 

 kind. The Athenians lavished their magnificence chiefly on 

 temples and public buildings. Their dwellings were compara- 

 tively small and unornamented. The interiors, however, were 

 sumptuously furnished and decorated. Babylonian tapestries, 

 Thracian pictures and chairs, Carthaginian pillows, Corinthian 

 cushions, and specimens of Athenian art, enriched the apart- 

 ments. The baths were constructed of marble from Mount 

 Hymettus ; and the dressing-rooms displayed costly fabrics and 

 perfumed requisites for the toilet. A levy was laid upon Nature 

 for every delicacy of food and wines, with which to spread the 

 table. Chaste jewellery, of the rarest value, adorned the ladies. 

 The affluence of the state was only subdued in its display by 

 that artistic or poetic perception of harmony which the Greeks 

 evinced from their infancy. As many as 10,000 houses and 

 100,000 citizens, with four times that number of slaves, were 

 enumerated when Athens was in its pride. 



The city of Corinth had the reputation of being the most 

 luxurious in Greece. Its name has come down to us as in- 

 dicative of profusion. Its position on the isthmus, uniting 

 the peninsula now called the Morea to the mainland, gave it 

 two harbours, and thus enabled it to command the sea, both 

 towards Italy and Asia Minor. Corinth did not attain its emi- 

 nence so soon as Athens, but kept it longer. It was a powerful 

 city, as remarkable for its manufactures as its trade, being 

 especially celebrated for metal- work and porcelain. The order 

 of architecture named from the city shows that Corinthian art 

 had reached great perfection. The Romans described the place 

 as containing more statues than any city they had ever taken ; 

 and there is a story that during the conflagration which followed 

 its capture, streams of silver and other metals became com- 

 mingled in the streets to such an extent as to originate a new- 

 commercial product, afterwards called Corinthian metal (brass). 



Byzantium, the modern Constantinople, was so matchlessly 

 situated that from the day of its colonisation it has never ceased 

 to be an emporium of trade, notwithstanding its many vicissi- 

 tudes. Salt fish, honey, wax, grain, fat cattle, and slaves, 

 reached it from the Euxine settlements ; and it sent, in return, 

 its own produce of oil and wine. Byzantium was important as 

 the terminus of the grand caravan system, to the chief line of 

 which, between Sardis and Snsa, we have already adverted. 

 This traffic placed Byzantium in communication with the Ganges 



