40 Before Chrift 573. 



Pfammitichus, he fhewed efpecial favour to the. Greeks, whom he a!* 

 lowed to fettle in fome other parts of his kingdom, while the veflels of 

 other nations, though driven by contrary winds into any of the prohi- 

 bited mouths of the Nile, were compelled to go to Naucratis, in which 

 alone they were permitted to tranfad: any bufinefs. His fleet was fuf- 

 ■ficientlv ftrong to extort a tribute from the Cyprians, though a mari- 

 time and commercial people. But as Egypt afforded no timber proper 

 for building any veflels better than thofe ufed in the inland navigation 

 of the Nile and the canals, the royal fleets of this king and his predecef- 

 fors muft have been built of imported timber, or more probably bought 

 ready-built from the Phoenicians. No eflforts, however, of the moft; en- 

 lightened of their kings could ever prevail upon the Egyptians to fub- 

 due their innate deteftation of the fea, and to take into their own hands 

 •the full pofleifion of the commercial benefits, to which they were invited 

 by their natural advantages, but which their unconquerable prejudices 

 threw into the hands of their wifer neighbours. Perhaps if they had 

 continued under their native kings, they would have feen the folly of 

 confining themfclves to a pallive commerce, when a mofl; extenfive ac- 

 tive commerce was fo very much in their power. But it was only in 

 the lafl ftage of their exiftence as an indq^endent nation, that they be- 

 gan to extend their views beyond their own country ; for foon after the 

 -death of Amafis, Egypt became a province of the Perfian empire ; and 

 from that time to the prefent day it has continued moftly under the do- 

 minion of foreigners. 



In this age there flourlflied feveral philofophers, who eftabliflied regu- 

 lations which had an influence on the commerce, as well as on the po- 

 licy, of Greece, or who communicated to the Greeks, (from whom the 

 other nations of Europe received it) the firft knowlege of arts, which 

 by the improvements of later ages have facilitated navigation, and there- 

 by rendered efl~ential fervice to commerce. 



The firfl; of thefe was Solon, the celebrated legiflator of Athens. That 

 commonv\'ealth was brought to the verge of ruin by the boundleis rapa- 

 city and cruelty of creditors, and the defpcration of debtors. By the 

 cxifting laws of Athens the former had a right to compell the fervices 

 of the later, and even to deprive them of their children, whom they ex- 

 ported as flaves. To thefe grofs enormities Solon put a flop by more 

 equitable laws, and he reduced the interefi: of money to tzvclve per cent*. 

 Tn confideration of the fuperior interefl:, which men of property have in 

 the national welfare, he decreed that the members of the fenate and the 

 arcopagus fliould be chofen from among fuch citizens as had eftates fuf- 

 ficient to make them independent, thus holding out to the induflrious 



• It is. faiil lliat lie aifc rtllcvi.-il tlic Jcblors by crcditora fiifhiineil m) lofs. If Solon was fo im- 

 raifin^ t!ic nominal value of the mv.a from yj to prudent, it (hows that the priiiL-iplcs of mouey and 

 ; o drachmas, by vrliith racafurc, it is added, the commcrct.' were totally uiiknovvii. 



