PREFACE. vii 



mofl of the information we have relpedling thefe antient commer- 

 cial dates is derived from their enemies. From thefe perverted 

 fotintains of intelhgence I have endeavoured to colle<5l every notice 

 concerning them worth preferving : but every judicious reader will 

 be inclined to believe that their characfler for commercial integrity, 

 fcience, and literature, was much higher than the malevolent ac- 

 counts of fuch wi'iters reprefent it, and that they were much more 

 enlightened than any other people bordering on the Mediterranean 

 fea. 



The commerce of Carthage, and alfo that of Corinth, a trading 

 city of Greece, were aboliflied by the Romans, the general enemies 

 of commerce* : and, indeed, it may be obferved, that as the Roman 

 empire increafed, the commerce of the weftern world decreafed, with 

 the fingle exception of an enlarged demand for Oriental luxuries. Of 

 this Oriental trade we happily poffefs a defcription, which for accur- 

 acy and minutenefs of detail may almofl rival a modern official ac- 

 count ; and I have the fatisfadlion of now giving the firfl complete 

 abilra<5l of this pretious monument of commercial antiquity that 

 has appeared in the Englifli language. As the Roman empire de- 

 clined, the Oriental trade, fupported merely by the redundant opu- 

 lence of Rome, gradually decayed ; and in the fixth century we find 

 the intercourfe with India turned into a new channel. During the 

 many dark ages, which fucceeded the fubverfion of the Wefiern em- 

 pire, the faculties of the human mind were debafed by the grofTefl 

 ignorance ; and literature, fcience, and commerce, were neglected 

 or forgotten in the weftern parts of the world, till the Saracens, and 

 fome of the cities of Italy and the neighbouring countries, began to 



* Notvvithftanding the antkommercial fpirit, fo evident in the aftions and writings of the Ro- 

 mans, even when they were comparatively civilized, they have been reprefented as a commercial 

 people, from the very commencement of their republic, by a writer on commerce, who has 

 ftrangely had the good fortune to be followed and quoted, as if he were an authentic hiftorian. 



