TKANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 731 



remote period, the nations of the world have contended for this rich prize. One 

 state after another has ohtained and lost the prize ; England now holds it, but if 

 she is to keep what she has obtained there must be a far closer study than there has 

 hitherto been, of geography and terrestrial phenomena in their relation to com- 

 merce. Trade between the East and the West may be divided into three periods : 

 the first, during which the limits of Oriental commerce were the eastern and south- 

 eastern shores of the Mediterranean, closed with the foundation of Carthage about 

 800 B.C. ; the second, or Mediterranean, period ended in the fifteenth century ; the 

 third, or Oceanic period, has lasted to the present day. In the first period there 

 were two principal lines of traffic ; the southern sea route following the coast line, 

 and the northern land route traversing Asia in its whole extent from east to west. 

 There are indications of communication between China and the West so early as 

 2698 B.C. ; and in 2353 B.C. an embassy arrived in China from a coimtry which 

 is supposed to have been Chaldaea. There is also an early notice of caravan traffic 

 in the company of Ishmeelites, bearing spicery, and balm, and myrrh to Egypt, 

 to whom Joseph was sold (Gen. xxxvii. 25-28.) The earliest maritime people 

 to appreciate the value of trade between the East and West were, apparently, 

 those living along the south coast of Arabia. Happily situated between the Per- 

 sian Gulf and the Red Sea, and separated by vast deserts from the great nations of 

 Asia, the Sabseans were free from those alternations of industry and war which 

 are so unfavourable to commercial pursuits ; for centuries they possessed the com- 

 merce of India, and they became famous for their opulence and luxury. Sabsean 

 ships visited Ceylon and the Malabar coast, and Sabsean merchants supplied Indian 

 goods to Mesopotamia and Syria, as well as to Egypt and Ethiopia. The ships 

 trading to the Persian Gulf discharged their cargoes near the mouth of the 

 Euphrates ; whence the traffic passed partly by river, partly by land, to the coast 

 towns of Syria and Palestine, and through the Syrian and CiUcian gates to Mazaca 

 {Kaisariyeh) and Pterium (Boffhazkeui) ; from the last place Indian goods found 

 their way to Sardis and Sinope. The ships visiting the Red Sea landed goods at 

 Elath, at the head of the gulf of Akabah, for carriage by land to Tyre and Sidon, 

 and on the western shores of the Red Sea for transmission to Meroe, Thebes, and 

 Memphis. At the same time sUks from China, and gems from India, were carried 

 overland to Chaldaea and Assyria; andBactra (BalJch), 'the mother of cities,' rose 

 and flourished at the central point of the transit trade. Egypt, with no timber for 

 shipbuilding, a distrust of all foreigners, especially when they came by sea, and a 

 settled dislike of maritime pursuits amongst her people, long neglected the oppor- 

 tunities afforded by her favourable geographical position. Tyre, Sidon, and other 

 Phoenician towns, reached by easy roads from the Euphrates and the Red Sea, and 

 from their situation commanding the Mediterranean, became centres of distri- 

 bution for Indian goods ; and the Phoenicians, gradually extending their opera- 

 tions to the Red Sea, traded with the ports of southern Arabia, and even ventured 

 to the shores of India. It was in this first period that the Jewish kingdom reached 

 its widest extent. During the long wars of David's reign the Jews obtained pos- 

 session of the land routes over which the rich products of India were carried to 

 Tyre and Sidon ; and Solomon did all in his power, by building Tadmor in the Wil- 

 derness (Palmyra), by improving the port of Elath, and by carrying out other great 

 works, to protect and facilitate the transit trade from which such large profits were 

 derived. The Jews do not appear to ha^-* been the actual carriers, but many of 

 them no doubt, following the example of their merchant-king, engaged in commer- 

 cial pursuits, and wealth poured into the kingdom so that silver was made to be as 

 stones in Jerusalem. 



In the early portion of the second period the commercial prosperity of the 

 Phoenicians reached its culminating point. Their colonies dotted the shores of the 

 Mediterranean, and their ships passed the ' Pillars of Hercules ' to Great Britain 

 and the western shores of Africa, and floated on the waters of the Red Sea, the 

 Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean. The sea-borne trade of the known world 

 was in their hands; wealth flowed into their cities, and in the markets of Tyre 

 tin from Cornwall and amber from the Baltic were exposed for sale with the silks, 

 gems, and spices of the far-distant East. The decline of Phoenicia dates from the 



