Trade And Commerce

Trade And Commerce

1. Introductory.-Trade and commerce occupied almost as great a place in the life of ancient communities as they do in modern times. Indeed, apart from such developments as the railway, the steamship, the telegraph, and the telephone have introduced, the chief difference between the two periods might be found in the somewhat changed attitude of the leisured and professional classes towards them. The attitude which the philosopher Plato adopts towards manual industries as , base, ignoble, vulgar, was only too faithfully followed by the whole class of writers, Greek and Roman. It is wonderful how long the absurd hypocrisy has persisted in Europe, by which the very processes which bring the necessaries of life within our reach, and the very sources from which directly or indirectly many draw their income, are despised.

It would have been hardly necessary to mention this attitude except for the reason that it affords a ready explanation of the scant mention which trade and commerce receive in the ancient authors. The extreme meagreness of our information makes it impossible to give any comprehensive or detailed account of the subject. The inscriptions are here more valuable than the authors, and even they as a rule make mention of commercial matters rather by accident than of set purpose. The everyday experience of life is not as a rule that with which writers earlier than our own period have thought fit to deal. The obvious is avoided, and we are often left to inference more or less hazardous. There is one way, however, in which the permeating influence of trade makes itself everywhere felt, and that is in the language of metaphor. The Roman writers, for example, constantly employ metaphors from book-keeping.

The Jewish attitude to trade was altogether healthier than that of their Western neighbours. It was the custom to have every Hebrew child, whatever his station, taught a handicraft. The advantage of such a system from the mere health point of view, as a prevention of exaggerated mental development, is obvious. The prudential gain, under altered circumstances, is no less so. St. Paul, though a Pharisee, had been taught the trade of making tents out of rough Cilician material, and this enabled him to be independent of his churches. The valuable fruit of this independence was seen in his power to rebut charges that were levelled at fellow-apostles, who accepted a lawful material recompense for evangelistic work. The true Christian attitude has always given labour, however humble, an honourable place. It could hardly be otherwise, seeing that the Master Himself was a carpenter by trade, and that a large proportion of the early converts gained a livelihood from manual labour, whether as free men or as slaves.

2. In the NT.-The NT contains a considerable body of references to trade in one aspect or another, some of which may be mentioned here, while others are reserved for later mention. St. Paul (2Co 2:17) contrasts himself with the many who hawk (make merchandise of, ) the word of God. Christ has bought us () from the laws curse (Gal 3:13; Gal 4:5, 1Co 6:20; 1Co 7:23; 1Co 7:30); we are advised to buy up, make a market of () the opportunity (Eph 5:16, Col 4:5; cf. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen, London, 1895, p. 148 f.). One of St. Pauls favourite words is , reckon, calculate (literally) (cf. Rom 4:3-4 : of some forty instances in the NT, only seven belong to other authors; cf. the rarer word , , Rom 5:13, Phm 1:18). He constantly uses , , (e.g. 2Co 8:9, 1Co 1:5, Rom 2:4, Eph 1:7) of spiritual wealth; cf. (Rom 2:5). A metaphor from the testing of coin, etc., is , approved, and cognates (Rom 14:18, 2Co 10:18, etc.); a metaphor from the earnest, the large portion of the price paid as a first instalment of a debt, is (2Co 1:22; 2Co 5:5, Eph 1:14), and , (1Co 1:6, Php 1:7) are supposed by some to be connected with surety. Partnership in business is suggested by (2Co 1:7, etc.), (2Co 6:14; 2Co 8:4; 2Co 9:13, Php 1:5), , , (Eph 3:6; Eph 5:7; Eph 5:11, Php 4:14, Rom 11:17). Profit, gain, is suggested by (Php 3:7), by the constant use of and its derivatives, by , (2Co 8:15; 2Co 9:5, etc.), and perhaps by . Indeed, the language of St. Paul especially constantly suggests a mental background of trade and commerce, only natural in one brought up in great cities like Tarsus and Jerusalem. (On the subject of St. Pauls metaphors, see J. S. Howsons Metaphors of St. Paul, new ed., London, 1883, and W. M. Ramsays Luke the Physician and Other Studies in the History of Religion, London, 1908, ch. x.)

3. Trade and the Roman army.-Trade in the Roman Empire both preceded and followed the eagles of the Roman army. That it preceded is a natural inference from the invariable practice of traders, who seek for every market that they can get, even at great personal risk. The ancient authors naturally say little of this phase of activity. But the facilities for greater trade activity opened up by the legions enormously increased its volume. The armies helped trade not only by keeping the population of a conquered country in subjection, but also by the building of those splendid military roads which, constructed for military purposes, benefited trade no less, by the rapidity and the security of movement which they made possible. The requirements of the army itself also brought trade to remote parts of the Empire. The soldiers were in time of peace citizens accustomed to the use of certain commodities and comforts. Traders, in order to supply these, settled at the armed camps and outposts, and the rows of their shops helped to convert the camps into towns. They at the same time served as valuable agents of Romanization, and helped the provincials to become Romans, in externals at least, in a very short time. Fifty years after Gallia Narbonensis became a province, all the business done by the provincials was done through the Roman merchants. The vast numbers of these in the rich Roman province of Asia as early as the beginning of the 1st cent. b.c. are revealed by the statistics of the Italians murdered by Mithradates, variously given as 80,000 and 150,000. Later evidence with regard to Asia points the same way. So with regard to Africa in the same century, our authorities show the abundance of Roman merchants, bankers, and commercial companies. In London, about the time of the death of St. Paul, the merchant class was already large, though the province Britain was then new. The importance of such merchants is also seen from the fact that, being Roman citizens, they constituted the aristocracy of every provincial community in which they lived.

4. Inter-provincial trade.-Not only were Italian traders to be found in all parts of the Empire, but provincials from one part are found established in trade in another part. At a place like Aquileia, a Knotenpunkt and distributing centre of commerce between the North-East provinces, Italy, the East, and Africa, there was a cosmopolitan population. But the Orientals were the great traders. The great Phnician and Syrian cities had factories in Italian cities like Puteoli and Rome. Alexandrian commerce found ready markets in the great coast towns of the Black Sea. The officer who had charge of St. Paul found an Alexandrian trading vessel at Myra in Lycia (Act 27:6). The graves of Syrian merchants in particular are to be found all over the Roman Empire, and there is abundant evidence of their importance as bankers in the 5th and 6th cent. records of Gaul. There is, strangely, no evidence for commercial settlements of Jews.

5. Coins and bills.-As mediums of exchange coins and bills were in universal use, and the system of banking had reached a very considerable development. The coinage system of the Roman Empire was based on a settlement made between the senate and Augustus (15-11 b.c.). The right of coining gold and silver in Rome was reserved to the Emperor, but the senate was authorized to issue copper and brass coins, with the letters SC (= senatus consulto) stamped on them. The governors of senatorial provinces had the right to issue coins, which after a.d. 6 bore the portrait, not of the governor, but of a member or members of the Imperial family. The weigh t of the aureus, or gold coin, was reduced by Augustus from 1/40; of a pound (= 126 grammes), the weight of Julius Caesars, to 1/42; (= 120 grammes). The weight of the silver denarius remained as before, 60 grammes. In the senatorial coinage brass (aurichalcum, used to render in certain Latin versions of Rev 2:18, copper alloyed with 20 per cent of zinc) was used as well as copper. The supervision of the senatorial coinage was nominally under the charge of three commissioners of senatorial rank, tres uiri auro argento aere flando feriundo (for the melting and striking of gold, silver, copper). The Imperial mint was a branch of the Imperial household, supervised by the a rationibus, or Keeper of the Privy Purse. The coinage from the Roman mint was inadequate to meet the needs of the great Empire, and was supplemented by other issues, which were also legal tender. Settlements of Roman citizens outside Italy (coloniae) might, if the Imperial permission were granted, issue bronze coins, a privilege which apparently was withdrawn about a.d. 70. A number of cities and unions of cities () in the Eastern provinces were allowed to issue coins. Syrian Antioch and Caesarea in Cappadocia (now Kaisarieh) issued large numbers of silver coins, and the cistophorus of republican times (cf. Cic. Att. II. xvi. 4) in Asia was replaced by a coin of the value of three Roman denarii. An enormous quantity of bronze was also coined in the East. The needs of the East were further in great part provided for by an Imperial mint at Alexandria. Besides these, smaller Imperial mints existed throughout the provinces, and the senate had a mint at Syrian Antioch; Lugudunum (Lyons), for example, served as a mint for the Gallic provinces.

An aureus was equivalent in value to 25 denarii. Under Nero both were reduced in weight, the aureus to 1/45 of a pound, and the denarius to 1/96 of a pound; the quality of the denarius was also debased. The victoriatus (so called because it has Victory crowning a trophy as reverse) deserves mention. It was a silver coin, originally 1/96 of a pound in weight, in reality a Greek drachma, adopted by the Romans for purposes of trade with the Greeks of Southern Italy. Half victoriati and one double victoriatus have been found. Its weight was at least twice reduced. The senatorial coins in the baser metals, above mentioned, were the brass sestertius (four asses), brass dupondius (two asses), the copper as, and the copper semis. The original value of the denarius was, as the name indicates, ten asses. The denarius was the standard coin in the Empire, and in it all legal payments were made.

6. Bonds and bankers.-The bond (syngrapha) and the banker (trapezita, tarpessita [Plaut.]) were Greek institutions, as their Greek names show (, ; cf. Mat 25:27, Mar 11:15, and ). In early Roman times a mans word was his bond. Contracts (sponsiones, stipulations) were verbal, made in the presence of witnesses, and not written down. The whole system of credit had been elaborated by the Greeks of the Hellenistic period. The universality of the Greek language was accompanied by the Greek commercial system. The Romans readily adapted themselves to it. Syngrapha was used to indicate a bond, permutatio a bill of exchange, and perscriptio a cheque or bankers draft. The men who engaged in financial operations were called negotiatores, and are originally to be distinguished from the mercatores, merchant princes; but in Imperial times the distinction became obliterated. Two instances of the value of the negotiatores may be given. Cicero, in spite of his good government of the large province of Cilicia (the name included in his time Cilicia, Cilicia Tracheia, Pamphylia, Lycia, Pisidia, Isaurica, Lycaonia, Phrygia, and part of Galatia [Ramsay, Historical Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, London, 1899, map opposite to p. 103]), was able to acquire about 18,000, which he deposited at Ephesus on his return journey (Correspondence of M. T. Cicero, ed. R. Y. Tyrrell and L. C. Purser, 7 vols., Dublin, 1879-1901, vol. iii. p. xxxvi). If he had not been so anxious for a triumph he could doubtless have entered Rome and cashed a cheque there. As it was, Pompey annexed Ciceros savings for the civil war. It is highly probable, also, that the great collections of the Pauline churches in the four provinces (Galatia, Asia, Macedonia, Achaia, Acts 20, etc.) for the poor Christians at Jerusalem were conveyed there, not in coin, but in the form of bank drafts on Jerusalem. The risk of conveying large sums by land and sea was considerable.

7. Profits.-With regard to the profits made by Roman traders not much can be said. Friedlnder (Roman Life and Manners tinder the Early Empire, i. 305) estimates that modern profits of European trade range between 10 per cent in Europe and 66 per cent in Japan, and is of opinion that Roman profits must have been still greater. The state of universal peace and the security of travel in the 1st cent. must certainly have conduced to the quicker circulation of money and the expansion of trade.

8. Travel.-In modern times correspondence and advertisement play a much larger part than they did in ancient times. If even we, however, have been unable to dispense with the personal interview (and indeed German foreign trade has been built up mainly by the persuasiveness and resource of German commercial travellers), in the 1st cent. it played an important part. The merchant prince himself made long journeys by sea and land from end to end of the Empire to sell his wares. Horace makes several allusions to the hardship of constant travel undergone by them in the pursuit of wealth (Carm. I. i. 15-16, xxxi. 10-11, III. xxiv. 39-40, Serm. I. i. 4-6, 16-17, Ep. I. i. 45, xvi. 71, Ars Poet. 117). The mercator seems to have impressed him as one of the greatest of fools. Other authorities are in accord with him as to the daring and tireless activity of the class.

One or two specimen voyages may be referred to in illustration. The best known case is that of a merchant Flavius Zeuxis of Hierapolis in Phrygia, an inland city, be it observed, who voyaged from Asia to Rome seventy-two times (CIG [Note: IG Corpus Inscrip. Graecarum.] , 3920), taking the dangerous route by the south of the Peloponnese on each occasion, instead of the easier method of trans-shipment over the Isthmus of Corinth. A certain Gaius Octavius Agathopus at Puteoli mentions that place as his final home after many wearisome journeys East and West (CIL [Note: IL Corpus Inscrip. Latinarum.] x. 2792). The Black Sea ports, Britain, and Ireland were known to such traders. The love of Christ led St. Paul to take the same risks as the merchants took for less worthy motives. Besides the classic account of the great voyage in Acts 27, we learn from 2Co 11:25-26, which of course antedates, and does not post-date, as Pelagius imagined, the narrative in Acts, that St. Paul had suffered shipwreck three times, and had spent a night and a day in the deep, also that he had been in perils in (on) the sea.

9. Merchant ships.-There were, of course, various kinds of merchant vessels. There were the heavy merchantmen, or onerariae naves, the ponto and the corbita, of which the first appears to have been Gallic in origin (cf. Caes. de Bell. Ciu. III. xxix. 3, xl. 5). A mosaic ound in the province of Africa shows us a ponto with a mainmast and a square sail, and with a foremast which appears to be dipped; it is also provided with long planks (wales) outside the bulwarks on either side, to protect the steering paddles. The stern is sharply pointed. The corbita, or basket-shaped vessel (from corbis, basket), was, as its name indicates, a much dumpier structure and a very heavy craft. These two kinds of vessel would of course be more useful for river traffic. Lighter craft, more suitable for the open sea, were the actuaria (from ago) and myoparo. They are represented in the mosaic referred to as having a single mast and oars in addition to sail. They were designed for rapid rowing, and had a bank of oars, numbering from ten to thirty. Their character made them useful as dispatch-boats, and we hear of them as also used by pirates. They, however, used the myoparo (, from , rowing-boat, and , light ship) more frequently. Other craft which may be mentioned are the fishing-boat, very much like our own salmon-coble, called horeia, horicula, and carrying nets; the stlatta, greater in breadth than in length, used for river traffic; and the celox, a light rowing-boat.

10. Roman docks, etc.-Rome was itself a harbour-town, the quays for landing merchandise being at the foot of the Aventine Mount on the Tiber, and called the Emporium (). This quarter became more and more covered with large warehouses (horrea). Much, perhaps most, of the traffic which came to Rome by water did not come in ships direct. The great sea-harbour of Rome was at the mouth of the Tiber, at Ostia (lit. [Note: literally, literature.] mouths). Ostia is now a mile or two from the sea, owing to the silt thrown up throughout centuries by the yellow river (flauus Tiberis), but the thorough excavation which the site is now undergoing at the hands of the Italian Government has revealed its importance. Horrea were long buildings bounded by a street on each of the longer sides, and divided by a wall longitudinally into two rows of store-rooms, placed back to back. Sometimes they formed the boundaries of a platea (square). At Ostia they were used to receive the heavy goods, pending their transportation up the Tiber on barges to Rome. From the warehouses in Rome, which were partly public and partly private, and not all situated in the Emporium quarter, the goods found their way to the tabernae (shops), and thus to the private purchasers. There must have been large warehouses at Alexandria and Puteoli in connexion with the great corn traffic between Egypt and Italy, as well as at other ports (cf., in fact, the name Emporiae, of a Greek city in N.E. Spain). We find instances of factories in the West belonging to Easterns. For example, various Syrian and Phnician cities had factories at Puteoli, Rome, Naples, Portus, Ravenna. The Alexandrians had them at Perinthus (modern Eregli) in Thrace, and at Tomis (near modern Constantza) on the Black Sea.

11. Fairs.-The great fairs held in various parts of the Empire played their part in the dissemination of trade. The Mysteries of Eleusis near Athens and of Samothrace, the Feasts of Dionysus at Argos and of Pythian Apollo at Delphi, the Isthmian Games at Corinth, and the Olympian Games in Elis (Peloponnese), all attracted countless visitors and stimulated trade, being the ancient counterparts of the Stourbridge, Leipzig, and Nijni Novgorod fairs of more modern times. Thus the pursuit of athletics and of religion benelited trade.

12. Customs dues.-The harbour or customs dues in our period are not known. They were probably not high. The Empire was divided into large customs districts, and an ad ualorem duty was charged on goods passing from one of these to another. A uicesima (1/20, i.e. 5 per cent) duty is known for Sicily and Africa, and was probably general; a quadragesima (1/40, i.e. 2 1/2 per cent) duty was also in use, for example, in the province of Asia, in the Bithynia-Pontus and Paphlagonia group, and in the Three Gauls (Gallia Lugudunensis, Gallia Belgica, Gallia Aquitanica).

13. Trade with distant countries

(a) Egypt and India.-Some account may now be given in detail of the distant countries with which trade was carried on by the Mediterranean peoples. Egypt holds a very important place. Not only did that country supply a third or the corn consumed in Italy; it was also the home of the papyrus plant, so extensively used as writing material. From there also were exported various building stones (cf. Stat. Siluae II. ii. 86, Assouan), linen, glass, embroidered stuffs, etc. It was, further, the way to East India, the source of pepper, pearls, etc. From Alexandria the journey to Coptos up the Nile took twelve days, with a favourable wind. At Coptos the goods were laden on camels and Berenice-Troglodytice to the S.E. was reached in eleven or twelve days. Berenice with its warehouses was a centre for Arabia, India, and Ethiopia, and the trade-routes were guarded by Roman garrisons, which had also dug wells. Doubtless this was the route taken by the eunuch of the Candace mentioned in Acts 8. Thirty days were required to go from Berenice to Ocelis in Arabia at the south end of the Red Sea, or to Cane on the south coast of Arabia. From Cane it was forty days to Muziris on the coast of Malabar, whence goods went to Barace (Barygaza), their ultimate destination. The unloading and loading took little time, and in December they started the return journey. The whole journey from Alexandria to Barace and back took six months. From South Arabia, especially through Adane (Aden), came incense (cf. grana turis unius assis, Arabicae arboris lacrimas, Tert. Apol. 30) and other perfumes, spices, and precious stones. From the Great Lakes, East Africa, and Somaliland ivory was brought via Abyssinia to the Nile.

(b) Syria.-Syria was itself an important centre of production. The purple dyes of Tyre and Sidon are constantly referred to in ancient literature (cf. Stat. Siluae III. ii. 139, qua pretiosa Tyros rubeat, qua purpura suco Sidoniis iterata cadis, and especially Mayor on Juvenal, Sat. i. 27). Artistic work in glass was also associated with Sidon, and throughout Syria fine linen (Luk 16:19, Rev 18:12; Rev 18:16; Rev 19:8; Rev 19:14) was woven from the flax of the country. But Syrias chief significance was as a halfway house for the merchandise of the Further East. In addition to the Indian route mentioned in the last paragraph, goods from India could be brought by the port of Charax at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, by the Euphrates, and then by the caravan route passing through Palmyra to Damascus. The importance of Palmyra (cf. W. Wright, An Account of Palmyra and Zenobia, London, 1895) was very great. The tariff levied by that city brought it the greatest material prosperity (cf. Gibbons Decline and Fall, vol. i. ch. xi., ed. J. B. Bury, London, 1905, p. 306). Another trade-route which passed through Syria was that by the head of the Arabian Gulf to Petra through Bostra to Damascus or, for southern Syria, to the port of Gaza.

(c) China.-Silk from China also reached Italy in part through Syria. Yellow silk from Cos (Coae uestes) and from Assyria (bombycinae uestes) made from the cocoon of the wild silk-worm (bombyx) was the first kind known to the Romans, and references to these products abound from the beginning of the Augustan Age to the seventh decade of the 1st cent. a.d. But this sort was ousted from the market by the superior pure white silk of China (sericae [from Seres, the Chinese] or holosericae [all-silk] uestes [to the examples of the latter word in Lewis and Shorts dictionary add pseudo-Augustine, Sermons, cclii. 1, cclxii. 1]). Raw silk and silk thread were also exported. Four trade-routes brought the silk products of China to Rome: (a) the overland route from Northern China through Chinese Turkestan to Bactria, by the Caspian gates to Media and the Euphrates; (b) a branch of this, crossing the Pamirs from Kashgar and descending the valley of the Indus to Karachi, thence by sea to the Persian Gulf; (c) from Central China through Tibet and Nepal to Palibothra on the Ganges, down the Ganges, and then by sea to Egypt; (d) from Cattigara (Tonkin) (Jones, A Companion to Roman History, p. 320).

(d) The Baltic coast.-The amber trade opened up the north of Europe and the Baltic coast. From the latter district it was brought to Italy by a route which eventually passed through Carnuntum, an important military station (now Petronell, near Vienna) on the upper Danube. The discovery of various hoards of Roman coins and articles in Northern Europe suggests that there was a trade in other commodities as well. Certainly timber, iron ore, and gold were obtained in the northern provinces.

(e) Gaul and Britain.-The Romans had entered Gaul, even before Caesars conquest of it, from the old province of Gallia Narbonensis up the Rhone valley from Marseilles (later from Aries), and from Italy by the Great St. Bernard Pass. A cask of Italian or Narbonese wine bought a Gaulish slave, and it seems to have been chiefly wine that the Roman traders brought. Gallic clothing and pottery were also bought by the Romans. At the other northern corner of the Empire, at Dioscurias or Sebastopolis in the Caucasus, there was a great trading centre, at which the products of Southern Russia were exchanged. The lead-mines of the Mendip hills and North Wales were worked by the Romans. Iron was extracted in the Weald and the Forest of Dean, and gold in West Wales. A trade-route existed from Britain to the mouth of the Loire. But the most important country for the supply of minerals was Spain, from which copper, lead, silver, gold, and tin were obtained. From this short account, pieced together from scanty data, it is difficult to realize the tremendous commercial activity of Rome in every direction open to her.

14. Centres of distribution.-Not much is known of the distribution of the goods. Juvenals words, iam pridem Syrus in Tiberim defluxit Orontes (Sat. iii. 62), are typical of the whole Empire. At Rome was the greatest distributing mart of the world. There everything that could be bought for money was obtainable. Other great distributing centres were Corinth (the most natural explanation of they of Chloe [1Co 1:11] is that they were business agents of a house trading between Corinth and Ephesus), Alexandria, Syrian Antioch, Arelate (now Aries). Alexandria was a distributing centre for paper, spices, etc. Tin was in stock almost everywhere, though found only in the West in a natural state. Amber was to be found everywhere. Iron goods-for example, Roman-made weapons-were universally known. The Italian pattern of stewpan or casserole has been found in various parts of Northern Europe. Greek pottery from the islands of the aegean was sold widely, but Western was no less important (the classic work is that by J. Dchelette, Les Vases cramiques orns de la Gaule romaine-Narbonnaise, Aquitaine et Lyonnaise, 2 vols., Paris, 1904; see also the literature referred to in P. Gwynne, The Guadalquiver: its Personality, its People, and its Associations, London, 1912). Each maker had his own hall-mark; the wares of Saguntum, Arretium, Mutina, Lyons, and other centres can thus be traced over the Western Empire. So also Alexandrian glass articles, Syrian fine linen fabrics, Italian wines, sausages, and hams, African carpets, Gaulish, Numidian, Rhaetian, and British clothing, Tarentine wool, Cartagena fish-sauce, etc., were on sale in the most unlikely places.

15. Articles of commerce

(a) Slaves.-But it is now time to pass to a more detailed account of the articles of commerce themselves. The most important of them were the slaves. Of these some of course were born in the house (uerna, ancilla, , ) of mothers who were already house-slaves, and had for fathers either the master or another slave. By law every such child was a new slave for the master. But the household of slaves was also, and perhaps mainly, added to by purchase. All slaves were valued as representing so much capital, as well as for the service they rendered. Hardly a household existed without one, and no person of the slightest consequence would go out into the street unattended by one or more slaves. There were also grades of slaves, the more important having at their beck and call under-slaves, uicarii. They also varied in standing and cost according to the purpose for which they were bought. For instance, the beautiful boy-slave (puer delicatus; Stat. Siluae II. i. vi., laments for the death of such), as a luxury of the rich, sometimes, if not always, used for immoral purposes (cf. , 1Co 6:9), was exceedingly costly. But the rough farm labourer class of slave could be obtained cheap. Town service was much more highly appreciated by the slave class than country service, and a refractory town slave could think of no greater punishment than to be sent to his masters country estate (Horace, Sat. II. vii. 118). The slave born in the house grew up with the masters lawful children, and thus a close relationship was established between them, a sign of which is the fact that the house-slave referred to his master by his Christian name, praenomen. The earliest purchased slaves were obtained directly through war, for the word mancipium comes from manu capere, but later through the medium of the slave market, a regular institution of all the ancient States; slaves reached this slave market generally as booty taken in war. Every successful war in which Rome took part brought in a number of captives as an essential part of the booty. After a victory or the capture of a town, thousands of captives were sold by the quaestor, either on the spot or at the nearest market. Another source of slaves was the robbery of defenceless persons committed by pirates and highwaymen, but this source had greatly dried up by the 1st cent. a.d. Different nationalities were associated with different aptitudes and held in various esteem. Phrygians, like Onesimus (in Philemon), were little esteemed, and were commonly employed to wait at table. Many interesting facts with regard to slaves must be omitted here, as we are concerned with them merely as articles of merchandise.

(b) Wild beasts.-The purchase of beasts for gladiatorial shows has some interest owing to the (metaphorical) expression of St. Paul (, 1Co 15:32) and the experience of Ignatius, who was condemned to face the beasts in the arena at Rome (Ignatius, Ep. ad Rom.; Irenaeus, adv. Haer. v. xxviii. 4). Beasts wild and tame were exhibited, or hunted by trained men. The wild beasts fought with one another or with men. The animals appearing in such exhibitions were elephants, lions, panthers, leopards, and bears from foreign parts, especially from Africa, besides stags, boars, and bears from Europe. Later in becoming known to the Romans were the hippopotamus, crocodile, rhinoceros, anthropoid ape, Gallic lynx, giraffe, tiger, zebra, elk, and bison. Governors levied these contributions on the subjects of Rome, as is shown by the reiterated appeals of Caelius in Rome (Cic. ad Fam. viii.) to Cicero in Cilicia, to send him panthers for a show which he wished to give. The variety of the beasts shown is surpassed by the vast and incredible numbers in which they are said to have appeared. Augustus records that 3,500 African beasts were killed at his shows; at the dedication of the Colosseum in a.d. 80, 9,000 tame and wild beasts were killed, while in a.d. 107, after Trajans second Dacian triumph, the number totalled 11,000. Details of all the means of acquiring these animals would be of the greatest interest, but they have not come down to us.

16. Food supply

(a) Bread.-Something must be said of the Roman food supply. The corn was separated from the chaff either by animals, commonly horses, or by threshing machines worked by animals (cf. 1Co 9:9-10, 1Ti 5:18), or by flails. On the threshing floor carefully prepared for the purpose, the corn was shaken out from the husk. The chaff of far (spelt) adhered so closely to the grain that it could be separated only by pounding. If the wind was not strong enough to blow away the chaff, a wicker basket (, uannus, Mat 3:12) was used for winnowing. The staple food of the early Roman was porridge (puls) made of pounded far. The pounding process gave rise to the name pistor, which thus came to have the meaning baker. Triticum (tritticum), winter wheat, was grown in dry soils; of this, a variety siligo was the source of the finest flour. Barley (hordeum) was little used as human food except by slaves and gladiators. Millet (panicum or milium) was grown chiefly in Campania, and oats (auena) were sown only for green fodder (for which the general word was farrago). Other crops grown for fodder were lucerne, vetches, and tares. Peas and beans of various types were largely cultivated, especially lupines. The production of bread was long, as in Britain and elsewhere, a purely household matter. For boulangerie one depended on the work of the slaves at home; for ptisserie one had to resort to the shops, probably most of them Greek. The handmill or quorn (mola), worked by women, was a feature of every house; the larger houses had mills worked by asses or mules. Water-mills were also known. The loaves were for the most part much smaller than those to which we are accustomed in Britain, being more like large rolls. Leaven (. Latin fermentum) was usually employed in baking, unleavened bread being regarded as less health-giving. The resulting paste (, massa, 1Co 5:6, etc.) was formed on the baking-board, either by hand or in a mould.

(b) Olive-oil.-The use of butter seems to have been very rare, except for medicinal purposes. Its place as a food was taken by olive-oil. It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of the olive in the ancient world. The extent to which it was grown in Mediterranean lands is vividly shown by a map published in Deissmanns St. Paul: a Study in Social and Religious History, London, 1912. In Italy the olive area commonly begins where the uppermost part of the vineyard stops, on the mountain slopes. St. Paul refers in a well-known simile to the difference between the wild olive (, oleaster) and the cultivated olive (, olea) and to the grafting (Rom 11:17-24) of the former on the latter, a process probably less frequent than the reverse. The cultivated olive was introduced by Greek colonists to Italy. The Sabine country provided the largest yield, and the best oil came from Venafrum (modern Venafro) in Samnium. Young trees were not removed from the seed-plots till they were five years old. They attain considerable age, and do not bear to their full capacity for a number of years. Olive-growing was therefore a trade for the capitalist, who could wait for his returns. Before the fruit was fully ripe it was picked, and the first process in the obtaining of the oil was to separate the pulp from the kernel. This was done by putting the olives into the oil-mill (trapetum), by which they were crushed. The pulp when separated was put into the oil-press (, torcular), and crushed there to obtain the oil. It was caught in a cistern (lacus) and afterwards strained of its impurities. Then it was ready for the large earthenware jars (dolia) in the oil-cellar.

(c) Wine.-The culture of the vine was of the highest importance, wine being then, as now, the staple drink of the Mediterranean peoples. Corn-growing in Italy had been largely abandoned in favour of the cultivation of the olive and the vine. Wine was rare and costly in early times in Italy; even in the 3rd cent. b.c. it was poor in quality, and till near the end of the Republic Greek wines, especially those of the aegean islands, Chios, Cos, Lesbos, Rhodes, and Samos, held almost undisputed place among the citizens of the Italian cities. Even in Italy, however, the vineyard was the source of greatest profit to the agriculturist. We first hear of Falernian wine under Julius Caesar, but only as two-fifths of the total supply provided at a Gargantuan banquet to the Roman people. Under the Empire, the vine-growers of Latium and Campania had so perfected their vintages that they were sought for even in India. In Plinys time (died a.d. 79) two-thirds of eighty well-known brands were Italian; of these the best were the Alban and Caecuban from Latium, and the Massic and the Surrentine (the latter recommended by physicians, e.g. Caelius Aurelianus, de Celeribus vel Acutis Passionibus, ii. 37). Columella, the agricultural writer of the 1st cent. a.d., shows that a profit of rather over 6 per cent was obtained from a vineyard of about 4 acres, but there is evidence in a favourable locality of as much as ten times that percentage.

(d) Vegetables and fruit.-Root-crops were not very commonly raised except in Cisalpine Gaul, where the turnip was used, as to-day, for the winter food of cattle. Flax (, linum) yielded large profits; hemp (cannabis) required a rich soil. Of fruit trees the lemon and the orange, now so characteristic of Italy, were unknown. Peaches and apricots were introduced in the course of the 1st cent., the pistachio nut in its first third, and about the time of the destruction of Pompeii the first melons aroused the interest of students and growers. Every town was surrounded by orchards and kitchen-gardens. The flower-gardens produced little but several varieties of lilies, roses, and violets, grown both for natural use and for the manufacture of perfumes. Each town was supplied with vegetables from its own environs, but these were sometimes also exported further a field; for example, Pompeii exported cabbages, figs, and onions, and Rome obtained peaches from Verona, asparagus from Ravenna, and roses from Paestum. It was in the forum holitorium that fruit and vegetables were purchased at Rome. Varieties of fruit not already mentioned, which could be obtained there, were apples (Italian, African, Syrian), pears (Italian, Greek, and African), plums, quinces, medlars, chestnuts, grapes, walnuts, hazel-nuts, filberts, almonds, pomegranates, cherries. Of dried fruits, damsons, Carian figs, dates, and raisins (from Spain) were on sale. Of vegetables, in addition to those mentioned above, the following were to be found in the Roman market: squills, garlic (still so characteristic of Southern Europe), leeks, celery, artichokes (e.g. from Carthage and Cordoba), endives, elecampane, radishes, cucumbers, gourds, lettuce, cress, mallow, sorrel (cf. the soupe loseille of modern France), roe, mustard, anise, fennel, coriander, cummin, dill, etc.

(e) Fish.-Fish was the real delicacy of the ancient table. This is seen in the history of the word (opsonium), which originally indicated any sort of relish taken with bread, and latterly meant fish exclusively (cf. Joh 6:9; Joh 6:11; Joh 21:9-10; Joh 21:13). At first little fishing seems to have been engaged in, but in the 1st cent. b.c. there were many aristocratic fish-breeders, who in their private ponds fed various sorts of rare fish for the enjoyment of the table. Among the fish eaten by the Romans were the sturgeon, bass, mullet, seamullet, the ruminating parrot fish, pearl fish, turbot, eel, conger-eel, murry (a sea-eel), sheath fish, trout, salmon-trout, pike, prickly flounder. The common people esteemed the mackerel, the anchovy, the tunny, and the sand-smelt. Certain of the latter were used in making sauces. The pearl fish was common in the Mediterranean; the sheath fish was obtained in the Nile, Danube, Moselle, and Dnieper; the best murries were obtained from Tartessus, Messana, and the Carpathian Sea; the best turbots were caught off Ravenna; most eels were caught at Verona. The common fish abounded in the Italian seas.

(f) Meat.-In the meat-market (macellum, , 1Co 10:25; cf. Ital. macelleria) were to be found beef, goats flesh, lamb, mutton, and pork. Pork was especially in demand, particularly for roasting on festal days. The parts of the animal most appreciated were the womb, udder, liver, ham, and toes, and there was also a great sale for salt beef and various kinds of sausages. A considerable portion of the meat sold in the meat-market had been sacrificed to gods by their priests. The inferior parts of the animal might then be burnt, but what the priests did not require for personal consumption was sold in the meat-market (cf. Act 15:29; Act 21:25, 1 Corinthians 8 [whole chapter] 1Co 10:19, Rev 2:14; Rev 2:20). Salt- and smoked-meat were imported into Rome from Gallia Cisalpina, the Pyrenees, the Cantabri, and the Sequani. In addition to domestic animals, game, whether obtained from hunters or from zoological gardens, was also sold, wild boar, sometimes served whole (as at Queens College, Oxford, to-day), hare, venison, dormouse. Nor was poultry overlooked. Birds of various sorts were obtained in all parts of the Roman world, and preserved in aviaries for the table: pigeons of costly and rare types, fattened birds, particularly the diseased goose liver become abnormally large (cf. the modern pt de foie gras), also the ptarmigan, woodcock, francolin or black partridge, fieldfare (fattened on pounded figs), partridge, quail, peacock, Guinea-fowl, pheasant, black grouse, capercailzie, crane, stork, and flamingo.

It is enough to mention milk and various kinds of cheese, of which the Alpine was the most famous (smoked cheese being also in demand), and honey.

17. Markets and retail dealers.-The various kinds of food were to be obtained in the large fora, or markets, but probably most of the business done in them was wholesale, at least in the great cities. From the fora retail dealers in all kinds of food obtained their supplies. Marquardt (Privatleben der Rmer, p. 448 ff.) divides these retail dealers into ten classes: (a) corn-dealers, bakers, and millers; (b) greengrocers; (c) fruiterers; (d) butchers, game-dealers, and poulterers; (e) fishmongers; (f) wine-merchants; (g) oil-dealers; (h) honey-dealers; (i) salt-merchants; (j) cooks and innkeepers.

18. Textile fabrics

(a) Production of wool.-We pass now to textile fabrics. By far the most important were those made from the wool of sheep, the earliest use of which is prehistoric, like the arts of spinning and weaving. Great care was shown in the breeding of sheep, and the varieties of wool, which was in some cases prepared on the spot, and in others exported as rough material, were very numerous. Different breeds of sheep were valued according to the fineness or thickness of their wool, or according to their colour. Cross-breeding was freely employed to improve the quality of any particular wool. The best Italian wool was that from Tarentum, and the epithet Tarentine thus became a trade description for fine wool. On being obtained, commonly by shearing, sometimes by plucking, the wool was prepared for the spinner. Almost all the processes connected with wool were carried out by the women of the household from the beginning down to the Middle Ages. It was the Roman matrons proudest boast that she lanam fecit. In fact, a very large amount of the clothing used by the Romans and the ancients generally was made in the house. Costly carpets, hangings, coverlets, etc., were naturally manufactured by experts in factories. With the progress of time factories got more and more of the manufacture of clothing also to do. The wool was washed in hot water with soap, then spread out to dry, then picked and carded. All these processes were a necessary preparation for spinning and weaving.

(b) Fulling.-Fulling (cf. Mar 9:3) was a very important trade in ancient times, both in the preparation of a new fabric and in the cleaning of soiled clothes. Only the simplest washing was done at home, except in very large houses. A number of gilds of fullers, as of other trades, are mentioned. It appears that water, for which they paid specially, was a necessary part of their equipment, and that they did not employ dry-cleaning, at least exclusively. Soap, fullers earth, and sulphur were also used. Cutting and pressing concluded their work.

(c) Preparation of stuffs.-The same processes essentially were employed with flax (linen, Rev 15:6; cf. Act 10:11, Luk 24:12, Joh 19:40, etc.), cotton, hemp, and other vegetable stuffs, as also with silk, etc. Flax was treated much as it is to-day. Rough linen was used for bath-towels, ordinary towels, etc., while it is generally believed that fine linen is indicated by the word . Cotton, or tree-wool, as the Greeks, like the Germans, call it, came from a plant which was in ancient times indigenous only in East India and Upper Egypt, and it seems to have been prepared specially on the spot. Of its preparation we in consequence know almost nothing. Greeks and Romans did not use hemp for weaving, but the Thracians are recorded by Herodotus to have done so. The fibres of the wild mallow were woven into garments probably only on the banks of the Indus, but these garments were known to the Romans for a long period. Silk as a material for clothing has been referred to above (13 (c)). Of skins used by the ancients, goatskin was the most important. Especially in Spain, Africa (near the Syrtes), Phrygia, and Cilicia it was the custom to shear the long-haired goats and to weave rough material out of the hair. From the chief place of manufacture (Cilicia) fabrics of such material were known among the Romans as cilicia (St. Pauls tents may have been made of this stuff, Act 18:3), while the Greeks gave them the name of . Out of it were made cloaks, towels, bed-covers, hangings, shoes, and sacks.

19. Sewing.-Sewing did not in ancient times play the part with which we are now familiar. It was mostly in the addition of extra parts to a garment already woven practically complete that sewing was employed. The modern practice of weaving a whole bale of cloth, out of which a number of different garments are to be cut, was not known to the ancients. Among the Romans the use of the needle would appear to have been commonest with leather; otherwise it is difficult to understand how sutor (sewer) came to mean shoemaker. Needles of various sizes and thimbles were in use. An important part of ancient industry was the manufacture of cushions and bolsters, which were more extensively used than among ourselves, not only for sofas and beds, but also for seats of all kinds. The covers were of linen, wool, or leather, and the stuffing, which was in early times, and later also among humble people, straw, consisted at a later period also of rushes, seaweed, tufts of reeds, and soft leaves of plants, the commonest being flocks of wool, cotton, and feathers. Horsehair was never used. Embroidery of various kinds was practised, especially in Phrygia. For the making of felt, sheep-wool in particular was used.

20. Dyeing.-Dyeing was well understood from an early period, especially in purple, and this process seems from the first to have been carried out, not at home, but in the factory. The characteristic word for to dye is (cf. tinguere) from the dipping of the garment in the dye (cf. Rev 19:13), and for the dye (medicamen, medicamentum). As a rule, the stuff was dyed not as a fabric, but previously to weaving. The Egyptians, however, followed a practice akin to modern cotton-printing. The chief demand, of course, in all dyeing was that the dye should be lasting and proof against washing. Alum and other substances were used in dyeing, and animal and vegetable, but not mineral, dyes. They distinguished between herbal and snail dyeing. From the former were obtained madder, saffron, weed, woad, litmus, gall-nuts, etc.; from the latter, purple and scarlet. The most important, the subject of constant mention, is dyeing with purple. Purple (or rather violet-) dyeing, properly so called,-that is, dyeing with the juice of certain kinds of snails,-was a discovery of the Phoenicians, especially those of Tyre, whose products remained by far the best (and the dearest). Phnician purple was always understood to have been produced in this way, while imitations from other countries were sometimes made from plants. Thus it is that the Latin and Greek words for shell-fish, with their derivatives, are very often used for purple-dyes. Three different types of shell-fish (murex, , purpura) were employed, one obtained at Tarentum and other places in the Adriatic for Tarentine purple, another obtained off the African coast for Gaetulian or African purple, and the third off the Phnician coast for Phnician purple. , though properly the name of only one shell-fish, came to be used quite generally for purple, and from it the derivatives came: e.g. (purpuraria), Act 16:14, applied to Lydia of Thyatira, means a dealer in purple dyed wool and fabrics of all sorts. The name of another shell-fish, murex, was similarly used to describe purple in general. The means by which the dye was obtained need not be here described in detail. Several varieties of purple were produced by the mixture of the juices of various shell-fish. Tyrian (and Laconian) purple was always double-dyed (). The wool was first dipped in one dye (pelagium), while the latter was still half-boiled, and then dipped in another (bucinum). The colour thus gained was like that of coagulated blood, blackish and shining, especially in sunlight. In addition to the genuine purple, brighter dyes were produced by the weakening of it through the use of various other substances.

Something must be said of dyeing with other materials. Crimson dye was obtained from the insect kermes (coccum), the female coccus of the kermes oak, in form like a berry, native of the northern shores of the Mediterranean. This dye is alluded to in the adjective (Mat 27:28, Heb 9:19, Rev 17:3-4; Rev 18:12-16). Yellow dye-stuff was obtained from the styles and stigmata of the saffron (, crocus), which grows in S. Europe, from Italy eastwards, and Western Asia. The finest was obtained from Corycus in Cilicia, and Sicily was also noted for it. As a perfume at public shows and funerals it was well known. The mention of other ancient dyes may be here omitted.

21. Clothes and cloth-merchants.-The commonest colour in Greece for the and was white, but artisans wore darker clothes: gay clothes were worn only at festivals. So also with the Roman toga and tunica; the brighter colours came in later, especially for the lacerna and similar garments. The bright colours always found acceptance with Roman women, both of good and of bad character, both married and unmarried. At the same time, good taste forbade the use of glaring colours. Such colours as were employed had nearly always some natural model-stone, flower, plant, animal, or sky. The ancients certainly knew a wide variety of colours.

Some account of the number and cut of the garments worn by men may now be given. In historical times the dress of the Roman man consisted of an under garment (tunica, , Act 9:39, Jud 1:23, as well as Gospel references) and an upper garment or wrap (toga, from tego, I cover, , Act 9:39; Act 7:58; Act 12:8; Act 14:14; Act 16:22; Act 18:6; Act 22:20; Act 22:23, Rev 3:5; Rev 3:18; Rev 4:4; Rev 19:13, etc., from which the general word , clothing [Act 20:33, 1Ti 2:9, and often in papyri] comes). The toga was worn only outside the house. The tunic was a shirt consisting of two parts, a breast piece and a back piece, which were sewn together. It had sometimes no sleeves, and at other times they reached only to the elbow. Commonly it was girded over the hips, so that it reached only to the knees: soldiers and travellers wore shorter tunics (cf. Act 12:8). The tunic could be worn loose in the house. Already in Plautus time it was the custom to wear a tunica interior (subucula) under the tunica proper, and like it of wool. The toga was a white woollen garment of elliptical form, while the corresponding Greek garment () was rectangular. The length was three times the height of the man up to the shoulder, but the breadth varied. The method of wear does not here concern us. The working classes, who wore only the tunica, not the toga, used the paenula (2Ti 4:13) as a protection against rain, wind, snow, and cold. It was the dress, for example, of muleteers, and of slaves who had to work in the open, as well as of soldiers, travellers, and others who had to face the elements in bad weather. It was made of shaggy frieze or leather, dark-coloured and thick, without sleeves, sticking close to the body. The characteristic great-coat of the soldier, sagum, had sleeves. The lacerna, a light cloak with a hood, was sometimes worn over the toga, and was variously coloured. Of the synthesis, or dinner dress, also of various colours, little is known, except that it was coloured and that several could be worn at a time showing off the variety of colours at the neck. The two varieties of head-dress, the felt cap (pileus), worn in Greece by fishermen, sailors, and artisans, and the flat hat (petasus), were also usual in Italy. As a rule, however, one appeared in public without a hat. Thessalian hats were worn in the theatre as a protection from the suns heat, as also Macedonian causiae with broad turned-up brims.

Womens dress showed considerable variety, both because matrons, girls, slaves, and prostitutes wore distinctive garments, and because foreign women and freedwomen introduced foreign, and especially Greek, fashions with absolute freedom according to their own taste. All women wore the fascia, a sort of corset, then a tunica interior (subucula, interula), and above it the indusium, or tunica indusiata. It was in the character of the outer dress worn above these that the difference of status was shown. The stola, the distinctive dress of the matron or lawful wife, was a tunic, reaching to the feet, with sleeves to the elbows. At its lower end it had a train or flounce, and the whole garment was girt at the waist. About it the palla could be worn, and indeed in a special way to mark the class, for it was worn differently by maidens and foreign women, who did not wear the stola. Married women commonly covered the head out of doors (1 Corinthians 11).

The traders associated with clothing were (1) the providers of raw material, such as wool, goats hair, flax, the purple fishers, and the mussel fishers; (2) the dealers in raw material and the importers of foreign wares: dealers in wool, goats hair, linen, silk, etc.; (3) manufacturers, felt-makers, wool-carders, dyers (including dyers in blue, wax, saffron, brown, purple), weavers (including weavers of wool, linen, damask), fullers, embroiderers, gold-beaters, lace-makers, corset-makers, shirt-makers, tailors and tailoresses, and centonarii (i.e. makers of garments out of centones, or old patches); (4) traders in stuffs and finished garments (uestiarii), who sometimes did business in shops, sometimes by means of touts (circitores); their chief business was in hangings, bed-covers, etc. (uestes stragulae, from sterno).

22. Skin and leather wares.-Nothing has hitherto been said of skin or leather wares. Covering with the hides of beasts was the earliest kind of dress. In the Empire skins were used for personal wear as well as for carpets and covers. Hides were imported from the Black Sea, Cyrene, Sicily, Asia Minor, Germany, and Britain, and tanning was known in Rome from the earliest times. The method appears to have differed but little from that now in use. Before the hair was removed, the skin was prepared by the leaves of the mulberry tree soaked in wine, or by the red-fruited white bryony. Of tanning proper the four modern methods appear to have been all current: (a) by the use of pine and alder bark, pomegranate skins, and sumach leaves, gall-nuts, acorns, the roots and berries of the wild vine, the fruit of the Egyptian acacia, etc.; (b) by the use of alum and salt, which produces fine leather (aluta); (c) by the use of oil or chamois dressing; and (d) by the plain method of cleaning, removing the hair, and scraping. In the colouring of leather also the ancients showed great skill. For this process they used, for instance, the bark of the lotus tree, madder, scarlet, and especially sulphate of copper (blue vitriol). Among hides used were those of sheep, goats, lambs, hyaenas, roes, stags, wild sheep, wolves, martens, beavers, bears, jackals, seals, leopards, lions. Furs were not introduced into Rome till late times.

The finished leather was used by shoemakers, saddlers, and the makers of jerkins, belts, gloves, tents, wineskins, etc. It was cut with various types of knife, pierced with the awl, and shaped on lasts; the soles were made often of wood or cork, being sometimes studded with nails, and were sewn according to requirement. The use of oil to make the leather flexible and of blacking was also known. The shoemakers were divided into classes, according to the type of shoes that they sold. The prevailing type of boot among the senators had four latchets; there was also the ordinary calcius, sold by calciarii, like a slipper with two upper flaps, one folded over the other and both knotted together. For indoor use sandals (soleae, sandalia, Act 12:8), sold by solearii, were used, but they were taken off at dinner. Among other types was the military caliga, sold by the caligarii, studded with nails, but really little more than a sole, laced to the foot by a network of thongs.

23. Hairdressing and cosmetics.-Hairdressing and cosmetics need some reference (1Pe 3:3). The hairdresser, wig-dealer, perfumer did much business in the great cities. The hairdressing of the richer and idler Roman women in the 1st cent. was often of so elaborate a nature that great skill and much time were required for the preparation of the wonderful structures piled upon their heads. There was also a large sale for cosmetics, including white-lead and rouge. Wigs were commonly blonde in the 1st century. The barbers shops were centres of gossip, just as George Eliot represents them centuries later in Florence. The decoration of womens hair and faces was done at home by specialist slaves.

24. Goods and utensils.-The subject of goods and utensils is much too large to be treated in full detail here, but it cannot be passed by. Such manufactured goods can be distinguished as the work of workers in hard substances-stone, metal, wood, ivory, glass-or that of workers in soft substances, such as clay or wax. The former are the work of the fabri, the latter of the figuli (Rom 9:20). Adjectives were added to the term fabri to indicate the special branch to which they belonged. Workers in timber, builders, shipwrights, carpenters, smiths (including silversmiths), ivory workers, etc., were all fabri. The figuli produced two classes of pottery-opus figlinum, corresponding to our porcelain, and opus doliare (from dolium, a large jar), a coarser type of work, including vessels and vases of any shape, roof-tiles, water-pipes, etc. The manufactories of these (figlinae) were generally owned by capitalists.

25. Building, metal-work, etc.-The stone used for building in the Roman Empire was of necessity generally taken from the districts where the building was to be erected. Thus at Rome, the tufa, the green-grey peperino, and the travertine of the neighbourhood provided what was necessary for monumental buildings. Private houses there were at first built of unburnt bricks, but afterwards of the much more durable burnt bricks. From Greek lands Rome learned the practice of using marble casings for the walls, as well as solid marble pillars to support the upper parts of buildings. White marble was obtained from Hymettus, Pentelicus, Pares, Thasos, Lesbos, and Tyre, and others from the Propontis, Gaul, Egypt, Euba, Laconia, Thessaly, Numidia, Lydia, Caria, Phrygia (especially Synnada), etc. The transport of these was an important part of Roman trade, and stone-breakers, stone-cutters, and stone-polishers abounded. The mosaic workers, who constructed their pattern for pavements of houses out of small pieces of stone and glass, deserve mention, as also the constructors of tessellated pavements, including the opus uermiculatum and the (Joh 19:13). The geometrical and pictorial elements were always distinguished. The pictorial part consisted sometimes of a landscape. The workers in mosaic were Romans or Romanized provincials. In building operations there were, of course, various classes of workmen concerned-stone-cutters, builders, pavement-makers (of various orders according to the kind of pavement), white-washers, wall-painters (often with real artistic power), lime-dealers, lime-burners, paint-sellers, brick-makers, etc.

In clay were constructed bricks of various kinds for walls (unburnt, called , later; burnt, , testa), etc., and tiles for roofs, the imbrices, the rounded or upper tiles, and the tegulae, or flat tiles (cf. Luk 5:19, Rom 9:21, etc.). For house-building the air-dried brick was used in Greece and Rome. In Greece the baked brick was known fairly early, but was not introduced in Rome till the end of the Republic, and there gained only gradual vogue. These bricks were of various sizes. The burnt bricks were used by preference for important buildings. Other house-works in clay were pipes for heating, water-pipes, cubic and other forms of tile for mosaic, decorations on pillars, windows, cornices, gutters, outer and inner friezes. The last were in blocks with holes for nails, and often painted. Sarcophagi, drinking cups, bath-tubs, statues, lamps, were also made of clay. But the numerous kinds of terra-cotta vessels were the most conspicuous works in clay, the large wine casks (dolia), big enough to hold a man, the smaller wine-jars (amphorae or cadi), the water pitcher (urna, , Joh 2:6-7; Joh 4:28), the lagaena, ampulla, gutus, crater, cyathus, phiala (Revelation 16, etc., where of gold), patera, calix, scyphus, cantharus, carchesium, ciborium, wine-cups of various sizes and shapes, the mention of which is familiar to the reader of Horace (cf. Rev 2:27). Plates and dishes for food, such as the (Mat 23:25), washing basins, and cooking vessels of various kinds were also constructed of this useful material. Clay vessels were made in various colours-yellow-brown for wine casks and, jars; red, various in shade and quality, for plates; grey and black.

Some reference has been made above to localities in which the manufacture of these vessels was carried on, such as various places in Italy, Greece, Spain, France, Germany, and Britain.

The metals in use in antiquity were especially gold, silver, copper, iron, and lead, which were subjected to the same processes as in modern times. Statuettes were made particularly in gold and silver, and there is a well-known reference to the latter in combination with shrines in Act 19:23 ff. Metal knobs as ornaments of sceptres, girdles, cups, bridles, etc., were known from early times. In the construction of weapons of war-shields, helmets, breastplates, etc. (cf. Eph 6:11 ff.)-metal played, of course, a very important part. Wooden furniture of all kinds, such as couches, cupboards, chests, carriages, was tipped with metal or covered with metal plates, generally with relief work on them. In addition to the metals as above mentioned, bronze (1Co 13:1) was much used for a great variety of purposes. A special department of metal work was that of wine-cups and other table furniture. The Roman tables were laden with silver plate, and the smaller houses took pride in their silver salt-cellars, which had descended as heirlooms, if they had nothing larger to pride themselves on. Of cast-metal the finest products were the Corinthian bronze statues, worth more than their weight in gold. Gold itself was used for collars, armlets, chaplets, charms, finger-rings (Jam 2:2), as well as for coins, hair-pins, hair-nets, bandeaux, ear-rings, necklets, chains, bracelets, anklets, brooches, etc., either set with precious stones or not. It is hardly necessary to mention the use of metal for needles, pens, surgical instruments, knives, skin-scrapers, etc.

Wood obtained from the wood-merchants was used especially in the building of houses and ships. The builders of these were divided into various classes according to the particular work which each undertook, and the workers, like all others, were members of trade-gilds. The most elaborate internal work was that of the wonderful ceilings (lacunaria, laquearia) which became such a feature of the richer Roman houses. Tables, of which the most expensive were those of citrus wood from North Africa, couches of all kinds, chairs of various kinds, and benches were made of wood. Vehicles of all sorts were constructed for the most part of wood. It is remarkable that nearly all their types were of Gaulish origin, though certain of them (pilenta, carpenta) were early Roman. Sedan chairs must not be forgotten; they were much used in the city of Rome, because heavier carriages were forbidden there.

Leather work has already been referred to above in connexion with clothing. It was employed also for harness, tilts, armour, tents, saddles, whips, lashes, etc. Ivory was used for the decoration of walls, doors, couches, chairs, carriages, tables, sceptres, boxes, hilts of swords, etc. Ivory work came from the East through the Phnicians to Latium. Glass work was later in becoming known at Rome than any other already mentioned, though known in Egypt as early as the third millennium b.c. It was known later in Assyria and Phoenicia. In Italy it first became known as a material for the manufacture of bottles, cups, plates, dishes, glasses, and lamps. Imitations of certain precious stones were made in it, as the process of colouring was known. The finest work was in the production of cameos and intaglios. The industry was in fact widespread in our period. Glass was also quite well known in windows, as well as for mosaics, already mentioned.

For the eye-powder for which Phrygia was famous (cf. Rev 3:18) see W. M. Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, i. [Oxford, 1895] 52.

Literature.-H. Blmner, Technologie und Terminologie der Gewerbe und Knsle bei Griechen und Rmern, i.2 [Leipzig, 1912]; J. Marquardt, Das Privatleben der Rmer, pt. i., do., 1879; L. Friedlnder, Roman Life and Manners under the Early Empire, Eng. translation , i. [London, 1908] ch. vi.; the relevant chapters in J. E. Sandys, A Companion to Latin Studies2, Cambridge, 1913; H. S. Jones, Companion to Roman History, Oxford, 1912; on the trade of the Italian towns, L. Friedlnder, Petronii Cena Trimalchionis, Leipzig, 1891, p. 19 ff.

A. Souter.

Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church

Trade and Commerce

TRADE AND COMMERCE

1. The terms.The terms used in the NT in its allusions to mercantile transactions give but little indication of the remarkable developments which had taken place in the trade and commerce of Palestine since OT times.

Schrer (GJV [Note: JV Geschichte des Jdischen Volkes.] 3 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] ii. 5061) gives a considerable list of trading terms which had been borrowed from the Greek, and were in ordinary use among Palestinian Jews, but few of these appear in the NT. The only term, e.g., for merchant is (Mat 13:45, Rev 18:3; Rev 18:11; Rev 18:15; Rev 18:23), this being the equivalent etymologically of the two terms which are common in OT and both of which seem to have the root-idea of travel, whether by land or sea. What is, however, significant is the frequency of the words and (Mat 20:3; Mat 23:7, Mar 6:56; Mar 7:4; Mat 21:12; Mat 14:15, Mar 14:5; Mar 15:46, Luk 14:19, Joh 4:8 etc.), which, when it is remembered that in the OT, with the exception of Is 23:3,* [Note: In Eze 27:12-25 the words translated (AV) fairs and market will not bear that meaning; see RV.] there is no mention of markets properly so called, shows that the old conception of the merchant, as one who travels with his goods, is giving place to a more settled and organized system of trade. But the NT indications of a busy and complex commercial life are mostly indirect and general, e.g., in such terms as , Mat 25:27; , Luk 19:13 (see context in both places); and , Mat 25:27; cf. the apocryphal saying of Jesus, Show yourselves tried bankers (, see Westcott, Introd to Gospels, p. 458). Though general references of this kind are fairly numerous, technical names for traders, such as (Act 16:14), are very rare. Even in the graphic description of the trade of the Roman Empire in Rev 18:11; Rev 18:20 there is no word more specific than , the various trades of the merchants being described simply by mentioning the article in which they deal.

2. The status of the trader.There is considerable evidence that in Herodian times the occupation of a merchant was held in more repute than had formerly been the case among the Jews. Such a statement as that of JosephusWe have no taste for commerce or for the relations with strangers which it establishes (c. [Note: circa, about.] Apion, i. 12), must not be taken too literally (cf. Herzfeld, Handelsgesch. der Juden, p. 80). Josephus himself makes numerous references to the widespread trade carried on by Alexandrian Jews, without any implication that they incurred disparagement thereby; he mentions the Upper Market-place of Jerusalem; the Valley of the Cheesemongers (BJ v. iv. 1), the wool-merchants, the cloth-mart (v. viii. 1), the timber-market (ii. xix. 4); he tells us of the exportation of corn from Judaea to Arabia (Ant. xiv. v. 1), and through Joppa to Phnicia (xiv. x. 6); he mentions the influence which a Jewish trader, Ananias, exercised at the court of Adiabene (xx. ii. 3, 4); he relates how John of Giscala made himself rich by obtaining the monopoly of exporting oil from Galilee (BJ ii. xxi. 2); and in various places indicates the growing prosperity and affluence of the Jews (e.g. Ant. xii. iv. 10, Vit. 26, etc.). In no case do we discover any indication that the fact of engaging in trade was a reflexion upon a true Jew, so long as he took care not to defile himself by such contact as the Law forbade (cf. Mar 7:4 when they come from the market-place, except they wash themselves they eat not). There can be little doubt that the encouragement which high priests like John Hyrcanus gave to trade, and the fact that Herodian princes themselves engaged in it, tended to raise the status of the Jewish trader. Priests were sometimes themselves traders. Josephus descries the high priest Ananias as a keen moneylender (Ant. xx. ix. 2). There were, of course, different grades of traders recognized. Sirach (26:29) distinguishes between a merchant and a huckster. Between the merchant-prince and the mere pedlar there was a vast variety of persons who found no difficulty in reconciling their commerce with their religion, and perhaps we may infer from the following that even the humblest trade was not despised: Rabbi Jehudah the Nasi called Elazar b. Azariah a hucksters basket, and compared him to a huckster who, taking his basket, goes about the country, and the people come flocking around him, inquiring for various articles, and find he has everything (Aoth, 2). In the Gospels the allusions to persons engaged in trade take it for granted that merchants have a responsible and even an honourable place in the national economy. In the parable of the Pounds (Luk 19:12-27), a man of noble birth carries on trade through the agency of his servants, and there seems to be no sufficient reason for A. B. Bruces supposition (Parabolic Teaching of Christ, p. 219) that such a transaction was a most unusual one for a nobleman. In the East, indeed, royalty from early times had associated itself closely with the development of trade.* [Note: See art. Trade and Commerce in EBi p. 5192a.] The teaching of Jesus is full of appreciation of the bigness of the methods of trade and of the brave tempers required in it. [Note: lb.; cf. also To 1:13, where a Jew is the honoured purveyor () of a foreign monarch, and his nephew is steward and accountant (1:22).]

The gradual change by which the Jews, from being an agricultural people, became a people devoted to commerce, is illustrated by many Talmudic passages: e.g. Rabbi Eleazar said, There is no worse trade than agriculture; and Rabbi Rab added, Commerce is worth all the harvests of the world (Jebamoth, 63. 1). This change, however, took place only very slowly; the time of Christ was the transition period, and while there were many pious Jews who did not hesitate to engage in foreign trade, there were others who viewed it with suspicion and dislike, and some who would have nothing to do with it. The Essenes abjured trade, apparently, at least among themselves (BJ ii. viii. 4). The two things which laid a stigma upon it were (1) the extensive contact with foreigners which it involved, and the consequent risk of ceremonial pollution; and (2) the moral deterioration which it seemed to bring.

The fact that Sirach has several passages emphasizing the latter danger indicates the prevalent fear that, with the growth of Hellenistic influences, there was coming in a relaxation of Hebrew strictness and integrity: e.g. A merchant shall hardly keep himself from doing wrong, and a huckster shall not be acquitted of sin (Sir 26:29); Sin will thrust itself in between buying and selling (Sir 27:2); Take not counsel with a merchant about exchange nor with a buyer about selling (Sir 37:11).

Delitzsch, indeed, thinks that it was not until about 500 years after Christ that the Jewish people began to show any special preference for those branches of trade which deal in work furnished by others (Jewish Artisan Life in the time of Christ, p. 19), but the passages which he quotes appear to be not so much indicative of the Jews aversion from trade, as such, as instances of the feeling that a commercial occupation is hardly compatible with a devout life: e.g. Wisdom, says Rabbi Jochanan, in reference to Deu 30:12, is not in heaven,that is to say, not to be found among the proud; nor beyond the seathat is to say, you will not find it among traders and travelling merchants (ib. and Erubin, 55a).

In the NT there is no disparagement of trade as such. A passage like Jam 4:13 Go to now, ye that say, To-day or tomorrow we will go into this city and spend a year there and trade () is not directed against trading, but only against that commercial spirit which leaves God out of account. The passage Rev 18:11 ff. (based on Ezekiel 27) suggests, not the prevalence of an anti-trade spirit in the early Christian community, but a Puritanic protest against the excessive luxury of a materialistic society.* [Note: For a description of the demands of society for which the trade of the day catered, see Friedlnder, Darstellungen aus der Sittengesch. Rome, iii. Der Luxus.] Whatever the obscure passage Rev 13:16 that no man should be able to buy or to sell save he that hath the mark, even the name of the beast or the number of his name, may mean, the writer can hardly be taken to mean more than that the habits of trade were so mixed up with pagan practices that it was difficult for a Christian to be a trader without becoming stamped with the mark of the beast. In this connexion it may be noted that Deissmann (Bible Studies, p. 241 ff.) finds a reference to seals, bearing the name of the Roman emperor, which seem to have been necessary in documents of a commercial nature. We may, at any rate, set over against Delitzschs assertion that in the whole Talmud there is scarcely a word in honour of trade, the statement that in the NT there is no word in its dishonour.

3. Commercial morality.From some of the passages already quoted it might be inferred that trade in the Roman Empire in the 1st cent. was particularly corrupt. Was this actually so? It is, of course, not difficult to put together a number of instances in which the trader appears as a person of smirched reputation. Autolycus had his parallel in Palestine, The merchants of Lydda seem to have been notorious for dishonesty (according to Pesachim, 62b). Sirach (Sir 29:1-7) dwells upon the difficulty of getting loans repaid, and upon the ready excuse of bad times. Zacchaeus (Luk 19:1-10), who probably farmed the revenues from the famous balsam-gardens of Jericho (see Josephus BJ iv. viii. 3, Ant. xiv. iv. 1; cf. G. A. Smith, HGHL [Note: GHL Historical Geog. of Holy Land.] p. 267, note), was, according to the generally received interpretation, given to unscrupulous exaction. In the parable of the Unjust Steward (Luk 16:1-9) we have a graphic picture of a factor whose dealings are a tissue of knavery. It is probable, too, that the publicans, who appear in the Gospels with so poor a reputation, owed this partly to a shady connexion with the traffic which passed through their hands. But it is obviously unfair to assume from such data as these that there was any more dishonesty among Jewish than among other traders. Herzfeld justly claims (p. 276 f.) that, though the reproach of usury attached to the Jews of the Middle Ages, it appears that among the Jews of earlier times the rate of interest was lower than among other peoples engaged in trade. The enemies of the Jews in Roman times did not scruple to bring against them the most ridiculous charges, but precisely this charge of dishonesty in business relations is not found. In the Talmud usurers are regarded as in the same category with gamblers (Rosh ha-shana, i. 8). Surely, too, the close connexion between business and religion, which is so often emphasized in the Bible (e.g. Lev 19:35-36; Lev 25:36-37; Deu 15:2; Deu 23:20, Pro 11:1; Pro 16:11; Pro 20:10; Pro 23:4 f., Pro 28:22, Amo 8:5, Mic 6:10-11, cf. Sir 42:4), and of which the Talmudic writers have so much to say (cf. Herzfeld, p. 162 f.), was not without its effect upon mercantile morality. That trade was directly recognized as having the sanction of religion would appear from an allusion (Joma, v. 3) to a prayer offered by the high priest on the Day of Atonement for a year of trade and traffic. The indignation of Jesus when He ejected the traders and money-changers from the Temple courts (Mat 21:12-13, Mar 11:15-18, Luk 19:45-47, Joh 2:14-16) must no doubt have been prompted partly by a knowledge of the dishonesty of their dealings (a den of robbers); but His denunciation is a quotation from Jeremiah (Jer 7:11), and must not be pressed. What stirred His wrath was the conjunction of unscrupulousness with high religious pretensions. It was because their practice was not in harmony with their principles that He drove them forth. That they suffered it with so little resistance seems to show a tacit admission on their part that they were departing from the strictness of Jewish law. Jesus never singles out the trader, as such, as an example of covetousness or fraud; when He inveighs against corrupt practices, it is rather the Pharisees who devour widows houses (Mar 12:40), and who are full from extortion (Mat 23:25) that are selected for castigation. If, as is not improbable, the Good Samaritan of Luk 10:30-37 was suggested by the merchants who travelled regularly on the trade-route that led through Jericho (cf. Luk 10:35), we have an instance of the way in which Jesus contrasted the humanity often characterizing men of the world with the inhumanity which professors of religion may be capable of showing.

4. Relations of Jesus with the mercantile community.It has been said* [Note: EBi, art. Trade and Commerce, 5191a.] that the trade of Palestine is often reflected in the parables of Jesus spoken as He passed along the busy trade-routes of Galilee and Judaea. Typical of these is the parable of the Merchant seeking Goodly Pearls (Mat 13:45-46). Jesus would be sure to meet traders on His frequent journeys. Merchandise was still carried, for the most part probably, on pack-animalsasses, mules, or camels (cf. Josephus Vit. 26 f.); for, though under Imperial Rome there had been a great development of the means of transit, and a fast service of conveyances had been established on the great trunk roads of the Empire, this would hardly be the case in Palestine in the time of Jesus. But conditions had arisen more favourable to commerce: the roads were safer; brigandage was put down with a strong hand (Josephus Ant. xiv. xv. 2, iv. 4); in addition to the usual town-markets, which in the time of the Maccabees seem to have been held monthly, and to which the country people came in (1Ma 1:58, cf. Herzfeld, p. 75 f.), there was a good deal of trade done at the regular stopping-places of the caravans, and at the inns; periodical fairs also sprang up at certain places, e.g. Gaza, Acco, and Tyre (Herzfeld, p. 134). In the towns, at any rate the larger towns, merchants would have their recognized exchange for corn, wool, etc., and their bazaars for manufactured articles. They had their trade guilds, capable sometimes of exercising a considerable influence (cf. Act 19:23 ff.), and their trade leagues between neighbouring towns, e.g. those of Decapolis (Herzfeld, p. 148; HGHL [Note: GHL Historical Geog. of Holy Land.] p. 595); there were trading corporations, which had their representatives in the important centres. Thus, there were Antiochian Jews settled in Jerusalem, presumably for purposes of trade (2Ma 4:9; 2Ma 4:19), and there is little doubt that at the times of the great feasts, many who came up to Jerusalem combined business with religion, and used the opportunity to establish trade relations with their fellow-countrymen coming from other parts of the Empire. The sea, now cleared of pirates, no longer offered obstruction to the spread of commerce; the Jews had at last ports of their own; Philo (in Flaccum, 8) refers to Jewish shipmasters at Alexandria; Josephus (Ant. xviii. ix.) and the Talmud refer to the wealth of Babylonian Jews. Through Galilee ran some of the most frequented trade-routes; and in this province, more than elsewhere, the influence of the enterprising Greek was in evidence.

Jesus was in close contact, then, with the busy traffic of His day, and the allusions to it in the Gospels are many; e.g. the trade in oil (Mat 25:9), in spices (Mar 16:1; Mar 14:5, Joh 19:39; an indication of the extent of this traffic may be gathered from the statement made by Josephus, that at Herods funeral there were 500 spice-bearers [Ant. xvii. viii. 3]), in clothes (Mar 15:46, Luk 22:36), in cattle (Luk 14:19), in weapons (Luk 22:36). It is a little remarkable that there is no special reference to what must have been the trade best known to Christs disciples, that in dried fish, for which Taricheae on the Lake of Galilee was a famous centre (Strabo, xvi. ii. 45; BJ III. x. 6; HGHL [Note: GHL Historical Geog. of Holy Land.] p. 455). Absorption in trade is hinted at in the case of the man who neglects the kings invitation, that he may go to his merchandise (Mat 22:5), and in Mat 18:25 we get a glimpse into a trade the dimensions and importance of which must have been much greater than is indicated by anything in the NT,the slave-trade. This, however, would be wholly in the hands of foreigners, its chief centre being at Delos (Strabo, xiv. v. 2), where as many as 10,000 slaves might be found at one time. Phnician merchants seem to have been the usual intermediaries, in this traffic (1Ma 3:41, 2Ma 8:11, Ant. xii. vii. 3); and, while the only direct allusion to the slave-merchant in the NT is Rev 18:13, this personage must have been a too familiar figure on the roads of Galilee.

Literature.Herzfeld, Handelsgesch. der Juden des Alterthums; art. Trade and Commerce in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible and in EBi [Note: Bi Encyclopaedia Biblica.] ; on the general subject of the relation between commerce and religion see G. A. Smiths Isaiah, vol. i. ch. 18.

J. Ross Murray.

Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels

Trade And Commerce

TRADE AND COMMERCE.The processes by which international trade is carried on consist in the interchange of commodities or of services, and these latter may be positive or negative in character: they may be represented by actual performance or by the withdrawal of opposition. Such procedure as the occupation of passes or other natural channels for traffic, with the view of demanding tolls of the traders who use them, is the subject of few allusions in the OT; yet the location of the Israelitish kingdoms was such as to favour the production of revenue in this way. The most practicable routes both from the North and from the East to the Red Sea lay through their country; and the land route from Egypt to Asia either traversed or skirted it. United under a powerful sovereign, Palestine could levy large contributions on the traffic of the surrounding nations; and this appears to have been done in Solomons time.

1. The products of Canaan were in the main agricultural, horticultural, and pastoral, and some of these could be exported. Oil was sent to Egypt (Hos 12:1) and Phnicia (Eze 27:17); wine to the latter country (2Ch 2:10), as well as wheat (Ezk. l.c., 2 Ch. l.c.), barley (2 Ch. l.c.), oak timber (Eze 27:6) from Bashan, honey (or dibs) and balsam (Eze 27:17), and an unknown substance called pannag (Ezk. l.c.). Other possible objects for exportation were sand for glass manufacture, bitumen, the purple-fish, wool, and leather; and certain fruits and spices (Gen 43:11).

2. Of national industries we hear very little; nor does it appear that any articles of Israelitish workmanship acquired fame in foreign lands. A few notices can, however, be collected, which indicate the existence of manufactures, and of a sort that may have been exported. The housewife of Pro 31:1-31 not only makes her own clothes, but sells some to the Canaanite or pedlar; and in 1Ch 4:21 there is mention of a Jewish family that owned a byssus-factory. Further, there are not a few references to potteries, and to work done in brass, the precious metals, stone and wood. The iconoclastic attitude which prevails in the OT causes the plastic arts to be ordinarily referred to with scorn and indignation; but of their existence in Palestine there is no doubt, and the considerable market that existed for images probably led to no small development. That any of these manufactures was exported is not attested by any evidence that has as yet come to light; but there is apparently no a priori reason against such a supposition.

Prior to the settlement of the country by the exertions of the kings, trade can have been carried on by Israelites only to an insignificant extent. In Sauls days, according to 1Sa 13:18, there were no Israelitish smithsa fact there explained as due to the tyrannical precautions of the Philistines; but perhaps we should infer that the Israelites had as yet learned no crafts, since even in Solomons time we find that artificers had to be imported for the building of the royal edifices. The place of industry had to be supplied by raiding, and Saul himself is praised for having stripped the finery of his enemies women to put it on his own (2Sa 1:24). The heroic David fights with rustic weapons and without armour. The possibility of the peaceful progress which is the preliminary condition of trade would seem to have been provided by the first two kings.

3. We have unfortunately no account of the financial system which must have been introduced with the foundation of the kingdom, though the prophecy of Samuel (1Sa 8:11-17) suggests that the king claimed a tithe of all produce, but in theory had a right to both the persons and possessions of his subjects. Before the end of Davids reign we hear of permanent officials appointed by the king; and the need for steady sources of revenue whence the stipends of such officials could be supplied, is sufficient to cause the erection of an elaborate financial system, with surveys and assessments, tax-gatherers and clerks. The numbering of the people, which lived on in popular tradition as an iniquity earning condign punishment, doubtless belonged to the commencements of orderly government. For Solomons time we have something like the fragment of a budget (1Ki 10:14-15), according to which it would appear that the king had three sources of revenueone not further specified, but probably a land-tax; another, tribute from subject States, governed by satraps; and a third connected with commerce, and probably equivalent to excise and customs. The text implies that these various forms of revenue were paid in gold, which was then stored by the king in the form of shields and vessels.

This gold must all have been imported, as there are no mines in Palestine; and indeed we are told that it came, with other produce as well as silver, from the mysterious Ophir and Tarshish; and that the enterprise was a joint venture of Solomon and the king of Tyre, the latter probably supplying the vessels, the former the produce which was exchanged for these goods, unless indeed the gold was procured by raiding. If it was obtained in exchange for commodities, we must suppose either that the latter were identical with those of which we afterwards read in Ezekiel, or that the commodities to be exchanged were all supplied by the Phnicians, the service by which the Israelites earned their share being that of giving the former access to the harbour of Ezion-geber. In favour of the latter supposition, it has been pointed out that the commodities known to have been exported from Palestine at one time, or another were ill-suited for conveyance on lengthy voyages, and unlikely to be required in the countries where the gold was procured. There is in the OT no allusion to the practice of coining metal, and where sums of money are mentioned they are given in silver; the effect, however, of the quantities of gold brought into Palestine in Solomons time was not, according to the historian, to appreciate silver, as might have been expected, but to depreciate it, and render it unfashionable. Yet the notice of prices in the time of Solomon (1Ki 10:29) suggests that silver was by no means valueless, whatever weight we assign to the shekel of the time. While it is clear that all silver in use must have come in by importation, the notices in the OT of transactions in which it would probably be employed are too scanty to permit of even a guess as to the amount in use; and though it is likely that (as in Eastern countries to this day) foreign coins were largely in circulation, there is little authority for this supposition.

4. If little is known of Israelitish exports, many objects are mentioned in the OT which were certainly imported from foreign countries. These were largely objects of luxury, especially in the way of clothes or stuffs; the material called tn (Pro 7:15 RV [Note: Revised Version.] yarn) was imported from Egypt; the ivory, to which reference is frequently made during the period of the kingdom, from Ethiopia, through Egypt or Arabia; and the gems from one or other of these countries. Various objects are mentioned in connexion with Solomons enterprises, as newly introduced into Palestine. For later (Talmudic) times a list of 118 articles has been drawn up which came from foreign countries into the Palestinian market; this list contains many foods and food-stuffs, materials for wearing apparel, and domestic utensils. We should rather gather that in pre-exilic times food was not ordinarily imported, except in times of famine. Imports of raw materials must have been considerable as soon as the people began to settle in towns; for there is no native iron, and little native wood, and these as well as other materials would be required for even the simplest manufactures. Probably, in the case of instruments, the more valuable and elaborate sort came from abroad, while the poorer classes had to content themselves with home-made articles. The finds that have hitherto been made of Israelitish utensils are insufficient to determine this point. Among the more important imports in Biblical times were horses, which seem to have been procured regularly from Egypt. Of the slave-trade there are very few notices in the OT, and it may be that the reduction of the aboriginal population by the Israelites to serfs, and the almost continuous warfare leading to the constant capture of prisoners, rendered the importation of slaves ordinarily unnecessary. According to Joel (Joe 3:4-7), the Phnicians acted as dealers, purchasing prisoners of war (in this case Jews), and exporting them to foreign countries. The same may have been the fate of those persons who, for non-payment of debt, were assigned to their creditors (2Ki 4:1).

5. Persons engaged in commerce.The words used in the OT for merchants are such as signify primarily traveller (1Ki 10:15 RV [Note: Revised Version.] chapmen, merchants, traffic), and convey the ideas of spying and making circuits. The use of the word Canaanite for pedlar has been noticed. In Jer 37:15 there is an allusion to a place in Jerusalem called the booths, but references to shop-keeping are rare before the Exile. In Nehemiahs time different classes of dealers had their locations in Jerusalemgoldsmiths and grocers (Neh 3:32), fishmongers (Neh 13:16); but most articles of general consumption seem to have been brought in day by day by foreigners and others (Neh 10:32 and Neh 13:20). and sold in the streets. The distinction between wholesale and retail dealers perhaps first occurs in the Apocrypha (Sir 26:20). It is worth observing that in the prophetic denunciations of luxury we miss allusions to the shops or stores in which such objects might be supposed to be offered for sale (Isa 3:18-24). Moreover, the verse of Ezk. (Eze 7:12) let not the buyer rejoice nor the seller mourn suggests that the latter operation was not ordinarily thought of as it is in communities a large portion of which lives by trade, but rather as a humiliation required at times by stern necessity; and there are few allusions to trade in the codes embodied in the Pentateuch, though such are not absolutely wanting. Perhaps, then, we are justified in concluding that the practice of trade was in pre-exilic times largely in the hands of itinerant foreigners; and it is only in NT times that merchandise is regarded as an occupation as normal as agriculture (Mat 22:5). To the cumbrous process of bargaining there is an allusion in Pro 20:14.

Allusions to the corn-trade are rather more common than to any other business, and to certain iniquities connected with itprobably, in the main, forms of the practice by which corn was withdrawn from the market in the hope of selling it at famine prices: this at least seems to be the reference in Pro 11:26, though Sirach (Sir 34:23-24) seems to have interpreted the passage merely of liberality and stinginess. In Amo 9:4-8 the reference is more distinct, and implies both the offence mentioned above and the use of deceitful measures, a wrong also condemned by Micah in a similar context (Amo 6:10). The interpretation of these passages must remain obscure until more light is thrown on land-tenure in Israel, and the process by which the kings share in the produce was collected.

The foreign commerce conducted in king Solomons time is represented in his biography as a venture of his own, whence the goods brought home were his own possessions; and the same holds good of commerce in the time of Jehoshaphat (1Ki 22:49-50). There is no evidence that Israelitish commerce was conducted on any other principle before the Exile, after which isolated individuals doubtless endeavoured to earn their livelihood by trade ventures. The foreign commerce of which we occasionally hear in the OT was also conducted by communities (e.g. Gen 37:25; Gen 37:28), to be compared with the tribes whom we find at the commencement of Islam engaged in joint enterprises of a similar kind. In 1Ki 20:34 there appears to be a reference to a practice by which sovereigns obtained the right to the possession of bazaars in each others capitalsthe nearest approach to a commercial treaty that we find in this literature. But at such times as the condition of the Israelitish cities allowed of the purchase of luxuriesi.e. after successful campaigns or long spells of peace, permitting of accumulations of produceit is probable that the arrival and residence of foreign merchants were facilitated by the practice of protection, a citizen rendering himself responsible for the foreign visitors, and making their interests his owndoubtless in most cases for a consideration. The spirit of the Mosaic legislation (like that of Platos and Aristotles theories) is against such intermixing with foreigners; and except for forces such as only powerful chieftains could collect, journeys whether on sea or land were dangerous. Of an expedient for commerce like the Arabian months of sacred truce the OT contains no hint.

6. The chief passage in the OT dealing with commerce is Ezekiels prophecy against Tyre, in which the chief Tyrian wares are enumerated, and the countries whence the Tyrians imported them (ch. 27). That chapter would seem to be based on some statistical account of Tyre, similar to those which at a somewhat later date were made out concerning the Greek States. In a prophecy inserted in the Book of Isaiah (ch. 23) Tyre is also described as the great mart of the time, serving, it would seem, as the chief exchange and centre of distribution for goods of all kinds. Eze 26:2 is sometimes interpreted as implying that Jerusalem was a competitor with Tyre for the trade of the world, but perhaps it means only that the taking of any great city led to the Tyrian merchants obtaining the spoil at low prices.

7. Trade-routes.Palestine has no internal waterways, and goods brought to it from other countries had to reach it either by sea or across desert. A system of roads leading from Arabia, Egypt, and Mesopotamia appears to have converged at Sela or Petra, whence two branches spread northwards, to Gaza and to the eastern shore of the Dead Sea, continuing northwards on the left bank of the Jordan. From Gaza and Acre roads met in the plain of Esdraelon, the former going through the depressions of Juda and Samaria. From the plain of Esdraelon a road led to Damascus, touching the N.W. bank of the Sea of Galilee. When Jerusalem became the capital of the country, goods were brought thither, probably by the same routes as were in use till the construction of the railways; but it is uncertain when Joppa first became the port of Jerusalem, for the statement in 2Ch 2:15 that Joppa was so used in Solomons time is not found in the authentic chronicle of 1Ki 5:9, where ignorance is clearly acknowledged on this subject. On the other hand, the earlier chronicle states that Elath served as the port of Jerusalem on the Red Sea, and, after Solomons time, was repeatedly taken out of the possession of the Jewish kings, and re-captured. Josephus (Ant. VIII. vii. 4) asserts that Solomon had the roads leading to Jerusalem paved with black stone, but his authority for this statement is unknown. The process of road-making is described in the familiar passage Isa 40:4, with allusions to the operations of mounding and excavating, possibly of paving; but these operations may have been learned from Babylonian or Persian rather than Israelitish examples. Moreover, such roads were necessary for military rather than commercial expeditions, in which wheeled vehicles were not ordinarily used.

8. Transport.Before the construction of railways in Palestine, transport was ordinarily on the backs of men or animals, and of the latter camels are mentioned in connexion with goods brought from Arabia (1Ki 10:2, Isa 60:6 etc.), and even with such as were carried in Syria and Palestine (2Ki 8:9, 1Ch 12:40). In the last reference these animals are mentioned together with asses, oxen, and mules; and probably the first and last of these were more ordinarily employed for internal traffic. At a later time they first appear to have been employed almost exclusively in the corn-trade, in which they figure as early as Gen 42:26. The allusions to the employment of human transport are more often metaphorical than literal; yet such passages as Isa 58:6 seem distinctly to refer to it and to the instruments employed in fixing the burdens on the slaves persons. Caravans are mentioned in Job 6:18 f., Isa 21:13, Eze 27:25 [all RV [Note: Revised Version.] ], and Jdg 5:6 (RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ).

9. Commercial instruments.The money-lender appears at the very commencement of the history of the Israelitish kingdom, where we are told that Davids followers were to some extent insolvent debtors; and the Jewish law allowed the taking of pledges, but not (it would seem) the taking of interest, except from foreigners. The result of similar legislation in Moslem countries is to make the rate of interest enormously high, and in Palestine it may have had the same effect. Deeds of loan appear not to be mentioned in the OT, though there is frequent reference to the danger of giving security. To the institution of banking there is a familiar reference in the NT (Mat 25:27); the persons there referred tolike the bankers of modern timesundertook the charge of deposits for the use of which they paid some interest; the money-changers (Mat 21:12 etc.) were, as now, in a smaller way of business. Those who hoarded money more often put it under the stone (Sir 29:10) than entrusted it to bankers; and this is still probably the favourite practice all over the nearer East. Another common practice was to deposit money with trustworthy persons, to which there is a reference in Tobit (Tob 4:20 etc.). In most ancient cities the temples served as places of security, where treasure could be stored, and this is likely to have been the case in Israelitish cities also.

10. Development of the Israelites into a commercial people.The prophets appear to have anticipated that the exiles would carry on in their new home the same agricultural pursuits as had occupied them in Palestine (Jer 29:5); and it would appear that till the taking of Jerusalem by Titus, and perhaps even later, agriculture remained the normal occupation of the Israelites, whereas in modern times this pursuit has passed entirely out of their hands. The Jews of the Turkish empire (e.g.) are said to furnish no cultivators of the soil, whereas the Christian population, whose political status is the same, are largely agricultural. The separation of great numbers of the people from the Palestinian soil, in successive captivities, must doubtless have led many of them to take to commerce, to which perhaps those who had no settled home would feel least repugnance; while the settlement of groups in a number of different regions would furnish them with the advantage that companies now secure by the establishment of agencies in various places. After the conquests of Alexander, ghettos began to be formed in the great Hellenic cities, and the Roman conquests soon led to colonies of Jews settling yet farther west.

D. S. Margoliouth.

Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible