Foreign Trade In Ancient Greece

For there is not a single polis that need not import or export-[Xenophon of Athens]

Many civilizations at one point in their history had an institution that facilitated the exchange of resources. The Greeks were no different. Trade was not the immediate solution to the challenge of transferring goods and services in Greece. In fact, a lot of exchange occurred between the different polies as a result of political fragmentation and unequal distribution of wealth. This caused each polis to invariably establish some unique form of exchange. (Bissa, 2009, pp. 1-2)

However, with the growing expansion of the polies, the need for foreign trade was accentuated. The Mediterranean and its surrounding regions naturally lacked several resources; some

The next aspect would be to identify who the exporters were, why they traded and what they got in return. We would then turn our focus to colonies that were established due to the increased need for specific resources.

Trade evolved from the barter system of exchange (Bissa, 2009, p. 29). In the barter system, the exchanged goods needed to be recognized as being equal in value and also directly correlated to the immediate needs of each party. Coinage became a means by which unlimited exchanges could be made without any direct correlations of need. The coins provided an acceptable value that could be exchanged for various goods. This development created a unique demand for one of the items that was traded: metals.

Gold, silver and bronze were the most common metals of the time. They were scattered across homes of the wealthy, temples and sanctuaries. These metals were used not only to make more coins but to make cult images, bowls and seals. Phoenician bronze and silver bowls for example, were widely traded as special costly objects (Burkert, 1995, p. 16). The Phoenician bowls and shields, in particular, that were found in Cyprus, Athens, Olympia, Delphi and Etruria, to name a few, portray a style that Greek artisans of kraters and shields may have gained their inspiration from. Some of the bronze relief vessels that were native to the Late Hittite city of Tabal, and found in Olympia in about 670 B.C.

Thrace was one of the foreign nations that traded in timber and supplemented the Greeks resources. Kilikia, Sinope and Amisos were foreign nations in Asia that had an influence on Greek life. Special timbers that resisted decay were obtained from these places by the Greeks. Accounts by Theophrastos, Aristotle’s successor in the Peripatetic school and also a student of Plato, gave an idea of what the Greeks looked for. (Bissa, 2009, p. 111). The prominent use of cedars in their temples was possible either by trade with Syria or with Lebanon. Several historians have argued that states such as Persia would not have considered trading with the Greek states, since Persia indirectly placed embargos on their vassal states when trade with the Greeks was the subject of consideration (Bissa, 2009, p.