Commerce, a word that does not occur is tk Auth. Vers., which uses the term ** ti^e" or "tnA fie ;" but the idea is designated by two Heb. wocdi : I nia'n, rekuUah' (Gesenius, Thes. Heb. p. 1289); Sejl in Ezek. xxvi, 12, rd, vvdgxovrt;^ Vulg. negotkum: in xzvii, 6, 16, 18, ifiiropia, negotiation from bs^i >«■ kal% to travel (on foot); 2. rriho, sechorak' {Gm. ib. p. 946), Sept. ifivopia, Yvlg.^negoeiatio, Ezek. xm 16 ; from ^HD, stichar^, to travd (mignte). S« Trade.
1. Commerce, in its usual acceptation, means the exchange of one thing for another — the excfaan^ of what we have to spare for what we want, in vbsterer country it is produced. The origin of commerce vss. have been nearly coeval with the world. As putar age and agriculture were the only employmeott«f t^ first inhabiUnts, so cattle, flodES, and the froito of t^ earth were the only objects of the first commerce, (^ that species of it cidled barter. It would appear iki some progress had been made in mannfactores is tk ages before the flood. The building of a dty or Til- lage by Cain, however insignificant the houses oiy have been, supposes the existence of some medttoical knowledge The musical instruments, such ss ^>^ and organs, the works in brass and in iron exhibiw by the succeeding generations, confirm the belief tbst the arts were considerably advanced. The ooofitm- tion of Noah*s ark, a ship of three decks, covered of^^ with pitch, and much larger than any modern d^ of architecture, prov^ that many separate trades veie at that period carried on. There must have been p«^ ties who supplied Noah and his three sons with tk great quantity and variety of materials which tbejr i^ quired, and this they would do in exchange for a^ commodities, and perhaps money. That ^^™^^ pile of building, the tower of Babel, was con«trocted of bricks, the process of making which appears to U^ been well understood. Some learned astronomers tie of opinion that the celestial observations of the Clu- nese reach back to 2249 yean befbre the Christisn crt:
and the celestial observations made at BabyloOi ^^ tained in a calendar of above nineteen centnriee, tn^ mitted to Greece by Alexander, reach back to viUiiK
COMMERCE
435
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teen yean of those ascribed to the Chfaiese. The dimns appear to have had obeenrations quite as early the Babylonians. See Antbdiluyiahs. Such of the descendants of Noah as lived near the Iter may be presumed to have made use of vessels dH in imitation of the ark — if, as some think, that IS the first floating vessel ever seen in the world — tt on a smaller scale, for the purpose of crossing riv- s. In the course of time the descendants of his son ipheth settled in ^' the isles of the Grentiles," by which e understood the islands at the east end of the Med- jrranean Sea, and those between Asia Minor and reece, whence their colonies spread into Greece, Ita- ', and other Western lands. See Ethxcloot. In short, from the time that men began to live in ties, trade, in some shape, must have been carried 1 to stipiUy the town-dweUers with necessaries (see eeren, Afr. Nat. i, 469) ; but it is also clear that in- rmational trade must have existed and affected to nne extent even the pastoral nomade races, for we nd that Abraham was rich, not only in cattle, but in Iver, g^ld, and gold and silver plate and ornaments [;en.xiil,2; xidv,22,5d); and further, that gold and Iver in a manuAtured state, and silver, not improb- bly in coin, were in use both among the settled inhab- ants of Palestine, and the pastoral tribes of Syria at liat date (Gen. xx, 16; xziii, 16; xxxviii, 18; Job lii, 11), to whom those metals must in all probability are been imported from other countries (Hns8ey,ilfi<r. VtigkU, e. xii, 8, p. 198; Kitto, Phy», Hist, of Pal p. 09, 110 ; see Herod, i, 216). See City.
% Among trading nations mentioned in Scripture, ^gypt holcU in very early times a prominent position lee Hobbard, Commerce ofAncietU JEgjfpt, in the BibU- a/ Bepoeitcry, April, 1836X though her external trade ras carried on, not by her own citizens, but by for- tigners, chiefly of the nomade races (Heeren, Afr, Nat, , 468 ; ii, 871, 872). It was an Ishmaelite caravan, aden with spices, which carried Joseph into Egypt, md the account shows that slaves formed sometimes a art of the merchandise imported (Gen. xxxvii, 25 ; cxxix, 1 ; Job vi, 19). From Egypt it is likely that It all times, but especially in times of general scarcity, »m would be exported, which was paid for by the uni-exporting nations in silver, which was always ireighed (Gen. xli, 67 ; xlii, 8, 26, 86 ; xlili, 11, 12, 21). Fhese caravans also brought the precious stones as irell as the spices of India into Egypt (Exod. xxv, 8, J; Wilkinson, Ane, Eg, ii, 235, 287). Intercourse with ryre does not appear to have taken place till a later period, and thus, though it cannot be determined irhether the purple in which the Egyptian woollen and linen cloths were dyed was brought by land from Phoenicia, it is evident that colored cloths had long been made and dyed in Egypt, and the use, at least, of them adopted by the Hebrews for the tabernacle as early as the time of Moses (Exod. xxv, 4, 5 ; comp. Heeren, Anat, Nat, i, 862 ; see Herod, i, 1). The pas- tare-ground of Shechem appears from the story of Jo- s^h to have lain in the way of these caravan journeys (Gen. xxxvii, 14, 26), probably a thoroughfare from Damascus. See Caravak.