By the period of the New Kingdom (1539– 1069 BCE) in the second mil-
lenniumBCEshipwrights were using bronze tools to build much stronger
hulls capable of making long voyages across open seas. Large, slow freighters
with square sails, high sides, decks, and deep-bellied cargo holds were now
capable of carrying vast amounts of merchandise. Canaanite ships were stur-
dier and stubbier than Egyptian ships with heavy hulls rounded at both
ends; the Greeks later dubbed them“gauloi”(tubs). One estimate is that by
1200 BCEthe largest of these ships could hold up to 450 tons. Some idea of
the number of ships involved in this trade can be seen from the account of
Wen-Amun, an Egyptian envoy to King Zakarbaal of Byblos in the early
eleventh century, in which Zakarbaal told Wen-Amun he had afleet of 70
ships, 20 of which traded in partnership with the Egyptian pharaoh and 50
in partnership with a private merchant from his own country who resided in
Egypt.
Although the Egyptians and the Canaanites were close trading partners for
many centuries, their systems could not have been more different. Among
the merchants of the Levantine coast, the basic commercial unit was the
private family business, which sometimes formed partnerships to provide
sufficient capital and spread risk in large-scale enterprises. At times mer-
chants competed directly with the palaces; at other times kings joined pri-
vate concerns in partnerships with profit-making as their primary motive.
Egyptian trade, on the contrary, was highly centralized under the direction
of the Pharaoh with market forces and profit-making playing negligible
roles. This remained the case even during Egypt’s most dynamic period
under the New Kingdom, a time of many cultural, technological, and poli-
tical changes. Although foreign trade became a more complex business, the
main mechanism was still direct royal gift exchange. In one of these a
pharaoh sent to the King of Babylon gifts amounting to 26 pounds of gold,
6.5 pounds of silver, 18.5 pounds of bronze, more than 1,000 textiles
(probably linen), more than 1,000 stone vasesfilled with aromatic oils, 163
empty stone vases,finger rings, necklaces, mirrors, ivory boxes, and other
items. From the King of Babylon, the Egyptians received such goods as
horses and chariots, silver, bronze, lapis lazuli, and oil. Regifting was con-
sidered an honorable practice. A Hittite king in a letter to a fellow ruler
notes that he was sending a gift consisting of a rhyton of gold and a rhyton
of silver (a standard gift item, a rhyton was a drinking horn with a base
representing the head of a woman, animal, or mythological creature) that
had previously been sent to him as a gift by the pharaoh.
By this time, gift exchange between courts was no longer based on the old
concept of better-to-give-than-receive. Wen-Amun’s expedition to Zakarbaal
sought timber initially as tribute. Zakarbaal reminded Wen-Amun that he
no longer paid tribute to Egypt but would provide what Wen-Amun wanted
for a suitable quid pro quo. Wen-Amun got his timber only after new ships
arrived from Egypt bringing gold, linen, cowhides, ropes, bags of lentils,
48 Land of gold