ventures. As they had earlier in Mesopotamia, temples were also involved in
a basic function of banking by serving as places of deposit since they were
considered to be safe under the protection of the temple divinity. The
depositor paid a fee for safekeeping unless his deposit, when combined with
that of others and the capital of the temple itself, was lent out, in which case
he received a portion of the interest. When temples became objects of
plunder beginning in the fourth century BCE, the business of accepting
deposits for making loans shifted to the class of moneychangers turned
moneylenders. Credit was especially important in the grain business. A
trader would borrow from a moneylender to purchase a cargo of grain
abroad. Rates were high since the cargo served as the only security, and
interest was charged by the voyage rather than per annum. The trader then
reserved space in which to put his load of exports on a ship headed for a
grain-producing region. More often than not, he accompanied the ship as
well. On the return home the grain was sold to wholesalers, allowing him to
pay off his debt and realize a profit.
The ancient world was turned upside down by the conquests of Alexander
the Great, who intended for his empire to be economically integrated. On
his early death his political accomplishment broke into pieces, but economic
expansion continued. During the Hellenistic period that followed, commerce
in the Mediterraneanflowered due in part to advances in ship design and
construction and improved port facilities. Small-time moneylenders sitting at
tables were replaced by large-scale institutions that could transfer funds from
city to city through letters of credit. The center of commercial activity shif-
ted from the Greek mainland to transit trade cities on the west coast of
Anatolia such as Rhodes, which by the third centuryBCEhad the largest
commercialfleet in the Mediterranean.
In matters of trade the most important city in the Mediterranean, parti-
cularly as Carthage fell on hard times in its struggle with Rome, was a new
one, Alexandria. It exported and imported the same products that hadflowed
into and out of Egypt for centuries but in vastly expanded quantities. The
city’s port was an enormous facility with two harbors whose stone quays
could reportedly hold up to 1,200 ships at a time. Warehouses lined the
shores, but the Pharos lighthouse built on an island three-quarters of a mile
offshore was Alexandria’s wonder of the ancient world. It was the largest
lighthouse in the ancient world, consisting of a tower almost 400 feet high
built in three stories with the top functioning as a lantern. There, eight
columns supported a cupola under which a huge piece of polished steel
served as a convex mirror reflecting sunlight. At night afire of resinous wood
brought up by a lift, possibly powered by hydraulic machinery, guided ships
far offshore.
The Hellenistic kings dabbled extensively in trade with the Ptolemies of
Egypt, surpassing even their predecessors, the pharaohs, in creating a system
in which all economic activity came under state control. With the exception
Of purple men and oil merchants 73