there was little arable land for agriculture. Importing food
became a top priority of the Phoenicians in order to sustain
the populations of their cities.
With several natural ports, which became the sites of
their cities, and an abundance of cedar and other trees for
lumber, the Phoenicians began seafaring early. With their
freedom from Egyptian rule in the 12th century, they built
one of the largest trading empires in history over the next
fi ve centuries. Th eir goods were shipped all over the Medi-
terranean and even into the Atlantic to the Canary Islands
and Britain. To what extent these commercial ventures were
private enterprises and or were state-fi nanced is unknown.
Luxury items, such as jewelry, fi ne cloth, and perfumes, were
among their trade items, but the most highly prized were met-
als. Th us they brought copper from Cyprus, iron from Crete,
gold and lead from Morocco, and possibly tin from Britain.
All of these imports were used in trade for food and other
goods, many of which were traded in their turn.
Around 950 b.c.e. Tyre bought a large agricultural area
from Israel, freeing the Phoenician city from having to im-
port food. As a result, Tyre could use its full range of trad-
ing stock to enrich itself. It quickly became the wealthiest of
the Phoenician city-states and, indeed, one of the wealthiest
cities in the ancient Near East. Th e collapse of the Assyrian
state around 600 b.c.e. freed the Phoenician city-states from
having to pay tribute. Th e respite was temporary, for within a
century the Phoenicians found themselves paying tribute to
a new state, Persia.
THE PERSIANS
In the early sixth century b.c.e., under the Achaemenid
Dynasty, Persia subjugated an even larger area than the As-
syrians, ruling over the region from Asia Minor and the
Mediterranean to India. Initially, as with the Assyrians, lo-
cal economic institutions of the Persian Near East remained
unchanged. Indeed, in Mesopotamia, for example, the dis-
tributive economy remained unchanged, and the labor tax
remained in force; likewise, the Phoenician city-states con-
tinued their profi table trading. Th roughout the entire Persian
domain, payment in kind for taxes continued, even though
currency in the form of coinage began to appear.
Th e Achaemenids divided their empire into provinces,
called satrapies. Th e governor (satrap) of each was respon-
sible for col lecting ta xes, some of which were sent to t he Ach-
aemenid capitals (Susa, Ecbatana, and Persepolis) as tribute.
Th e tribute payment was partially in silver and partially in
kind and was calculated on the basis of the affl uence of the
people and the agricultural yield of each satrapy. During the
reign of Xerxes I (519–465 b.c.e.), for instance, the eastern
satrapy of Media was assessed a tribute of 100,000 sheep in
addition to a large sum of silver. Th e province also had to
provide enough pasture for 50,000 royal horses. Th e king ex-
empted the Persian heartland from this taxation, although
Persians, like residents in the satrapies, were subject to a
military corvée.
Trade was also an important part of the Persian econ-
omy, and since the state contained many important trade
routes, the Persians controlled much of Near Eastern trade.
To make it easier for traders and their goods to move along
these routes, the Persian king Darius I (r. 522–486 b.c.e.) im-
proved the roads by straightening and maintaining them,
thus increasing the amount of trade traffi c. He also posted
soldiers along the roads to deter bandits who preyed on trade
caravans.
Agriculture saw innovations that increased productiv-
ity and thus brought in more taxes to the royal treasury. Th e
construction of underground channels brought water from
the mountains to dry regions, thus enlarging the amount of
arable land. Rice, imported from India, was planted in wet
areas that previously had not been usable for agriculture.
Another important economic innovation during the sixth
and fi ft h centuries b.c.e. was banking, which now appeared
for the fi rst time in the Near East. Two banking houses, Egibi
and Sons and Murashu and Sons, operated in Babylonia at
this time. Th ese and other banks extended credit in the form
of loans to individuals and to businesses that needed capital
to pay taxes or to fi nance new commercial enterprises. Loans
per se were nothing new. In both northern and southern
Mesopotamia, oikoi, particularly temples, had always loaned
barley, dates, or other food to their own members when nec-
essary. Th e borrower would then repay the loan in kind at the
next harvest. Most of these loans had no interest, though if a
borrower failed to repay a loan, the lender might add a pen-
alty of up to 25 percent to the loan.
Th e banks that appeared in the Persian-controlled Near
East were private organizations that operated as profi t-mak-
ing businesses. Th ey not only issued loans but also engaged
in real estate transactions and underwrote promising busi-
ness ventures. Still, loans were at the heart of this banking
business, and these loans oft en carried high interest rates,
sometimes 20 percent a month. With such high interest, the
amount of a debt could rise quickly beyond an individual’s
ability to repay. When a borrower defaulted on a loan, a lender
could take possession of the person’s property. Th e banker
could also seize the borrower and sometimes his or her fam-
ily and sell them into slavery to help recoup the loan.
Loans became a necessity for many under Xerxes I, who
raised taxes steeply. Th e Persian king also demanded that
more of each year’s tribute be paid not in kind but in gold and
silver. Th e result of these royal measures was that merchants
and landowners had to take out loans to pay their taxes. Of-
ten, in order to pay the exorbitant interest rates, borrowers
had to allow lenders the right to work their land or run their
businesses. It was then the lenders who reaped the profi ts and
oft en gained possession of their clients’ assets.
With the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great (356–
323 b.c.e.), Near Eastern economies, especially those along the
Mediterranean coast, came increasingly under the infl uence of
fi rst the Greeks and eventually the Romans. But through the
last centuries b.c.e. and the fi rst centuries c.e. ancient Near354 economy: The Middle East