Indian ports, passing on the same docks Indian cotton goods going in the
opposite direction. Even stranger was storax, an aromatic resin from a tree
found in the Mediterranean basin, used in medicine and for incense. Why
nard and costus in India or frankincense and myrrh in Arabia were not con-
sidered to be acceptable substitutes is not clear since storax was exported to
both India and Arabia. With the many ingredients used in medicines and for
pigments coming from the East, the Romans were still able to sell two of
their own mineral products to Indian Ocean customers. Realgar (arsenic
sulfide) was an orange-red substance found, according to Strabo, in a moun-
tain in Anatolia that was so loaded with it the place was called Mount
Realgar. In addition, sulfide of antimony was popular as an eye cosmetic.
The Indians were obviously interested in doing business. TheArthashastra
proclaims that“Imported goods were to be sold in as many places as possible
in order to make them readily available to people in the towns and coun-
tryside,”and incentives were to be given to encourage the importation of
goods. Local merchants who handled foreign goods were to be exempt from
taxes, and foreign merchants could not be sued although their local partners
could. How many of the specific recommendations in theArthashastrawere
actually put into effect is unknown. It set profit margins at 10 percent for
imported goods, for example, which, given the opportunities made available
by this trade, absolutely no one in his right mind would have accepted. But
it does convey an attitude that is very positive and probably reflects the
business-friendly atmosphere in India. Nevertheless, shiploads of pepper and
nard could not be paid for with shiploads of wine and multicolored Egyptian
cloth, and there wasn’t that much coral in the Mediterranean Sea. A serious
balance of trade deficit loomed.
Metals had been a driving force in international trade from early times,
and they continued to be in the Mediterranean to Indian Ocean exchanges. If
the earlier metals trade involving Mesopotamia, Dilmun, Magan, and
Harappan India had some confusing aspects to it, by comparison it is the
picture of clarity when set against this later commerce. The Romans are said
to have carried tin to East Africa, Arabia, and India. Indeed India was short
of tin although there were rich deposits much closer at hand that were being
worked in Malaya and Thailand. The Romans also sent copper to Arabia and
to both northern and southern India although northern India had its own
copper deposits and, according to thePeriplus, exported copper to Oman and
the Persian Gulf. Of course, in the days of ancient Magan this area had been
a major copper exporter, and the ore doesn’t appear to have been exhausted.
The lead trade is another mystery since the Romans exported it to India,
which, again, had its own natural deposits. The iron trade makes some sense
since both the Romans and Indians exported it to Somalia and Ethiopia
although given the superiority of Indian iron and steel, it is puzzling as to
why the Romans enjoyed any share of this market. These matters, however,
pale in importance because the really big business was in precious metals,
96 When India was the center of the world