The Cassiterides : an inquiry into the commercial operations of the Phoenicians in western Europe, with particular reference to the British tin trade / by George Smith.

  • George Smith
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Cassiterides : an inquiry into the commercial operations of the Phoenicians in western Europe, with particular reference to the British tin trade / by George Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Questions of this kind do not admit of very clear and ample proof. This tin trade was begun and carried on in remote times,—- indeed, before the age of authentic history commenced; and by a people who have left neither literary nor monumental memorials of their doings. We must, therefore, he content with such scattered and unconsecutive evi- dence as it may he possible to collect. Some facts may he mentioned in limine, respecting which no doubt can exist. Tin was known on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean in the most ancient times. It was found among the spoils of the Midianites in the days of Moses.* The Greeks used it before the Trojan war, to mix with copper for the manufacture of armour and weapons. It is, indeed, an undoubted fact, that tin is mentioned in the most ancient authors, neither as a rare nor as a very precious metal, t It is also certain, that this metal was not a product of Phoenicia, Syria, or Judea. The great marts of Tyre and Egypt must therefore have been supplied either by overland or maritime transit. A # Numbers xxxi. 22. s t “ Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients. By W. Vincent, D.D.,” vol. i., p. 308.
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