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Ancient history is very interesting in these matters: back in the Bronze Age, kings such as Pharaoh and the Hittite, Assyrian, Minoan kings actually did interna
by wazoox 7y ago
Ancient history is very interesting in these matters: back in the Bronze Age, kings such as Pharaoh and the Hittite, Assyrian, Minoan kings actually did international trade through "gifts".
For instance the Pharaoh was in need of cedar wood, so he would write to the King of the Assyrians in Sumerian (the lingua franca of the time) "Dear cousin, I would like to send you some gifts but I'm out of boats. Cheers, Ramses".
To which his "dear cousin" would reply "Dear cousin, I'm sending you these cedar logs so that you can build these boats you need. Did I tell you that drought has hit Niniveh and the corn is scarce? Yours, Sennahcherib". Then Pharaoh would send back boats full of grain, and so on.
- wl 7y agoThe thrust of your comment is more or less correct, but you make several significant errors in the details. Akkadian, not Sumerian was the language of international diplomacy in the period you speak of. Sennacherib came later in the Iron Age. And if the Egyptians needed cedar, they'd write to Byblos (which during the New Kingdom, was a tributary state more often than not), not Assyria.
- aYsY4dDQ2NrcNzA 7y agoMore, please.
- lowdose 7y agoWould be awesome to get a good book referral for this indeed.
- thaumasiotes 7y agoThe original comment is almost certainly thinking of https://www.amazon.com/dp/0199858683/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/0199858683/ (Brotherhood of Kings: How International Relations Shaped the Ancient Near East). It's a very good book. A minor theme is indeed that Mesopotamian city-kings had a hard time trading with Egypt. Mesopotamia seems to have produced mostly textiles, which Egypt made domestically. What Egypt needed from international trade was copper and wood. All the Mesopotamian city-kings wanted gold, though, which came from Egypt. They could get this one time, by marrying a daughter to the Pharaoh. We have an example of Pharaonic correspondence with a king who repeatedly asked for unworked gold, finally sent a daughter over, received a mountain of gold in return, and concluded by complaining that the gold had been worked (into statues). I assume many of those statues got melted down. There is some discussion in https://www.amazon.com/dp/0670022667/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/0670022667/ (Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization) of how the Phoenician city-states of the bronze age (source of cedar wood to Egypt) gradually succumbed over the centuries to Assyrian empire-building. It's not the main focus of the book though.
- lowdose 7y agoThank you! Since I heard about the Antikythera mechanism more ancient times have sparked an interest.