It is obvious that man must have begun exploitation of natural resources in pre-historic times. The regular distribution of the products began thousands of years before written documents mentioned trade of merchandise. Evidence for trade grows clearer during the neo-lithic age of the Europeans or the new stone age. However, even in the Stone Age trade was not limited to what we term as luxuries. Superior stones for the manufacturers were distributed far from their place of origin.
There is also evidence of trade being carried out in the late Stone Age as in parts of Europe manufacturers were distributed by professional hucksters. It is also likely that neo-lithic merchants dealt in salt and other desirables as well as perishable materials and durable stone artifacts.
The stage of neo-lithic barbarism of north of the Alps was contemporary with Bronze Stage civilization in Egypt and Mesopotamia and was more or less infected by emanations of the new sort of economy established there. Further by 3000B.C. the pharaonic monarchy and in the Nile valley and the Sumerian temple states of the Tigris-Euphrates delta already disposed of gigantic food surplus, derived from the irrigation cultivation of the fertile alluvia and concentrated in the hands of a tiny minority of divine kings , priesthood and potentates.
By 3000 B.C. copper and bronze , timber for building , had become necessities for the urban population.
A medium of exchange became imperative replacing barter in Mesopotamia in the third millennium. The first such medium accepted and most convenient was barley though metal and silver were accepted. This remained in Mesopotamia for two millennia. Transition from natural economy to money economy began here with the adoption of a metallic standard.
Merchants did not come into Egypt, on their own until second millennium as in Egypt during the first Kingdom and the Middle kingdom there was les scope for merchants as Egyptians secured largely through their expeditions.
Seafaring trade began when the neo-lithic farmers and fisherman of Crete were joined by refugees from the Nile Delta and fresh colonists from Syria began bringing with them technical and artistic traditions of Egypt and Asia.
During the Middle Eastern Bronze Age and before the close of the European Stone Age we have examples of seafaring trade reaching distances of even thousands of miles. It is estimated that from 1550B.C. to 1450 B.C. amber beads imported from the Baltic began to appear in Mycenae and Knossos.
The Bronze Age in the near East ended with barbarian inroads as a result of possession of iron weapons which threatened whole civilized world with chaos and hurled the two latest outposts of civilization , Greece and Asia Minor, back into illiteracy. However, use of wrought iron also revolutionalised technique, tools and implements. Iron popularized agriculture and industry.
Soon the new cities formed by the Phoenicians and the Greeks were overseas settlements of emigrants farmers. Soon after 800 B.C. Assyrian and Syrian kings began stamping bars of silver, guaranteeing the quality of the metal. The initiation of coinage around 700B.C.simplified all commercial operations.
Further trade was simplified during Hellenic age by the political unification of large areas, monetary reforms, and improvements in shipping, the construction of light houses and harbours and road building. Further Alexander established for his whole empire a unitary currency, based on the Attic standard on which the Roman denarius was also based. His policy was followed by most of his successors. Thus this first ever common currency followed in the world was another reason for development of trade.
As a result of the developments of trade at the close of Hellenic age the volume of trade was greater than ever, both within the Mediterranean and with its Hellenic extensions into Africa and Asia. Before the Hellenic age came to an end all the civilizations known were linked by trade.
One of the three routes for the trading vessels of the Roman Empire to enter the Far East included the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. The Romans bent their trade efforts more towards India.The reason for the Romans to establish themselves in this region was that it was here alone the beryls and pearls which Rome was prepared to pay any amount were available. Romans also set a great value for pepper. The Roman contacts mainly existed in the south of India and with the Tamils as the great beryl-mines were there and in the Nilghiri Hills lamps .vases and coins of this period were unearthed which open new ways for existence of trade.
Tamil poems speak of the “ cool and fragrant wine brought by the Yavana in their god ships and their return laden with pepper”.
The traffic was extended to the Island of Ceylon. From along this coast came pearls, muslin, and tortoise- shell in great quantities. It is also clear that the pearl fisheries were worked by condemned criminals.
In160 A.D one of the merchants among those who steadily kept on moving towards east, reached China, which never happened by sea before. The Romans had always wanted trade relations with China. But the discovery was made at a time when the empire was becoming weak due to bad management.
Thus these extended trade links of the early trade must have had considerable impact on the development of trade in the early Maldives.
References
Johannsson, H. (1965). Early Trade. Kuala Lumpur: Loyal Press.
M.P.Charlesworth. (1924). Trade-Routes and Commerce of the Roman Empire. England: Cambridge University Press.
