COMMERCE (Lat. commercium, commerce, interchange, from coot-, together 'mem, mer chandise, front Lat. merere, to gain, Gk. taper, nicros, share). In its general acceptation, a term denoting international traffic in goods, or what constitutes the foreign trade of all countries as distinguished from domestic trade. The first for merchants of whom we read, carrying goods and bags of silver from one region to another, were the Arabs, the reputed descendants of Ish mael and Esau. Their trade was by land. The first maritime earriers of goods were the Phcenieians, who dwelt on a narrow' strip of land on the east ern shore of the Mediterranean, and were the founders of t-he great emporiums of Tyre and Sidon. The Phcenieians established an easier and securer passage between Egypt and Syria than had before been known. The corn and wine of the Nile, and the oil, silk, dyes, and spices of western Asia flowed through their hands. From carriers they became merchants, and to merchandise they added manufactures. They traversed the shores of the Mediter ranean, established colonies in the Greek is lands and founded Carthage, one of the most noted commercial cities of the ancient world.
The power of the Phmnicians disappeared with the rise of the Greek eities—Athens Corinth— and of their colonies; of Carthage, then in full fame: and of Alexandria, the great seaport founded by Alexander the Great.
While Rome was giving laws and order to the half-civilized tribes of Ital•, Carthage. operat ing on a different base and by other methods, was opening trade with less accessible parts of Europe. The strength of Rome was in her le gions, but that of Carthage in her ships; and her ships could reach realms where lenions were powerless. Her mariners had passed' the mys terious Pillars of Hercules into the Atlantic, and established the port of Cadiz. They founded Carthagena and Barcelona, and had depots and traders on the shores of Gaul. This prosperity of their commerce led to wars with Rome, which ended in B.C. 146 with the destruction of Car thage. In the same year the Romans captured and burned Corinth, which was then an important commercial city. In A.D. 273 land commerce suf fered a disastrous blow, when Palmyra was in great part destroyed by the Romans.