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[German version] As early as Herodotus, information about  India was compiled and a colourful picture was drawn of the morals and dietary habits of the Indians as well as the way in which they extracted gold (Hdt. 3,97-106), but it was not until the campaign of Alexander that Greece developed any sustained interest in India (Arr. Ind.; Diod. Sic. 2,35-42; Str. 15,1; Plin. HN 6,56-106). Extensive and regular trade in the early Hellenistic period hardly existed, although trading contacts may have le…

[German version] In the Hellenistic period there already was a long history of trade relations between the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East on the one hand, and India and the Far East on the other. Goods were mainly transported by land; each section of the land routes from the Mediterranean to India and China was controlled by the peoples whose land it crossed, and who profited from the caravan trade (CT) as intermediaries. Several routes are mentioned in the literature: while the trade rou…

[German version] The core of the debate triggered by M. I. Finley [1] on the ancient economy deals with the quantitative and qualitative classification of trade and  commerce within the entire scheme of the ancient economy. Clearly, more modern economic historical research is interested above all in the cities and their position in the ancient economy. The cities were designated as consumer cities by the ‘primitivists’ and ‘neo-primitivists’ in imitation of Max Weber. This perspective could be based above all on the comprehensive grain imports to Athens and Rome. In contrast to thi…

[German version] I. Ancient Orient (Egypt, South-West Asia, India) Archaeologically attested since the Neolithic and documented since the 3rd millennium BC, long-distance or overland commerce -- as opposed to exchange and allocation of goods on a local level according to daily needs -- was founded on the necessity for ensuring the supply of so-called strategic goods (metal, building timber) not available domestically, as well as on the demand for luxury and prestige goods, or the materials required for producing them. In historical times, the organization of commerce was a…