Banking, Trade & Commerce In Ancient Phoenicia
The kingdoms of ancient Phoenicia are remembered for maritime trading networks that made them wildly prosperous. Through banking and commerce, they maintained economic hegemony in the Mediterranean for a millennium.
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And as the whole world seemingly burned around them, ancient Phoenicia’s little seaside kingdoms sat unscathed. In fact, amid it all, they were growing rich and founding colonies in such distant lands as Portugal.
They, too, faced the threat of demise from the encroaching Late Bronze Age chaos. But when the Sea Peoples arrived on Levantine shores, the clever Phoenicians paid them off — or at least that’s what historians have surmised.
So while their contemporaries were destroyed, the ancient Phoenicians minted new currency, prepared their fleets, and began growing the greatest trade network the Mediterranean had ever seen.