As far back as the time of the Phoenicians, those redoubtable pioneers of commerce and exploration. Ophir and Tarshish (probably in Spain), and the coasts of West Africa appear to have been exploited for their gold. In the days of King Solomon we are told that ” silver was nothing accounted of ” by Eastern princes and monarchs, whose palaces and thrones were decked with gold, either brought from India, where the aborigines slaved for their princely conquerors from the north, or from Africa and the west by the Phoenicians.

The “dumb commerce,” by which the Phoenicians art said to have carried on their commerce with African natives, is thus described by Herodotus :
” Outside the pillars of Hercules (i.e. the two pro¬montories which shut in the Straits of Gibraltar) there are people living in Libya. The Carthaginians come to their country and unload their wares and, after arranging them on the beach, return on board their ships, and light a fire. The natives, seeing the smoke of the fire, come to the sea coast and put down gold in exchange for the wares, and withdraw to a distance.

The Carthaginians then disembark and look at the quantity of gold, and if they think it is enough, they take it up and go away; if it is not enough, they go back to their ships and wait there. Then the natives approach and add more gold till they satisfy the Carthaginians. Neither side treats the other unfairly ; the Carthaginians do not touch the gold till it has been made equal to the value of the goods, and the natives do not touch the wares till the Carthaginians have taken the gold away ” (Her. iv. 196).
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