Expert: Maria - 1/25/2005

Question
Where did the Minoan's trade.  Did they trade only in the Eastern Mediterranean or did the trade elsewhere, and if so, where did they trade and what?  

Answer
Hello Nathan,

In the 2000s BC, the people of Crete, i.e. the Minoans,  began to sail the Mediterranean Sea, making contact with other peoples for trade purposes.
It was in fact from trade that they derived their surplus, unlike Babylon and Egypt which relied mainly on agricultural surplus.
The Minoans traded not only with  the Eastern Shores of the Mediterranean, like Asia Minor and Syria, but also with :
-Mesopotamia

-Egypt in  Southern Mediterranean

-the rural societies that were then settling around the Aegean basin

- the tribal clans living on the Greek mainland

-Italy and Spain in Western Mediterranean from where it seems they imported tin through the harbor city of Tartessos on the south coast of Spain, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir.The inhabitants of Tartessos  seem in fact to have been the ones to discover the route to the Tin Islands (Britain,or more precisely the Scilly Islands). Tin was of course a much-wanted product in those days, as it was necessary for the production of bronze.

-maybe Kolchida (today Georgia), Romania, Northern Turkey around the Black Sea where it seems that they had trade outposts or small colonies, according to many historians and archaeologists.


As for the goods they traded, their most important re-exports were ceramics, copper, tin, gold, and silver . They in fact not only traded manufactured goods, such as pottery and metalwork which were made on the island of Crete, but  also acted as middle men, trading raw materials and finished products throughout the Mediterranean.
The Minoans were in fact the unrivaled long distance traders of the Mediterranean and their ships carried  the products of Minoan and other societies throughout the Aegean and  Mediterranean to trade, as we read in Egyptian writings where Minoans (called Keftu) are always mentioned as a traders.

Hope this outline can be helpful to you.
Best regards
Maria