Re: Questions about Phoenician economy

christophercrawford@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
I would like to ask a few questions regarding a thesis I have been
developing for some years. I realize that most of these questions are
unanswerable, but any information you all can provide would be much
appreciated.

First, what percentage of the Phoenician economy was based on trade?
Were the Phoenicians solely or primarily traders, or did they have much
home-grown economy?

Were the Phoenician cities self-supporting in food production?

Was Phoenician shipping exclusively oar-driven? How far from the coast
did the Phoenician ships travel? How deep were their keels?

What percentage of the Phoenician population was literate? Especially,
what percentage of the upper strata of Phoenician society was literate?

Was Phoenican colonization a response to population pressure, as was
partially the case with Greek colonization later, or was it solely to
establish trading stations?

As I say, any comments here are welcome.

The only reasonable comment is your questions cannot be answered. We have only arguments by analogy. Phoenicians did not collect statistics. Even with Rome we only judge by the grafitti. (Anyone know of any Greek grafitti in Athens?)

All the rest have the same problem.

And there is a greater problem. If all you knew about the US or European economy were the answers to the questions you ask and NO knowledge of what the statistics mean, you would know nothing of interest about either economy.

For example you could get the same numbers from Rome, communist Russia, the US today or the US a century ago or the Mafia and still not be able to tell to which the numbers apply.

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