Their commerce was carried on, as it had been before the time of
Sesostris, by foreigners. The Old Testament informs us, that in the time of
Solomon many horses were brought from Egypt: and, from the same authority,
as well as from Herodotus and Homer, we learn that the Phoenicians carried
on a regular and lucrative traffic with this country; and, indeed, for a
long time, about this period, they were the only nation to whom the ports
of Egypt were open. Of the navigation and commerce of the Red Sea they were
equally negligent; so that while none of their ships were seen on it, it
was covered with the fleets of the Syrians, Phoenicians, and other nations.
Bocchoris, who lived about seven hundred years before Christ, is
represented by historians as having imitated the maxims of Sesostris, with
respect to maritime affairs and commerce. Some of his laws on these
subjects are still extant; and they display his knowledge of, and attention
to, the improvement of his kingdom. By some of his immediate successors the
ancient maxims of the Egyptians, which led them to avoid intercourse with
strangers, were gradually done away; but it is to Psammeticus, historians
ascribe the most decisive measures for rooting out this antipathy. In his
reign the ports of Egypt were first opened to foreign ships generally. He
seems particularly to have encouraged commercial intercourse with the
Greeks; though afterwards, either from some particular cause of jealousy or
dislike to this nation, or from the still operating antipathy of the
Egyptians to foreigners, the Greeks were not permitted to enter any port
except Naucratis, which they had been suffered to build for the residence
of their merchants and convenience of their trade.
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