The author of the Periplus of the Red Sea, informs us that, before the
discovery of the monsoon, by Hippalus, small vessels had made a coasting
voyage from Cana, in Arabia, to the Indies. But these irregular and
trifling voyages are deserving of little consideration, and do not militate
against the position we have laid down and endeavoured to prove, that in
the time of the Ptolemies the commerce of Egypt was confined within the
limits of the Red Sea, partly from the want of skill and enterprize, and
from the dangers that were supposed to exist beyond the straits, but
principally because the commodities of India could be procured in the ports
of Sabaea.
Many instances have already been given of the patronage which the Ptolemies
bestowed on commerce, of the facilities and advantages they afforded, and
of the benefits which the science of geography derived from the library and
observatory of Alexandria: every instrument which could facilitate the
study of astronomy was purchased by the Ptolemies and placed in that
observatory, for they were fully aware of the dependency of a full and
accurate knowledge of geography, as a science, on a full and accurate
knowledge of astronomy. With respect to commerce, the advancement of which,
may fairly be supposed to have had some weight in their patronage of these
sciences, they encouraged it as much as possible to centre in Alexandria,
and with citizens of Egypt, by making it a standing law of the country,
that no goods should pass through the capital, either to India or Europe,
without the intervention of an Alexandrian factor, and that even when
foreign merchants resided there, they should employ the same agency.
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