William Dalrymple’s
fascinating FT piece on ancient caves of Maharashtra (India) includes this
interesting nugget on ancient world’s balance of payments problem:
"The 2nd century BC was a period of great expansion of
international trade, and these monasteries, remote as they may seem to us, were
built on the trade routes of their time. The valleys they crown once saw the
frequent passage of the caravans of the great merchant houses bringing luxury
goods – ebony, teak and sandalwood, elephant tusks and translucent Indian
textiles, pepper and cinnamon – to the coast where they would be shipped by
Egyptian Jews and Greek middle men to the Red Sea and hence, via Alexandria, to
Antioch and Rome.
All this led to a dramatic drain of western gold and silver to
India, something that both Pliny and Strabo comment on with some anxiety in
their writings. At the peak of the trade, during the reign of Nero, a south
Indian embassy was sent to Rome to discuss the latter’s balance of payments
problems.”