Before the Persian wars, the developing Greek trade focused around a number of harbours and cities, which due to their geographical position were suitable for trade centres. The most important among them were Corinth, Aegina and Athens in the Greek mainland. Equally important were Miletus in Asia Minor, which controlled trade between Asia Minor and the Mediterranean, and Naucratis in Egypt, which controlled trade routes between the Mediterranean and Egypt (Herodotus, Historia 2.39.6-9). Lastly Carthage and Massalia were major trade centres of the West.

In the 6th century BC Corinth and Aegina dominated the Aegean and westwards as far as Sicily and South Italy. The trade stations of Samos, Miletus and Chios exploited markets in the Near East and Egypt.

The first Greeks who engaged in trade co-operated initially with the Phoenicians, who had already been estalished as merchants. They were mainly adventurers whose main occupation was buying and selling rare articles (Simonides of Ceos, extract 16). But still, Greek trade based mostly on producers and secondly on this group of adventurers.

| introduction | agriculture | trade | state organization | Archaic Period

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