ailed much longer.
The precious metals were kept in the temples under the tutelage of the
deities. During the XXVth and XXVIth Dynasties silver of the treasury of
Harshafe (at Heracleopolis Magna) was commonly prescribed in contracts,
and in the reign of Darius we hear of silver of the treasury of Ptah (at
Memphis). Aryandes, satrap of Egypt, is said by Herodotus to have been
punished by Darius for coining money of equal fineness with that of the
king in Persia: thus coinage had then begun in Egypt. But the early
coins that have been found there are mainly Greek, and especially
Athenian, and it was not until the introduction of a regular currency in
the three metals under the Ptolemies that much use was made of coined
money.

Corn was the staple produce of Egypt and may have been exported
regularly, and especially when there was famine in other countries. In
the Tell el-Amarna letters the friendly kings ask Pharaoh for "much
gold." Papyrus rolls and fine linen were good merchandise in Phoenicia
in the 10th century B.C. From the earliest times Egypt was dependent on
foreign countries to supply its wants in some degree. Vessels were
fashioned in foreign stone as early as the Ist Dynasty. All silver must
have been imported, and all copper except a little that the Pharaohs
obtained from the mines of Sinai. Cedar wood was brought from the
forests of Lebanon, ivory, leopard skins and gold from the south, all
kinds of spices and ingredients of incense from Somaliland and Arabia,
fine linen and beautifully worked vessels from Syria and the islands.
Such supplies might be obtained by forcible raiding or as tribute of
conquered countries, or perhaps as the free offerings of simple savages
awed by the arrival of ships and civilized well-armed crews, or again by
royal missions in which rich gifts on both sides were exchanged, or
lastly by private trading. For deciding how large a share was due to
trade, there is almost no evidence. But there are records of expeditions
sent out by the king to obtain the rarities of different countries, and
the hero of the Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor was upon this quest.
Egyptian objects of the age of the XVIIIth Dynasty are found in the
Greek islands and on the mainland among remains of the Mycenaean epoch,
and on the other hand the products of the workshops of Crete and other
centres of that culture are found in Egypt and are figured as "tribute
of the Keftiu" in the tomb-paintings, though we h