International Commerce
Success in competing for international markets affected the fortunes of Greek
city-states during this period. The city-state of
Corinth1, for example, grew prosperous from ship building and its geographical
location controlling the narrow isthmus of land connecting northern and southern Greece.
Since ships plying the east-west sea lanes of the Mediterranean preferred to avoid the
stormy passage around the tip of southern Greece, they commonly off-loaded their cargoes
for transshipment on a special roadbed built across the isthmus and subsequent reloading
on different ships on the other side. Small ships may even have been dragged over the
roadbed from one side of the isthmus to the other. Corinth became a bustling center for
shipping and earned a large income from sales and harbor taxes. Taking advantage of its
deposits of fine clay and
the expertise of a growing number of
potters2, Corinth
also developed a thriving export trade in fine decorated pottery, which non-Greek
peoples such as
Etruscans in central Italy seem to have prized as luxury
goods3. By the late sixth century B.C., however, Athens began to displace Corinth as
the leading Greek exporter of fancy painted pottery, especially after consumers came to
prefer designs featuring the red color for which its clay was better suited than
Corinth's.
