Note 573 — Chapter XX · EGYPTIANS.
Reading edition
Strabo, xvi, pp. 766, 776, 778; Pliny, H. N. vi, 32. “Arabes, mirum dictu, ex innumeris populis pars æqua in commerciis aut latrociniis degunt: in universum gentes ditissimæ, ut apud quas maximæ opes Romanorum Parthorumque subsistant,—vendentibus quæ a mari aut sylvis capiunt, nihil invicem redimentibus.”
The latter part of this passage of Pliny presents an enunciation sufficiently distinct, though by implication only, of what has been called the mercantile theory in political economy.