The Greeks traded with their neighbors in the Mediterranean region. They sold them wine, oil and pottery in exchange for grain and metals such as copper and tin, and they also traded with people in India, Persia and China.
The Greeks were able to trade in large quantities because they had plenty of natural resources available to them, such as fertile land and a mild climate that allowed crops to grow year-round. They also invented shipbuilding techniques that allowed them to build larger ships capable of carrying more cargo at once than their ancestors’ smaller ships had been able to carry before then.
The Greeks had many ports where ships would dock to trade goods or spend the night. The most famous port city was Athens, which was located on the Aegean Sea.
The main trading partners of the Greeks were other Greek city states or colonies in Sicily or Asia Minor (Turkey). However, they also traded with Carthage (North Africa), Egypt, Persia (Iran) and other parts of Asia including India and China.
The Greeks used money not only for buying things but also as a means of paying taxes or rents on land owned by wealthy people who did not want to be bothered with collecting their own produce from their estates. Merchants often became rich from trading goods like wine or olive oil from one part of Greece to another where there was a shortage in those products.
