In September, the vintage was gathered. Grain of all kinds,
wheat, barley, millet, zea, and other sorts, grew in abundance; the
wheat commonly yielded thirty for one. Besides the vine and the
olive, the almond, the date, figs of many kinds, the orange, the
pomegranates, and many other fruit-trees, flourished in the greatest
luxuriance. Great quantity of honey was collected. The balm tree,
which produced the opobalsamum, a great object of trade, was probably
introduced from Arabia in the time of Solomon. It nourished about
Jericho and in Gilead."
This is but a portion of the sketch. The wealth and commerce of the
country is thus told:
"The only public revenue of the Hebrew commonwealth was that of the
sacred treasury, the only public expenditure that of the religious
worship. This was supported by a portion of the spoils taken in war;
the first fruits, which in their institution were no more than could
be carried in a basket, at a later period were rated to be one part in
sixty; the redemption of the first born, and of whatever was vowed to
the Lord. Almost every thing of the last class might be commuted for
money according to a fixed scale. The different annual festivals were
well calculated to promote internal commerce: maritime or foreign
trade, is scarcely mentioned in the law, excepting in two obscure
prophetic intimations of advantages, which the tribes of Dan and
Zebulun were to derive from their maritime situation.
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