[+]Salt fish were a very usual and important article of Greek commerce.

80.  Athenian Money-changers and Bankers.—­An important factor in the commerce of Athens is the “Money-changer.”  There is no one fixed standard of coinage for Greece, let alone the Barbarian world.  Athens strikes its money on a standard which has very wide acceptance, but Corinth has another standard, and a great deal of business is also transacted in Persian gold darics.  The result is that at the Peireus and near the Agora are a number of little “tables” where alert individuals, with strong boxes beside them, are ready to sell foreign coins to would-be travelers, or exchange darics for Attic drachme, against a pretty favorable commission.

This was the beginning of the Athenian banker; but from being a mere exchanger he has often passed far beyond, to become a real master of credit and capital.  There are several of these highly important gentlemen who now have a business and fortune equal to that of the famous Pasion, who died in 370 B.C.  While the firm of Pasion and Company was at its height, the proprietor derived a net income of at least 100 mine (over $1,800 [1914] or $30,248.07 [2000]) per year from his banking; and more than half as much extra from a shield factory.[*]

[*]These sums seem absurdly small for a great money magnate, but the very high purchasing power of money in Athens must be borne in mind.  We know a good deal about Pasion and his business from the speeches which Deosthenes composed in the litigation which arose over his estate.

81.  A Large Banking Establishment.—­Enter now the “tables” of Nicanor.  The owner is a metic; perhaps he claims to come from Rhodes, but the shrewd cast of his eyes and the dark hue of his skin gives a suggestion of the Syrian about him.  In his open office a dozen young half-naked clerks are seated on low chairs—­each with his tablet spread out upon his knees laboriously computing long sums.[*] The proprietor himself acts as the cashier.  He has not neglected the exchange of foreign moneys; but that is a mere incidental.  His first visitor this morning presents a kind of letter of credit from a correspondent in Syracuse calling for one hundred drachme.  “Your voucher?” asks Nicanor.  The stranger produces the half of a coin broken in two across the middle.  The proprietor draws a similar half coin from a chest.  The parts match exactly, and the money is paid on the spot. the next comer is an old acquaintance, a man of wealth and reputation; he is followed by two slaves bearing a heavy talent of coined silver which he wishes the banker to place for him on an advantageous loan, against a due commission.  The third visitor is a well-born but fast and idle young man who is squandering his patrimony on flute girls and chariot horses.  He wishes an advance of ten mine, and it is given him—­against the mortgage of a house, at the ruinous interest of 36 per cent, for such prodigals are perfectly fair