however, and probably earlier, the commerce of Britain was considerable.
Strabo, who died at the beginning of that emperor's reign, informs us, that
corn, cattle, gold, silver, tin, lead, hides, and dogs, were the
commodities furnished by the Britons. The tin and lead, he adds, came from
the Cassiterides. According to Camden, 800 vessels, laden with corn, were
freighted annually to the continent; but this assertion rests on very
doubtful authority, and cannot be credited if it applies to Britain, even
very long after the Roman conquest. Though Strabo expressly mentions gold
and silver among the exports, yet Caesar takes notice of neither; and
Cicero, in his epistles, writing to his friend, respecting Britain, states,
on the authority of his brother, who was there, that there were neither of
these metals in the island. The dogs of Britain formed a very considerable
and valuable article of export; they seem to have been known at Rome even
before Caesar's expedition: the Romans employed them in hunting, and the
Gauls in hunting and in their wars: they were of different species. Bears
were also exported for the amphitheatres; but their exportation was not
frequent till after the age of Augustus. Bridle ornaments, chains, amber,
and glass ware, are enumerated by Strabo among the exports from Britain;
but, according to other authors, they were imported into it. Baskets, toys
made of bone, and oysters, were certainly among the exports; and, according
to Solinus, gagates, or jet, of which Britain supplied a great deal of the
best kind. Chalk was also, according to Martial, an article of export:
there seems to have been British merchants whose sole employment was the
exportation of this commodity, as appears by an ancient inscription found
in Zealand, and quoted by Whitaker, in his history of Manchester. This
article was employed as a manure on the marshy land bordering on the Rhine.
Pliny remarks that its effect on the land continued eighty years. The
principal articles imported into Britain were copper and brass, and
utensils made of these metals, earthen ware, salt, &c. The traffic was
carried on partly by means of barter, and partly by pieces of brass and