=Trade.=—The trade of Egypt appears to have been chiefly in the hands of the seafaring folk of the Delta, who probably worked the imports and exports of the country in connection with the Semitic merchants who traded in the seaports of Phoenicia and the Mediterranean generally. The chief =export= of Egypt was =corn=, which was carried all over the Mediterranean, and we know from Genesis xii, xli-xliii, that when grain was scarce in other countries, the merchants were in the habit of going to Egypt to supply their wants. At intervals, however, serious famines came upon Egypt (Genesis xli, 55, 56), and when corn could not be imported, the mortality among the people was very great. In the reign of Ptolemy III (B.C. 247) there was a famine in Egypt, and the King expended much gold in purchasing grain at a high price to save the lives of the people of Egypt, and he caused corn to be brought to Egypt from Eastern Syria, and Phoenicia, and Cyprus. Next in importance came the =linen= of Egypt, which, in the form of byssus, was famous throughout Western Asia. Under the XVIIIth dynasty considerable quantities of =gold= were exported from Egypt to Northern Syria, Assyria and Babylonia. The gold came from the Eastern Sûdân and Punt, where at that time (B.C. 1500) it was produced in such large quantities that Tushratta writing to Ȧmen-ḥetep III says: “Send me so much gold that it cannot be measured, more gold than that thou didst send to my father; for in my brother’s land (_i.e._, Egypt), gold is as common as dust”! (Tell al-Amarna tablet, No. 8.) According to Diodorus (ed. Didot, p. 41) Rameses II received from his gold and silver mines in one year metal to the value of 32,000,000 minas, or £80,000,000 sterling. Another article of export was paper manufactured from =papyrus=.