“Behold the Phoenicians, whose ships dance across the waves, carrying treasures from distant lands to our shores.”
This quote comes from an unknown contemporary back in antiquity. We may not know the name or the context, but I think it gives us a feel for how the ancient Phoenicians were seen in their day.
The Phoenician civilization existed for several centuries around the year 1200 BC. Their homeland was in the eastern Mediterranean region – roughly where Lebanon is today.
The Phoenicians played a key role in shaping the world back in biblical times. In fact, the people who hailed from this civilization were referred to as the Canaanites in the Bible itself.
What set the Phoenicians apart was that they were a commercial civilization. They were traders and merchants. That was incredibly rare during this period in history.
At the time, most other civilizations established war-based cultures. They lived in a zero-sum world where the only way to get ahead was to conquer your neighbor and take his stuff.
The Phoenicians were different. They focused on building a positive-sum world. That is to say, a world based on trades where both parties win.
And as the quote above indicates, the Phoenicians were world-renowned for shipbuilding and sailing.
As such, they developed an incredible set of trade routes throughout the ancient world. The following graphic gives us a visual:
We can see Byblos marked on the far right of this map. That’s the Phoenician homeland.
And we can see that they built trade routes to the west that connected the eastern Mediterranean with Egypt and northern Africa. And these routes extended all the way out to southern Europe – modern day Italy and
Spain.
We don’t have perfect records, but there’s evidence that the Phoenicians may have extended their trade routes even farther west into the Atlantic. It’s possible they went as far as modern day England and Ireland.
The Phoenicians also built trade routes to the north that connected western Asia to Cyprus and modern day Greece. It was an incredible network.
And keep in mind this wasn’t just about transporting goods. Trade networks like this also served to spread ideas. They brought new information and new ways of doing things.
This is critical.
The free-flow of information is arguably even more important than the flow of goods. Ideas and cultural exchange are what truly shape the world.
And that’s one of the core ideas that underpins our new investment membership The Phoenician League. Much like the ancient Phoenicians, we are building our own commercial network with this membership.
I think this kind of network is more important today than ever before.
As we discussed yesterday, we are each inundated with loads of information every day. It floods our airwaves and our inboxes.
The problem is, most of this information is just noise. Much of it is nothing more than junk. And if we fill our head with junk, we’re far more likely to make bad decisions.
What we have to understand is that there’s a big difference between information and insight. The more we can sift through the information and focus only on the insight, the better.
Having a robust investment network like The Phoenician League helps us do just that. We cut through the noise and zero-in on what’s really important.
That’s true when it comes to money and investing… and it’s just as true when it comes to boots-on-the-ground intelligence.
Having a commercial network allows us to each relay what we are seeing in our own corners of the world. This provides the context we need to analyze current events.
In many counselors there is security, as the late Gary North used to say.
What’s more, The Phoenician League connects members with specific investments across a range of asset classes.
In fact, we help members build a customized asset allocation model. We maintain a core equity portfolio. And we get members plugged into investments that generate passive income immediately. Our goal is to help everyone achieve financial independence in six to twelve years’ time.
If this sounds like it may be something that’s up your alley, I’d like to invite you to join our membership’s wait list. You can do so right here: The Phoenician League Waiting List
Up to this point we’ve only opened our doors to new members on two
occasions. We do this because we always take the time to onboard everybody individually. This includes personalized attention for those who would like it.
That said, we’ll be opening our doors for a third time very soon. And we’ll give everybody on our official wait list advanced notice and attention.
So please give us a look if you’re interested in this kind of thing. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about another important historical influence: The Hanseatic League.
-Joe Withrow