Original subtitles

**

Thousands of years ago,

ancient powers ruled our world.

**

Egypt, China, India, Greece, and Rome,

players in a high stakes game of strategy and luck.

Success will bring them wealth and immortality, failure...

oblivion and death.

In their battle for survival, each civilisation

will face the same challenges.

How they respond will shape their destiny.

**

In this episode, "Making Money,"

when wealth means strength, our ancient powers

must get rich by trading their treasures

and monetising their assets.

Who will succeed in the world of commerce?

**

Our ancient powers have overcome their latest challenge.

**

They have built their empires

and left permanent marks on the landscape.

Now they face their next great test,

and one civilisation seems to have a head start.

**

**

After suffering a century of rebellion and war,

Egypt has recaptured its lost territories in the south.

It is the beginning of the New Kingdom.

Now they have peace,

and they want their empire to flourish.

But how can they achieve this?

**

Egypt is often thought of as a gift of the Nile,

but in fact it's actually a gift of the desert.

The New Kingdom kings knew that they have a special resource.

The unique geology of the eastern desert

and Nubia provided veins of gold throughout the rocks.

This nation is lucky.

There are rich sources of this rare metal

right across the country.

The ancient Egyptian pharaohs

would go to these mining sites,

they would break through the rocks

and get these precious bits of gold,

bring it back to the capital

to produce some of the world's most beautiful artefacts.

These golden objects

lie at the very heart of their beliefs.

Gold was a religious, important, symbolic material.

The gods' skin were covered in gold.

The gods were literally made out of gold.

So for the king to cover his own body in gold,

it was to become divine, to become like the gods.

The ancient Egyptians love this precious metal,

and they have more than even a pharaoh could need,

so they plan to use it to get even richer.

**

They knew no one else around them

had the gold that they did,

so they used their gold to set up political networks,

and this gold was used as a trading pawn.

Everyone was desperate for Egyptian gold.

The pharaohs knew it,

and they made it work to their advantage.

This wealth gives them the upper hand

when they start to barter with their neighbours.

Gold became the currency

for the ancient Egyptians abroad.

With gold, pharaohs could buy whatever they wanted.

They swap their gold for practical necessities

like wood, tin,

and luxuries like silver.

In this letter written on clay,

the king of Cyprus strikes a deal

with Egypt's pharaoh,

asking for a list of goods including jars of fine oil,

linen, horses, and, of course, prized Egyptian gold,

in return, he's sending the pharaoh 100 talents of copper.

**

The Egyptians have become tycoons

in the world of ancient trade, powerful players

who are happy to bend the rules to stay ahead.

And there's one particular instance

where a Near Eastern ruler was very upset

because he was promised gold,

and in return he got wood plated in gold.

**

These kind of slights were upsetting,

and these rulers let the pharaoh know exactly how they felt.

How dare the pharaoh cheat him?

Sharp practise is all part of the game.

But with gold for sale,

the Egyptians are never short of buyers.

Wealthy beyond their wildest dreams,

all they want to do now is flaunt it.

**

In 1323 BCE,

the 19-year-old King Tutankhamun

dies suddenly and is laid to rest.

**

His tomb will lie undisturbed for the next 3,000 years

until, in 1922, it's discovered

and its riches revealed.

I see gold everywhere.

This is a fantastic image.

It shows the sheer scale of things that were in Tut's tomb.

There's chariots pushed against the wall

and there's just furniture and stuff everywhere,

and most of the goods in Tut's tomb

were gilded in gold.

**

This royal tomb contains over 5,000 items--

wine, clothing, beds, chariots, and weapons,

and the most famous Egyptian relic of them all.

Here it is, this is the artefact of Tutankhamun,

the one that we all know.

This is gold. Gold, gold, gold. It's gold and gems and glass.

It's opulence, wealth. It's the power of the pharaoh.

It's his entire empire manifested in one artefact.

Weighing in at over 10 kilograms, Tutankhamun's mask

is a truly international object.

The gold is mined in Egypt, but the intricate decoration

comes from across the ancient world.

Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan,

glass, revolutionary new technology from Mesopotamia,

and black obsidian from Ethiopia.

It's a powerful symbol of the wealth of ancient Egypt

and the value of trade.

Gold made Egypt a powerful trading nation,

but it also enabled them to make some of

the most beautiful things we've ever seen.

**

Gold allows Egypt to enter a golden age.

**

Across the Mediterranean, another ancient power

isn't quite so lucky

and must find a different route to riches.

**

**

Greece is ruled by the Mycenaeans.

**

Based on the mainland, their territory

stretches out across the islands

into modern-day Turkey.

They have natural resources of their own--

olives, wine, and wood, but unlike the Egyptians,

they haven't yet discovered a wealth of valuable metals

in their homelands.

With few precious goods to trade,

how can they make money?

**

In their search for an answer, they turn

to the place they know best, the sea.

**

3,500 years ago,

a ship is sailing across the Mediterranean.

It's a single-masted cargo vessel,

15 metres long and 5 metres wide.

**

It's very interesting.

We know everything about the Mediterranean from that ship.

**

There are at least two Mycenaeans on board.

We know this because we found some personal artefacts

which are two Mycenaean swords

and some Mycenaean pottery.

And we all know that Mycenaeans, they are big seafarers.

**

The ship is carrying precious luxuries

including exotic blue-coloured glass

alongside rare and valuable hippopotamus and elephant tusks,

some fashioned into precious objects.

There are some cosmetic boxes made from ivory.

These duck shaped boxes.

It's a very interesting piece.

And it's very beautiful.

There are also prized ostrich shells,

along with fine weaponry,

intricate pottery, and gold jewellery.

**

The Mycenaeans on board are escorting

these goods from port to port, overseeing deals

and bringing wealth back to their homeland.

But it's not just exotic items this ship is carrying.

**

They were carrying copper and tin ingots

to western parts of the world.

They are the ingredients to making bronze

so it is very important,

if you don't have copper or tin ingot,

you can't make bronze.

There were hundreds of amphoras on this ship.

They were carrying mostly olives and some wines.

So it's a very huge cargo.

**

Transporting 20 tonnes of goods worth a small fortune,

this ship is crisscrossing the whole Mediterranean.

**

They are trading with each other.

They are taking copper from Cyprus

amphoras from Syria

and tin from Iran or Afghanistan.

And they were carrying to western parts of the world

mostly Aegean.

It's an import-export business

that enriches everyone involved,

but it's also risky.

**

Sailing just off the Turkish coast,

this treasure-filled ship sinks

and spills its cargo across the sea floor.

**

The Greeks on board don't survive to enjoy their profits,

but many others do,

bringing exotic luxuries back to Mycenae,

making themselves a fortune

and creating the richest kingdom

in this corner of the ancient world.

**

The Greeks use their mastery of the seas to broker deals

and to build their ancient power.

Nearby, Rome's enormous empire gives it an advantage

in the world of international trade.

**

**

Just over seven centuries after the city was founded,

Rome's first emperor, Augustus, takes control.

He rules a vast state that stretches from Gaul's west coast

all the way to the Syrian border in the east,

almost three million square kilometres,

home to more than 50 million people.

This avaricious empire is getting rich by taxing everyone

and everything it now controls,

and the citizens of its capital city

are consuming all the bounty of its territories.

**

So this is Monte Testaccio.

You could mistake it for one of Rome's many hills

but there's one major difference.

This hill is not natural.

**

When you visit a site like here, you can't help but appreciate

the volume of goods coming into Rome,

tonnes and tonnes of goods every single day.

**

Towering 54 metres high

and covering over 20,000 square metres,

this mound is a massive Roman rubbish dump.

It's entirely made up of clay fragments,

pieces of amphorae,

the trading pots of the ancient world,

all used for just one product--

olive oil.

Olive oil seeps into the clay,

and it becomes rancid.

You don't wanna reuse this.

What you do is you discard it. You put it away somewhere.

And this is our hill for the discarded amphorae.

The Romans are getting through

7 million litres of oil every year,

all imported from far beyond their city.

We know these amphorae came from southern Spain.

Southern Spain was crucial for the olive oil supply in Rome.

**

Rome's million-plus inhabitants are super consumers.

Alongside the Spanish olive oil,

they're eating grain from Egypt,

drinking wine from Gaul and Greece,

they're using timber, marble,

tin, glass, leather, and much more besides.

Rome is a monster devouring

everything it can get its teeth into,

but this greed is a problem.

How can Romans transport all these goods

into their growing city?

Without a solution, they will go hungry.

**

In 42 CE,

this city puts its faith in an ambitious plan,

a building project like no other.

25 kilometres away on the coast,

they begin construction on a gateway

to their vast empire that grows and expands over 60 years.

**

This is Portus, a mega harbour

and at its heart,

a massive hexagonal dock.

**

Today it looks like a nature preserve here.

2,000 years ago, it would've been incredibly different.

The level of engineering here can barely be appreciated.

Built of waterproof concrete,

a Roman innovation,

this vast port holds 350 ships all at once.

**

Enormous buildings,

the warehouses that lined the six sides.

This was a massive, massive endeavour.

**

Every day, ships from all over the empire

offload goods onto its dockside.

But this harbour only solves part of Rome's import problem,

because shifting this vast quantity of goods demands

a distribution network of the same enormous scale,

so the Romans keep on building.

At 150 hectares, Ostia is the largest remaining Roman site

anywhere in the world.

**

This entire city was built for one purpose,

and that was to serve the port.

This is a monument to the Roman economy.

Ship owners, traders, tax inspectors,

warehouse and dock workers make this bustling city their home,

30,000 people who all play their part in making Rome rich.

**

We have a large plaza around us.

On three sides, 61 rooms frame it.

And we would have no idea about the function of these rooms

if not for these mosaics.

**

These mosaics act as hoardings

for the huge variety of goods traded here.

Ears of wheat indicate imported grain,

an elephant, ivory or exotic animals,

and ships and a lighthouse, timber for boats.

At the height of Ostia,

this would've been similar to a Wall Street.

All these deals being made, yelling, money exchanging hands,

goods exchanging hands,

all sorts of things to continue this

ongoing trade that was so necessary to supply Rome,

to feed Rome, and this is really the business end.

This is where it happens.

If we could have seen the city in its heyday,

I think we would've been stunned at the grandiosity of it.

**

The Roman empire grows wealthy

off the back of its vast territory.

But far to the east, another ancient power

is producing something that will change ancient trade forever.

**

**

The Han dynasty have ruled for over a century.

Their vast territory and abundant landscape provides

copper, gold,

and everything else they require.

They have little need to trade beyond their borders.

But these riches are a target for nomadic horsemen

who constantly raid their territory.

The Great Wall is being constructed to defend their land

but the Hans' emperor, Wu, wants to go on the attack.

The problem is he can't do this alone.

**

The emperor needs allies

and sends his diplomats west to find them.

But they face a gruelling and dangerous journey

thousands of kilometres across the vast Gobi Desert.

What they need is a safe route and accommodation along the way.

So Wu orders the construction of over 80 posthouses.

**

The Xuanquan Posthouse was an important post house.

It is a 50 metre by 50 metre complex.

In the north is the office area.

And in the west is chuen-she,

which is the accommodation area.

And on the corners are the corner towers,

providing security,

there is also the jiu-qu

where horses are kept.

**

For the entire Xuanquan Posthouse

The staff stationed here were over 40.

These post houses stretch along a route

from the Hans' capital

all the way to their western border,

1,700 kilometres away.

**

Wu now has a diplomatic path to the edge of his empire.

**

From the east, the Xuanquan Posthouse

received Han diplomats, officials,

princesses who are to be married off

and their entourage.

From the west, it received the kings of western kingdoms.

But these diplomatic routes

also bring other unexpected visitors.

Traders carrying exotic goods from the west.

The goods exchanged on this route

were livestock, in particular horses and camels.

Animals such as peacocks, and lions,

and animal pelts

grain

grapes

walnuts and much more.

Emperor Wu has unknowingly opened

the door to a vast new market,

and the Chinese have something very special to trade.

To grow, these caterpillars eat their way

through mulberry leaves.

But to transform into moths,

they spin cocoons around themselves.

For millennia, the people here

have carefully unwound these filaments

to weave them into the world's strongest natural fabric--

silk.

Its production has always been a cottage industry,

but now the Han industrialise it,

making more and better silk than ever before.

When it came to the Early Han,

the scale of silk production was huge.

There were many people weaving it.

Apart from the official workshops,

there were private workshops,

and some professional workshops,

that made very high-end silk.

Organic and delicate,

very little ancient silk survives.

**

But one remarkable treasure trove

still exists thanks to a unique burial.

In 168 BCE, Xin Zhui, a Chinese noblewoman, dies.

She is buried within four nested coffins.

These are covered with five tonnes of charcoal

and sealed with clay.

This airtight tomb miraculously preserves

a stunning collection,

some of the most intricate silk ever created.

**

The Mawangdui tombs yielded a lot of fabric,

including padded robes,

skirts, gauze gown, silk shoes,

pillows and pillow covers.

They not only include a wide variety,

but also their weaving technique is to a very high standard.

The Mawangdui embroideries also have

a wide variety of different colours and types.

We analysed them and there are over 20 colours.

So the craftsmanship is really fine.

In the ancient world, Xin Zhui's silk dresses

are unparalleled in workmanship

and even today are almost impossible to re-create.

I've been working in the silk industry for 41 years.

When I see the silk of Mawangdui tomb,

as someone working in silk,

I do feel a bit ashamed.

When have better tools,

but we cannot achieve this.

How could the ancient people,

make something so delicate?

**

The masterful Han silk makers weave

an amazing 120 threads per centimetre

in a technique called zhijinxiu.

We couldn't make it perfectly without flaws,

so we made just 10 metres.

And it took one worker a year to complete it.

Seeing the silk of Mawangdui

I am really touched, because our ancestors are truly remarkable.

Han silk is beautiful and practical.

It's also wildly expensive.

Over 3,000 cocoons are needed to produce one kilo of fibre

and hours of painstaking labour

to transform that fibre into fabric,

making it the ultimate luxury item of the ancient world.

**

And because it weighs just a few grams per square metre,

it's also perfectly suited to long-distance trade.

**

The Han pack their silk onto the backs of camels

and send it out on their brand-new trade route.

**

The precious cargo heads west

for over 8,000 kilometres,

far beyond Han territory, through central Asia,

the Middle East, all the way to Europe.

**

China's prized fabric gives its name to this vast network,

The Silk Roads.

And when this luxury fabric reaches the eternal city...

the Romans go crazy for it,

at one point paying over $100,000 worth of gold

for just one kilogram.

**

The Hans' monopoly over silk production

catapults them to prime position in the world of ancient trade.

**

A winning combination of the perfect product

and a new trade network brings the Chinese huge wealth.

To the south, India is also looking to cash in

on lucrative Mediterranean markets.

**

**

Several kingdoms rule the Indian subcontinent.

There are sporadic skirmishes,

but life is relatively peaceful.

They have a wealth of natural resources,

staples like fish, rice, and timber,

and luxuries like ivory and perfumes.

**

But one everyday product stands proud and defines their culture.

**

It's early morning here in Empress Market,

and the air is filled with amazing aroma of spices,

the treasures of India.

**

It smells so good!

Could you please pack 125g

of this as well without breaking it?

125g? Dad, pack 125g of this please.

- Thanks. - Thank you so much

In ancient times, India used to grow a lot of spices,

like nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, ginger,

not just for their flavour

but also for the medicine benefit and offerings to God

because they were so special.

They're so important for Indian culture

that one cannot sum up their benefits

in just one line or one paragraph.

**

Readily available within India,

for the rest of the world, spices are a rare luxury.

**

For thousands of years, small quantities

have been trickling out of India along the local coastline,

but now resourceful traders have expanded their market

using the new Silk Roads

to carry spices to the east and west.

The problem is that these land routes are slow,

and spices have a shelf life.

The Indians need a faster way to get them to market.

**

It took months or maybe years to get there,

so they had to come up with some alternate way,

and that's when they started

looking towards the ocean or the sea.

But the sea routes here are dangerous.

The waters around Indian subcontinent,

they have quite a character of their own.

They can be very tricky because of the winds

and the harsh weather and especially monsoon.

Monsoon is unforgiving, it's treacherous,

it makes it almost impossible to navigate.

**

Even today, sailing these tricky waters

around modern day Pakistan requires expert local knowledge

passed down from ancient ancestors.

**

They used to keep track of the seasons

and went fishing in good weather.

And they knew the quickest routes to the fishing spots.

Navigating at night was also important.

They used to travel following the pattern of the stars.

They know about them all.

How they rise there and set there.

They used the constellations in the night sky to find their way.

Sailors here are masters

of navigating these wild seas,

tracking the monsoon winds like clockwork,

using them to sail rapidly across the Indian Ocean

to North Africa and Arabia.

But only a handful of boats

are successfully making this journey,

so trade is desperately limited.

However, as legend has it,

one sailor's misfortune changes everything.

**

There's a very famous story of this Indian sailor,

there was a shipwreck near Egypt

and only one sailor survived.

He was rescued by the Greek soldiers

living in Egypt at that time.

The stranded sailor is desperate to get home.

In exchange for a lift,

he offers up his navigational expertise.

They let him lead the way. He takes them on a journey

that previously used to take months or even years,

but the Indian sailor

was able to navigate them within a few weeks.

He opened India to the rest of the world

and he opened the world to India.

Now the fast routes into India are known,

western traders set a course for the heart of the spice trade.

**

Traders from all over the world started coming in

and the Indian subcontinent became a bustling economic zone.

Something that was previously important

only locally became important

and significant for the entire world.

**

As rich Romans and Greeks

rushed to get their hands on spices,

they pay for them with cold, hard cash.

A lot of Roman gold coins

started coming in Indian subcontinent,

and they were being traded in exchange of these spices.

And black pepper became so popular that it drained

Rome of its gold reserves

and they started calling it black gold.

**

India has hit the jackpot.

Spices make it rich.

**

Each ancient power finds their own way

to succeed in global trade and make some money.

Egypt unearths its most precious resource,

using it to secure a golden age.

The Greeks use their skills as sailors

to profit from international deals.

Rome taxes its military conquests

and then builds massive infrastructure

to bring this wealth home.

While India and China hold monopolies

on uniquely precious products

and send them out across the world.

The ancient world is now interconnected

and getting richer.

**

Next...

our ancient powers face their toughest challenge yet,

defending their wealth from everyone else.

**