Incense: A Unique Product

In the ancient world many regions had unique natural products that were valuable commodities in distant markets. Traders, traffickers and consumers were all prepared to pay large sums to obtain these goods. Foremost among these unique products was the incense formed from fragrant, hardened resin of certain trees that grew in hot, arid climates. Most incense trees were subject to particular environmental conditions and could only be grown in certain regions. Incense was a renewable crop and since it was a sap, it was rarely diminished by ‘poor’ yields caused by seasonal fluctuations in annual weather patterns.

Incense became a necessity for religious observance in places far from its place of origin, so transport systems were created to deliver this valuable crop to consumer markets. The demand for incense was large-scale and the markets to be supplied covered the entire ancient world from Western Europe to the cities of Han China. Incense stocks were so valuable that even a moderate amount was usually purchased using silver or gold. In the first century AD, Pliny the Elder records that the best frankincense was valued in Roman markets at 10 silver denarii per pound, while a similar weight of the finest resin-oil myrrh (stacte) could sell for up of 50 denarii (200 sesterces).1 To give context to this figure, 200 sesterces represents about fifty day’s pay for a skilled labourer in the first century AD.2

Incense production therefore had an important impact on world resources and increased the prosperity of the regimes engaged in this trade. Nations that controlled the incense trade had a continuous source of revenue that offered them an important and dependable long-term advantage in world commerce. Myrrh and frankincense in particular were renewable crops that brought great wealth into territories near the Gulf of Aden. By contrast, civilisations like Rome and Parthia had no equivalent product that could meet the cost of their incense imports and therefore had to rely on finite bullion reserves to pay for their consumerism.