This trade between east and west, part of which passed through Armenia, consisted mostly of merchandise such as silk, rice, spices and precious stones (even jewellery) which came mainly from Central and South Asia, but also from the Far East. The Roman Empire paid for some of these imported goods with gold and silver coins, while some were traded for other products (perfumes and jewellery from Egypt and other countries). 81
The entire eastern part of the Roman Empire acted as the middleman in this trade, something that brought enormous riches to the countries involved, with Armenia as one of them.
But Armenia had its own products which were the next link in this trade chain. Armenia was rich in metal ore and exported metal objects, woollen products (Asia Minor was the centre of wool production in the Roman Empire, while Syria and Egypt were its producers of cotton products), carpets, wine and leather. It is unnecessary to point out that Rome maintained itself entirely on the products from east.
In Armenia there were especially rich mines of copper, iron, gold and solver, which contributed to the emergence of a great tradition of metalworkers, a group of craftsmen whose work was known throughout the entire ancient world. 82
Asia Minor even exported large quantities of grain and supplied the whole of Greece, but it is worth mentioning that, with regard to the difficulties that the Romans had in supplying their troops, it is highly unlikely that Armenia, during this period, produced any surplus grain for export purposes.
It also should be mentioned that the great roads, which had been constructed on the orders of the successors of Nero in Asia Minor, the military importance of which we already have mentioned, were too of great economical importance. Armenia, through the routes Artaxata-Elegia-Trabizon and Salata-Melitene, was able to easily maintain its contact with the Black Sea, Asia Minor and Cilicia and the trade between the Far East and the west came to pass more and more through Armenia., northern Persia and the Caspian Sea and Turkistan. The merchants of the Roman Empire often traded their silk from China by travelling through Armenia to Tashgurkan (most likely the present-day Tashkent).
Of the social structure in Armenia we can say that the country had still not familiarised itself with the system which provided the agriculture and the army for the Roman Empire, i.e. the peasant who worked for the landowner. The lands belonged to the king, the nobility and the religious houses, while the soil was cultivated by the peasants who, more or less, belonged to their masters. It was only a minority of the Armenian population who was fairly free and could settle down on higher grounds and take up breeding cattle and live as semi-nomads. 84
The peasants in the villages constituted the vast majority of the Armenian population and the number of the cities and their populations were relatively small in comparison with the areas by the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.
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