Tyre's Trading Contacts and Colonies.
Ezekiel then goes on to describe Tyre's ‘worldwide' network of trading contacts in a listing of places and what they traded. It is an extensive list and brings out their remarkable activity. They set up trading colonies in many of these places. They were ‘an empire of the seas'.
“Tarshish was your co-merchant by reason of your great wealth of all kinds,
Silver, iron, tin and lead they exchanged for your wares.”
Tarshish bordered on the sea (Jonah 1:3; Jonah 4:2) and was rich in metals. It was probably a land in the Western Mediterranean, and many have identified it with Tartessus in Spain. The mineral wealth of Spain attracted the Tyrians who founded colonies there. Monumental inscriptions in Sardinia, erected by the Phoenicians in 9th century BC, also bear the name Tarshish, so that some identify it with the ancient city of Nora in Sardinia.