The Minoans traded copper, gold, ceramics and saffron overseas through the port of Heraklion, and it seems they worshipped female goddesses and did not have an army.

And while most people are rotated frequently in Japanese companies, both Mr. Iguchi and Mr. Hamanaka, who traded copper for 15 years, stayed in their posts for a long time, developing expertise that seemingly made them indispensable and made it difficult for others to challenge their actions.

The fact that the English would trade copper enabled Chief Powhatan to free his people from relations with hostile Monacan and other tribes to the west.

They traded cloth, grain, copper, papyrus, and gems for items such as myrrh, ebony, ivory, and wild animals.

From him the Spaniards learned that many Indians regularly came to the Musqueam on horseback, from a "flat country" in the northeast, to trade iron, copper, and blue beads for fish.

They traded tobacco, copper and iron with the Khoikhoi in exchange for fresh meat.

The interior people traded copper, furs and meat for coastal products such as eulachon oil.

In return, their Bantu speaking neighbors traded copper, iron, and tobacco.

Before his death, Mr. Scully, 41, worked for David Threlkeld, a copper trader in Randolph, Vt., whose company, DLT Inc., traded copper for Mr. Hamanaka.