Phoenician Purple: the trade of dye helped forge an empire

Source - wikipedia.com article

Much of the history of trade is interrelated with the history of science. When someone somewhere develops a technology that isn't yet widely known, that someone somewhere has an economic advantage.

If, as today's article discusses, the Phonecians developed a method of producing a deep, long-lasting purple fabric dye that no other culture could match, they could become wealthy from producing that dye. 

Admittedly, if that fabric required - again, as the article states - the mucus from 12,000 tiny snails to produce enough dye to color the trim on a single garment, entire industries would develop around the harvesting of those snails, the labor needed to harvest that many snails, and the trade to send this dyed material around the world.

Interestingly, the exact dye used - also known as Tyrian purple - has never been synthesized commercially and efficiently even in modern times.