Duty (Tax)

A tax levied on foreign commerce appears in the catalogue of Solomon's incoming revenue, where the income of merchants, traders, and tributary kings is listed alongside the gold weighed out yearly to the throne.

Solomon's commerce revenue

The summary stands at the close of the description of Solomon's annual income. After naming the six hundred sixty-six talents of gold that came in by the year, the text adds the secondary streams: "besides [that which] the traders [brought], and the traffic of the merchants, and of all the kings of the mingled people, and of the governors of the country" (1Ki 10:15). Foreign commerce is taxed at three layers — the traders themselves, the wider merchant traffic, and the kings and governors who pay in from outside Israel — and all three feed Solomon's treasury alongside the direct tribute of gold.