Both specialized retail and the problem of inflation began early in human history although much of the economy during Bible times was still based on farming, herding and bartering.
Still early predecessors to our shopping malls; Bible writers speak of such early markets situated at city gates as the Sheep Gate, the Fish Gate, and the Gate of Potsherds.
Nehemiah 3: 1,3 mention two of these gates, describing how "Eliashib the high priest and his brothers, the priests, proceeded to get up and build the Sheep Gate. They themselves sanctified it and went setting up its doors" And at Jeremiah 3: 1, and 3 Jeremiah is directed by God to go down to the Gate of the Potsherds to buy an earthenware flask apparently.
Inflation too had early roots in human history with prices that kept getting higher and higher. The actual price of merchandise naturally fluctuated throughout the centuries just as they do today and it is hard to pinpoint what something would have cost at a given date --but generally prices for got steadily more as we can see in the human slave trade;.
The information from ancient sources, including the Bible shows that this trade existed and that when slaves were sold to new masters inflation was a factor. Joseph, the son of Joseph, for instance was told by his brothers for 20 silver prices, (possibly shekels) in the 18 century B.C.E. according to Genesis 37:28.
Three hundred years later, however, the price had risen to 30 shekels -- by the 8th century B.CE. to 50 shekels according to Exodus 32:22 and 2 King s 15:20 -- and by 200 years after this, during the time of the Persian Empire, the price for a slave had risen to 90 silver shekels.
So neither specialized commercial centers or the problem of inflation are something new to the modern era.
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