The oldest surviving evidence lies on cuneiform tablets from Uruk, where scribes logged lunar cycles beside barley price ledgers. This deliberate pairing suggests that Babylonian traders believed celestial rhythms could forecast commodity values, embedding astrological calculation into everyday market practice.
During the Hellenistic era, the Alexandrian school merged Babylonian data with Greek zodiac theory, producing the first systematic astrological‑financial manuals. Figures such as Hipparchus assigned planetary rulerships to commodities, allowing merchants across the Mediterranean to consult star charts before negotiating freight rates or coin exchanges.