Trade Change Over Time Classical Medieval Early Modern Times
Uploaded by sunzzip102 on Mar 04, 2007
Trade is the exchange of goods that must be transported from one place to another. In ancient times, transporting commodities over any significant distance was an expensive and risky endeavor. This restricted commerce mainly to local markets. As transportation networks improved however, commerce expanded considerably. Regions began oceanic trade and the whole world seemed to shrink as technology advanced. Trade patterns could only expand as time went on from the classical period onwards through the medieval era and even more so through the early modern period. Growth may have been similar throughout these periods, however the means by which trade was conducted differed.
Long distance trade played a major role in the cultural, religious, and artistic exchanges that took place between the major centers of civilization on trade routes in Europe and Asia during antiquity. Some of these trade routes had been in use for centuries, but by the beginning of the first century A.D., merchants, diplomats, and travelers could in theory cross the ancient world from Britain and Spain in the west to China and Japan in the east. The trade routes served principally to transfer raw materials, food, and luxury goods from areas with surpluses to others where they were in short supply. Some areas had a monopoly on certain materials or goods. China for example supplied West Asia and the Mediterranean world with silk, while spices were obtained principally from South Asia. These goods were transported over vast distances most commonly on foot with pack animals along the Silk Road, which was likely the main artery of contact between the various ancient. Cities along a trade route such as the Silk Road grew rich providing services to merchants and acting as international marketplaces. They also became cultural and artistic centers, where people of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds could meet and swap ideas. The trade routes were the communications highways of the ancient world. People moving from one place to another to conduct business transmitted new inventions, religious beliefs, artistic styles, languages, and social customs, as well as goods and raw materials. Compared to later eras of trade, the classical period was no doubt rather primitive and its technique ineffective, likely because trade was only possible on foot. Which such a difficult and expensive enterprise such as land-based trade, the only possible reason for trade was simply for profit. ...