Chapter 7 Summary

This chapter primarily dealt with the development of trade and commerce since the ancient world. Coastlands, highlands, steppes and farmlands all generate very different products. Commerce had altered consumption and changed daily life. Incense for example became a very important product.
Trade generally diminished economic self-sufficiency of local societies. Trade also had capacity to transform political life. Trade also allowed for travel of ideas and technological innovations. One of key routes was the silk route. Eurasia gave place to the most extensive networks of trade in history. Chinese, Indian, Roman and Persian civilizations were beginning to be linked by pastoral peoples found on the borders of these civilizations. Various technological innovations, yokes, saddles, stirrups, camels, horses and oxen made travel across the silk route more effective. Goods traveling in silk routes made their way in large caravans. From China, goods such as silk, bamboo, mirrors, gunpowder, paper, rhubarb, ginger, lacquerware, chrysanthemums. Central Asia and Siberia were sources of furs, tusks, amber, livestock, horses, falcons, hides, copper, saddles. India was the source of cotton textiles, herbal medicine, precious stones, spices. From the Middle East came, dates, nuts, almonds, dried fruit. The Mediterranean basin was sources of gold coins, glassware, glazes, grapevines, jewelry, perfume, wool and linen textiles. Chinese women were responsible for every part of silk production. Silk since ancient times was an elitist symbol. Disease however often travelled along the silk route. Smallpox and measles did and it devastated empires. Bubonic plague also came to Europe through the silk route. Sea routes on the Indian ocean connected peoples in the Eastern hemisphere. Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans were traders on the Mediterranean Sea. However, Indian ocean trade was to be impeded by bad weather and monsoons. Birth of the Islamic religion in the Arabian peninsula and creation of an Arab Caliphate allowed for development of the islamic trade system. Also a trading system developed in the southeast Asia region. This trading system allowed for spread of Buddhism and Hinduism into Southeast Asia. East African civilization of swahili also experienced transformations due to changes in development of international trade. Islam allowed for linking of swahili with the outside world. Each swahili city was politically independent and they were involved in the gold trade, as well as exchange of Persian rugs, Indian cottons, Chinese porcelain. In North and South America there were many obstacles to development of trading routes.