TRADE SYSTEMS
The Silk Road
 Parthian kingdom and Chinese desire for products helped foster early Silk Road
 Zhang Jian of China led expeditions and brought new plants
 Scythians and other nomads provided animals, animal handlers, and protection
 Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Buddhism all moved along the Silk Road
 Led to new innovations like the stirrup and the use of camels for overland trade
The Indian Ocean Maritime System
 Divided into 3 regions, traded many highly valued coastal products and depended on monsoon winds
 Early on people from SE Asia settled Madagascar; brought bananas and yams
 Less trade than Mediterranean, ports were small and isolated from inland cultures, and marriages
between sailors and local women established cultural diversity
Trade Across the Sahara
 Saharan trade relates to spread of camel domestication – evidence from rock art
 Southern trade between equatorial forest zone, farmers of the Sahel, and salt deposits in southern desert
 Northern trade between Roman colonists in Africa and Italian homeland
Rebirth of European Trade
 Independent cities prospered from manufacture and trade, ex. Venice, Flanders
 Traded textiles, wool, spices with Muslim ports and within Mediterranean
Mongol Trade and Disease
 Mongol rule provided commercial integration and unification
 Diseases such as bubonic plague spread through rats/fleas on Mongol supply trains; “great pandemic”
Indian Ocean Trade of Tropical Africa and Asia, 1200-1500
 End of Mongol Empire disrupted overland trade; made oceans more important
 Indian dhows and Chinese junks were main trading vessels; relied on monsoons
 Trade along Swahili Coast caused growth of trading cities like Great Zimbabwe
 Aden (on tip of Arabian Peninsula) had agriculture as well as trade
 Gujarat in Malabar coast region of India manufactured goods and traded them
 Strait of Malacca had strategic point for trade with China/major Asian countries
Trading Cities in the Latin West
 Trading cities demonstrated urban revival in Latin West
 Genoa and other cities in Hanseatic League traded in Baltic Sea
 Trade fairs in Champagne developed currency exchange and intrnationl markets
 England, Flanders, and Florence engaged greatly in wool trade
 Venice was extremely prosperous; exchanged silk, cotton, jewelry, paper, wool
Portuguese in the Indian Ocean
 Portugal gained almost-monopoly on Indian Ocean trade through superior ships and weapons
 Conquered port cities along Swahili Coast, India and China
 Required goods to be carried in Portuguese ships and imposed heavy taxes
 Gave Portuguese government a lot of money but posed challenges for merchants
The Columbian Exchange
 Diseases such as smallpox devastated natives, who had no immunity
 Maize and potatoes from Americas became staples of European diet
 Animals from Europe threatened Amerindian agriculture but also had benefits
The Atlantic Circuit
 First Leg: carried guns, textiles, other European manufactured goods to Africa, where they were traded
for slaves
 Second Leg: Slaves taken to America in Middle Passage – terrible conditions
 Third Leg: Plantation goods went back to Europe
 Also many other Atlantic trade routes, but this was the main one
The African Slave Trade
 Africans sold POWs as slaves; had a stronger bargaining position than Europeans
 2 major slave ports: Bight of Biafra and Angola
 Africans also traded slaves and other goods with Islamic countries, but with significant differences