Commerce and Culture500-1500

AP World History NotesChapter 7

Why Trade?

• Different ecological zones = natural uneven distribution of goods and resources

• Early monopolization of certain goods– Silk in China– Spices in Southeast Asia

Trade: 500-1500

• Long-distance trade developed• This trade shaped culture and society• Trade = mostly indirect

– Chain of separate transactions– Goods traveled father than merchants

Significance of Trade: Economic• Altered consumption

– Ex: West Africans now able to get salt to flavor and preserve their food

• Changed the day-to-day lives of individuals– Ex: trade specialization --> led to less self-sufficiency

and more dependency

Significance of Trade:Social

• Traders became their own social group– Sometimes viewed suspiciously --> why are they making money

without making the goods?• Trade became a means of social mobility

– Money = land = power and status• Trade used by elite groups to distinguish themselves from

commoners– Only they could afford luxury goods from far away like silk or

ivory

Significance of Trade:Political

• Controlling and taxing trade motivated the creation of states and kingdoms

• Wealth from trade sustained these states and kingdoms and facilitated their growth

What Else Was “Traded”?

• Religious ideas• Technological innovations• Disease-bearing germs• Plants and animals

The Silk Roads

The Silk Roads: Growth

• Eurasia = often divided into inner and outer zones with different ecologies

• Outer Eurasia = relatively warm and well-watered– China, India, Middle East, Mediterranean

• Inner Eurasia = harsher, drier climate– Eastern Russia, Central Asia

The Silk Roads: Growth

• Result = steppe products traded for agricultural products and manufactured goods from inner Eurasia– Birth of the Silk Roads trade network

Hides, furs, livestock, wool, amber, horses,

saddles

The Silk Roads: Growth

• Construction of classical civilizations and empires added major players to this trade network– Persian Empire, Greek Empire, Roman Empire, Han

dynasty, Gupta Empire– Result = Silk Roads continued to grow

The Silk Roads: Goods

• Most goods traded = luxury goods rather than staple goods

• Destined for an elite and wealthy market• Only goods worth transporting with such high

transportation costs

The Silk Roads: Goods

• Silk = major product in high demand

• China had a silk monopoly until the 500s --> then others gained knowledge of silk production– Increased the supply of silk

along the Silk Roads

Silk Makes the WorldGo ‘Round

• Used as currency in Central Asia• Became a symbol of high status in both

China and the Byzantine Empire• Used in the expanding religions of

Buddhism and Christianity– Ex: worn by Buddhist monks– Ex: silk altar covers in Christian

churches

The Silk Roads: Goods

• Volume of trade = small• But social and economic impact of trade = big

– Ex: peasant in China produced luxury goods instead of crops

– Ex: merchants could make enormous profits

The Silk Roads: Cultures

• Major result of trade along the Silk Roads = the spread of Buddhism

• From India to Central & East Asia

• Spread by Indian traders and Buddhist monks

The Silk Roads: Buddhism

• Spread to oases cities in Central Asia– Voluntarily converted– Buddhism gave these small cities

a link to the larger, wealthy, and prestigious civilization of India

– Many of these cities became centers of learning and commerce

Buddhist temple in Dunhuang (an oases

city)

The Silk Roads: Buddhism

• Transformation of Buddhism– Original faith = shunned the

material world– Now Buddhism = filled with

wealthy monks, elaborate and expensive monasteries, and so on

Buddhist monastery in China

The Silk Roads: Buddhism

• What type of Buddhism spread? Mahayana!– Buddha = a deity– Many bodhisattvas– Emphasis on compassion

The Silk Roads: Diseases

• Long-distance trade = resulted in exposure to unfamiliar diseases

The Silk Roads: Disease

• Athens (430-429 BCE) = widespread epidemic; killed 25% of the army

• Roman & Han Empires = measles and smallpox devastated both populations

• Mediterranean World (534-750 CE) = devastated by bubonic plague from India

The Black Death

• Spread due to the Mongol Empire’s unification of most of Eurasia (13th-14th centuries)

• Could have been bubonic plague, anthrax, or collection of epidemic diseases

• 1346-1350 = killed 1/3 of European population

• Similar death toll in China & parts of Islamic world