Goods and geopolitics: eight trade routes that influenced world history
For centuries trade routes were shaped - by land and sea. Such scarce products as salt, spices, precious stones, silk were available only in the places of production, and their delivery to the places of sale sometimes determined the formation of trade chains. However, But it wasn't just about the goods that were circulating through them. The caravans and ships had another invisible cargo – religions, ideas, knowledge, science and culture.
1. Silk Road - the most famous trade route in the world
Perhaps the most famous ancient commodity exchange canal is the Great Silk Road, which can be called also the artery of life, linking the major civilizations of China and the Roman Empire.
The path was laid by an active silk barter on European wool, silver and gold.
Starting in XI'an, the route stretched along the China’s Great Wall crossing the Pamir mountains into Afghanistan and went till Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey). In the ports of the Eastern Mediterranean, the goods were loaded onto ships going to other ports. Rare merchants found themselves able to travel all 6,500 kilometers, so the they actively traded along the route as well.
Economic centers of Central Asia, such as Merv, Amul on the territory of Turkmenistan, Bukhara and Samarkand in Uzbekistan has become an important points of intellectual exchange.
2. Spicy route - delivery of taste from East to West
Unlike most other trade routes, the route of spices ran via the sea, linking the East with the West. Pepper, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg were in great demand in Europe, but until the XV century, the Eastern trade was controlled by North African and Arab intermediaries, which increased the cost of this flavor. With the heyday of the scientific era (XV-XVII centuries) and the development of navigation technology sailing ships could travel longer distances and Europeans managed to establish maritime direct trade with Indonesia, China and Japan.
Thus, the Moluccas or Spice Islands, which were located on the territory of modern Indonesia, were considered in those days the only place for cultivation of nutmeg and cloves.
A number of researchers argue that the spice trade, which initiated the construction of high-speed ships, also favored new geographical discoveries, as well as led to the establishment of new diplomatic relations between the East and the West.
Wars were fought, lands were colonized, but fortune continued to accompany the traders of herbs and spices. The spicy trade route was one of the most significant links in terms of globalization.
3. Incense route - camel domestication
The incense route was developed for transportation of frankincense and myrrh, and it was possible to find these goods only in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula (modern Yemen and Oman). Frankincense and myrrh is made of sun-dried wood resin.
Particles of dried sap were burned as a flavor or used as a perfume and in funeral rites for embalming.
Domestication of the camel around 1000 BCE allowed the Arabs to start exporting valuable incense to the Mediterranean, where it was in high demand among the Romans and Greeks. According to historical information, the Roman Emperor Nero burned an annual stock of frankincense at the funeral of his beloved mistress.
Annually 3000 tons of aromatic resin were transported along the route. The Roman historian Pliny the Elder wrote that the frankincense way required 62 days, but from time to time the merchants have changed the map of the road, thus trying to evade the high taxes imposed in some transit towns.
4. Amber way - marvelous beads
Amber trade flourished from the 3000 BCE, as evidenced by the amber beads found by archaeologists in Egypt, presumably from the Baltic regions. The amber road connecting the Baltic Sea with the rest of Europe was paved by the Romans, who valued the stone for its decorative and healing properties.
The depths of the Baltic sea are reach with amber resources. Especially after strong storms this fossil resin was dotted the entire coast. But, during the crusades in XII-XIII centuries, the Teutonic knights deprived local Prussians of their business and seized control of the regional amber production. Knights brutally persecuted those who tried to collect or sell amber.
The modern heir of the ancient amber route is located in Europe - it is one of the main highways of Poland of international importance, officially called the Amber highway.
5. Tea route - leaves exchanged for horses
The 9 500-kilometers tea route, developed in the era of the Chinese Tang dynasty (618-907), ran through the Sino-Tibetan mountains - the main area of tea production in China - to India. Along this rather dangerous route, as it was crossed by numerous rivers, mainly Chinese tea and Tibetan war horses traveled, while direct trade tea in exchange for horses took place there. The peak of activity on this route way was observed in the period of the Song dynasty (960-1279) when annually 20 thousand Tibetan horses were exchanged for 8,000 tons of tea.
But, the route lost its importance with the growing popularity of sea routes.
6. Salt Way
Salt was considered a precious commodity. It was used to give taste to dishes, for preserving food supplies and as an antiseptic. In view of the scarcity of the salt mineral, in ancient times, the areas rich with salt automatically became important trading centers, and the routes linking saltpans with other populated areas turned into a commercial line.
One of these routes, called "Via Salaria", stretched from the main harbour of ancient Rome – Ostia all over Italy to the Adriatic coast.
Salt was such an expensive product that it was a part of the wages, paid to Roman soldiers. English word “salary” originates from the Latin “sal”.
7. Trans-Saharan Trade Route - roads of the great desert
The Trans-Saharan trade route connecting North Africa with West Africa consisted of several routes providing commercial connections across a vast desert area. Its first traces appeared in the IV century CE and by the XI century Saharan caravans carrying gold, slaves, salt and fabric, consisted over a thousand camels.
Thanks to this trade, Islam spread from North African Berbers to the West Africa and, with religion, Arab knowledge, education and language were transferred.
The intra-African commercial route led to the development of the monetary system.
In the XVI century, as Europeans advanced transatlantic trade between Europe, America and Africa and Portuguese exploitation of the maritime route to India around Africa, the transportation of goods through the Sahara slowly faded away.
8. Tin route – bronze business
One of the most important discoveries of ancient times was the manufacturing the bronze, an alloy of copper and tin.
And any route transporting the vital component for metal production was called tin route. Thus, in the first millennium BCE one such way connected by sea the stannaries’ of Cornwall, South West of England, with the coast of France. From there tin was brought to Greece and far beyond.
There are no any written records about the tin trade route, but archaeological findings suggest that it also ensured the transfer of technology and arts between Northern Europe and the Mediterranean.
Based on materials of MentalFloss
