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Read the article about the history of world trade.
In the beginning
For thousands and thousands of years, people produced most of what
they needed for themselves. They grew or hunted for their own food, and
made their own simple tools. But little by little they learned that they
could have more varied goods by trading.
Little is known about the beginnings of trade. Perhaps it was English
8int, used to make primitive tools, and much traded in Europe thousands
of years before Christ. Or was it the Egyptians, as early as 300o BC, travelling
down the African coast as far as the Zambezi River in search of gold, silver,
and slaves?
Thc Ancicnt World - BC
The earliest trade we do know zo something about is the caravan
trade
across the deserts of Asia around z5oo sc, to and from cities in
Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Arabia. These caravans had to carry fodder for
the animals and food
zs for the drivers and merchants. Not much space was left for the
cargo. As a result, the goods carried were light but valuable, things such
as gold and precious stones - that is, luxuries and so not necessities.
After this, trade by sea started to becozse more common. The Phoenicians
on the coast of Syria are thought to have been the first to develop commerce
by sea
as around iooo Bc, trading from ports in Syria to Crete, Cyprus,
Rhodes, and other Greek islands, and also to North Africa. The Phoenicians
were manufacturers. They exported metal
4o ware, glassware, and textiles. These were. traded for raw materials,
especia~r tin, copper, and silver. This trade also was mainly in luxuries
for the ships were small.
45 The Phoenicians lived at the same time as the Greeks and the
Romans. Athens was the ~ first big commercial city in Europe, and it was
the first community to import and export necessities (not
so just luxuries) in large quantities. Grain was imported for the
increasing population from the shores of the Black Sea, and exports included
figs, olive oil, wine, honey, pottery, metalware, ..
ss and textiles. Greek armies marched into Persia, Central Asia,
and India, and brought back luxury goods such as spices, drugs, and silk.
Read the article about the history of world trade. Then answer
the questions.
re e o usan ears o wor ra e
The Itoman Empire (z7 sc-476 An) was the next big trading community.
The city of Rome itself produced little, ~~5 Thc but it mported
a lot. It was the political capital and financial centre of
the Empire.
Increasing quantities of luxuries were imported from the east and
from North Africa, but these were not bought by the Romans. They were the
tax paid to
~o Rome by the various peoples that it had conquered. Imports included
tin, slaves, cloth, and jewels. The Romans also traded with China, and
brought
The modern world began as the `Age of Discoveries : The great voyages
of Spanish and Portuguese explorers, such as Christopher Columbus (i49z),
0o Vasco da Gama (i498), and Ferdinand Magellan (i5i9), opened
up new trade routes to the Americas, Africa, and India. This was the beginning
of ocean travel.
back silkworms to start a sil W ndustry Britain and other countries
of northern in Europe. os Europe formed big companies, and In the fifth
century An, Byzantium each was given a certain part of the (later ca~ed
~ Constantinople, and now z'~'o~'ld to explore ancl exploit. The r~ew Istanbul)
became the political capital of companies penetrated into distant the Roman
Empire, and remained the lands, and brought back their products, world's
commercial capital until the izth ~2o many of which were new and unknown:
century. Its importance was founded on tomatoes, potatoes, cocoa, green
beans, manufacturing - textiles, leatherwork, and corn. By the i7th century,
the Dutch
dominated the world's trade, with the armour, pottery, and artistic
metal
work. The Byzantine coin, known as the French and the English as
their close bezant, became the first single currency '25 rivals. All three
nations opened up the of European business. tropical lands of the East
and West
Indies, and imported sugar, tobacco, Th M'ddl A tea, and coffee
into Europe.
During the i9th century, the industrial ~ao revolution led to greater
production, and the pattern of world trade started to
In the izth and i3th centuries, Venice become what it is today.
and Genoa became the world's leading
~o trade centres. In i27i, the Venetian, Today Marco Polo, went
by land and sea to
China and helped establish trading links. Venice was well placed
to be the
main European commercial centre. It Today, mass advertising persuades
s5 had, of course, the sea, and it was by ,35 people of many different
nationalities sea that luxuries such as spices and to use the same products.
Millions of silks arrived from the East. These were people around the world
drink the then re-exported in fleets of ships to same soft drinks, drive
the same cars, ports in Spain, England, and Flanders: wear the same clothes,
and eat the
~oo During the late Middle Ages, Bruges ,4o same hamburgers. became
the leading trade centre in
northern Europe. Other goods went In Previous centuries, trade
was more local, and people's tastes varied from overland, across the Alps
to French and
German cities. one country to another. Imports used
to bring diversity. It is ironic that 145 today's vast international
markets have
resulted in a world with more homogeneous tastes.