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 flint, used to make primitive tools, and much traded in Europe thousands of years before Christ. Or was it the Egyptians, as early as 3000 BC, travelling down the African coast as far as the Zambezi River in search of gold, silver, and slaves?

The Ancient World –BC

The earliest trade we do know something about is the caravan trade across the deserts of Asia around 2500BC, to and from cities in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Arabia. These caravans had to carry fodder for the animals and food 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 not necessities.

After this, trade by sea started to become more common. The Phoenicians on the coast of Syria are thought to have been the first to develop commerce by sea around 1000 BC, trading from ports in Syria to Crete, Cyprus, Rhodes, and other Greek islands, and also to North Africa. The Phoenicianswere manufacturers. They exported metal-ware, glassware, and textiles. These were traded for raw materials, especially tin, copper, and silver. This trade also was mainly in luxuries for the ships were small.

The Phoenicianslived 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 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, vine, honey, pottery, metalware, and textiles. Greek armies marched into Persia, Central Asia, and India, and brought back luxury goods such as spices, drugs, and silk.

The Ancient World – AD

The Roman Empire (27 BC – 476 AD) was the next big trading community. The city of Rome itself produced little, but it imported 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 Rome by the various peoples that it had conquered. Imports included tin, slaves, cloth, and jewels. The Romans also traded with China, and brought back silkworms to start a silk industry in Europe.

In the fifth century AD, Byzantium (later called Constantinople, and now Istanbul) became the political capital of the Roman Empire, and remained the world’s commercial capital until the 12^th century. Its importance was founded on manufacturing – textiles, leatherwork, armour, pottery, and artistic metal work. The Byzantine coin, known as the bezant, became the first single currency of European business.

The Middle Ages

In the 12^th and 13^th centuries, Venice and Genoa became the world’s leading trade centres. In 1271, the Venetian, 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 had, of course, the sea, and it was by sea that luxuries such as spices and silks arrived from the East. These were then re-exported in fleets of ships to ports in Spain, England, and Flanders. During the late Middle Ages, Bruges became the leading trade centre in northern Europe. Other goods went overland, across the Alps to French and German cities.

The Modern World

The modern world began as the `Age of Discoveries’. The great voyages of Spanish and Portuguese explorers, such as Christopher Columbus (1942), Vasco da Gama (1498), and Ferdinand Magellan (1519), opened up new trade routes to the Americas, Africa, and India. This was the beginning of ocean travel.

Britain and other countries of northern Europe formed big companies, and each was given a certain part of the world to explore and exploit. The new companies penetrated into distant lands, and brought back their products, many of which were new and unknown: tomatoes, potatoes, cocoa, green beans, and corn. By the 17^th century, the Dutch dominated the world’s trade, with the French and the English as their close rivals. All three nations opened up the tropical lands of the East and West Indies, and imported sugar, tobacco, tea, and coffee into Europe.

During the 19^th century, the industrial revolution led to greater production, and the pattern of world trade started to become what it is today.

Today

Today, mass advertising persuades people of many different nationalities to use the same products. Millions of people around the world drink the same soft drinks, drive the same cars, wear the same clothes, and eat the same hamburgers.

In previous centuries, trade was more local, and people’s tastes varied from one country to another. Imports used to bring diversity. It is ironic that today’s vast international markets have resulted in a world with more homogeneous tastes.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Organization)

Comprehension check:

1.When and how did trading start?

2. What goods did caravans carry?

3. Why did merchants have to carry light things?

4. Why are Phoenicians considered the first commercial people by sea?

5. What is the peculiar trading feature of Athens?

6. Why did Byzantium become the political and trading centre?

7. Name the key trade centres in the following periods:

8. Why did they become important?

9. What was importance of imports for people at that time?

10. What is ironic about the international market today?