Posted on 02/19/2008 3:20:32 PM PST by blam
How Ancient Trade Changed the World
By Heather Whipps, Special to LiveScience
posted: 18 February 2008 09:24 am ET
You've got the gold I need for my necklace and I've got the silk you need for your robe.
What to do?
Nowadays, if you need something, you go to the closest mall, shell out a few bucks and head home. Thousands of years ago, the process wasn't nearly as simple. If you or someone in your town didn't grow it, herd it or make it, you needed to abandon that desire or else travel for it, sometimes over great distances. For many towns, the effort of trade was too much. Those ancient towns make only rare appearances in our history books.
When the first civilizations did begin trading with each other about five thousand years ago, however, many of them got rich...and fast.
Trade was also a boon for human interaction, bringing cross-cultural contact to a whole new level.
Luxury goods
When people first settled down into larger towns in Mesopotamia and Egypt, self-sufficiency – the idea that you had to produce absolutely everything that you wanted or needed – started to fade. A farmer could now trade grain for meat, or milk for a pot, at the local market, which was seldom too far away.
Cities started to work the same way, realizing that they could acquire goods they didn't have at hand from other cities far away, where the climate and natural resources produced different things. This longer-distance trade was slow and often dangerous, but was lucrative for the middlemen willing to make the journey.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
GGG Ping.
ping for future.
Yes, but NAFTA is steal are jahbs!!!
bttt
btt
We have them, they are called Paulvestites and Buchananites.
The Master answered:
It is that which gives a beast of burden its reason for existence.It is that which men in formertimes had to bear upon their backs.
It is that which has caused nations to build byways from City to City upon which carts and coaches pass, and alongside which inns have come to be built to stave off Hunger, Thirst and Weariness.
"And that is fate?" said the priest.
"Fate... Sorry. I thought you said Freight", responded the Master.
"That's all right" said the priest, "I wanted to know about Freight too."
anything that can be good can be not so good when taken to excess
‘trade’, even free trade, cannot be supported as if a mantra or it becomes its own purpose at the expense of other values
civilzations are not built and not preserved on economic values to the exclusion of all other values and norms
yes, we should have trade, we should not be isolationists
but, those that perform that trade, and those alone, cannot, alone, set our social and civil agenda, on nothing more than trade principles, or they will do so at the peril of the values and principles that bind us together as a people
otherwise, they may save something of the economic benefit of trade for our great-great grandchildren, but the society will not be the great-great grandchild of our present society and many of our values will not be held in high esteem
in the long run culture and demographics, long and slow, out run economics, because many economic benefits move from place to place over time
but, when economic values alone are allowed to devalue the culture, then even the culture, with or without demographic sustenance, simply dies, no matter how later generations view their economic circumstances
the world cultures and their influences that have survived longest have done so through, and in spite of, great economic gains and losses to their central society
trade yes, free trade no - fair trade
the single trader acting alone does not see the full value, or detriment of either the price he seeks or the price he pays
that full value is played out over time by the entire society and culture
so yes, trade should be as open as possible but yes it should be regulated by the society, not simply for regulations sake but to seek terms the society deems fair to it as well
already our cherished value expressed as free-enterprise and built on the concepts of regulated but private enterprise have begun to escape the moorings of our western civilzation, devolving down into the mere acceptance of capitalism (and the ‘trade’ of any and all ‘capitalists’) as the norm and wherein the owner of that capital, politically free or not, is of no consequence
but it is
china now operates in a system best described as state capitalism, and there is nothing about the economic progress of their enterprise that even hints at any political evolution to freedom being derived from it - other than the economic privileges the dictators permit
much of the middle east functions in like manner of the old european mercantilists, where it is only the accountants that can sort out which capital is royal, private or private by royal privelege - for instance there is only such an accounting distinction between the royal family of dubai, the govt of dubai and the major ‘capitalist’ enterprises of dubai
the morphing of western free enterprise into a capitalism devoid of those western political foundations
offers us nothing more than ‘free trade’ that devalues our own social, moral and political model by virtue of how it lifts up, supports and renders equal the models that not only seek to ignore ours but to defeat it
we cannot advance without trade, but if trade is our only national value then we will not survive by it either
It seriously hurt Mediterranean civilization.
Within a short while one of the best places to live was out in the Arabian desert at the oasis called Mecca ~ and that was not all that good a place.
The development of small, local markets was a sign that civilization was returning to Western Europe. That came about some time after the creation of the local defense system called Feudalism. Took Western and Northern Europe about a thousand years to recover ~ I believe Michelangelo (1475-1564) was the first sculptor since the 400s to create a human-form statue as good as had been done by the ancient Romans and Greeks.
Not that statuary is the halmark of the best in civilization, but a thousand years without a good statue is definitely a sign that something serious was wrong, and it wasn't exactly marketing strategies!
The Chinese did their recovery in something like 300 years. They still get higher scores on IQ tests.
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Thanks Blam. |
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Good post.
And I will add that the caravan raiders of old have been replaced by lawyers.
.....Trade was also a boon for human interaction.....
And still is.
My background is in trade. We still use most of the instruments and law that although refined, have been in existance for a very very long time.
In marine insurance there is the law of common responsibility that dates frome time immemorial. If a vessel get is trouble and it is necessary to jettison cargo to save the ship, all with cargo on the vessel ,or there insurers,share the loss.
The banking world although much refined still uses letters of credit to allow distant banks to settle accounts of their local merchants.
I read a book on the history of gold ( actually listen to it on CD) and learned that the domestication of the camel was a major technical development. The camel initially came into use hauling salt to the African Gold Coast and returning with gold. The salt and gold traded at some times ounce for ounce.
Prior to the camel, the transport was by bullock cart. The camel was 2 or 3 times faster extending the days journey to 20 or 30 miles instead of 10. The time invested in the trip was substantially reduced. The camels also took less water and feed and in addition to speed offered lower maintenance and operational cost.
"The salt and gold traded at some times ounce for ounce."
I've read that too.
ping for later
Evidently you are a Heretic.
The High Church of Absolute Free Trade regrets that it must burn you at the stake, as a warning to others.
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