Commerce and Culture

500-1500

AP World History Notes

Chapter 8
 Why Trade?
Different ecological zones = natural
uneven distribution of goods and
resources
Early monopolization of certain goods
Silk in China
Spices in Southeast Asia
I want what you have! Do you want
what I have? Lets trade!
 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 World
Go 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
Buddhist temple in
Dunhuang (an oases
became centers of learning
city) and commerce
 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

Empires 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