Preface
Teachers of survey courses in world history have become increasingly aware
of the need for suitable supplemental reading material on matters to which
textbooks, under the command“to keep it short and sweet,”can give only
brief treatment. In most general texts, economic history is allotted short
shrift when compared with political, military, and diplomatic concerns, and
often even topics drawn from social, cultural, and intellectual history fare
better. In a chapter about this particular state or culture or that particular
time period, it is not unusual to find trade and commerce covered in a
paragraph or at best a half page. Yet trade and commerce are among the
oldest, most pervasive, and most important of human activities, serving as
engines for change in many other human endeavors.
Recently the editors of several series designed for the supplemental read-
ings market have made attempts to address this situation, and a number of
useful books have become available. In general, they focus on trade in a
particular commodity or related set of commodities, or a specific trade zone
or system, or the interrelationship between trade and culture. They are
intended to be case studies from which students draw larger conclusions.
This book represents an attempt to go beyond the case study by providing a
more general overview of the development of long-distance trade from its
beginnings in the prehistoric period to the emergence of a system linking
Afro–Eurasia in thefirst millenniumCE.
Trade, like art and religion, appears to be characteristic of our species.
Signs of trade in the form of seashell necklaces 100 miles from the sea appear
very early in the archaeological record ofHomo sapiens. The invention of the
sled followed later by the wheel and sail provided the means for the move-
ment of increasingly larger quantities of goods. The spread of agriculture,
resulting in a huge growth of population, increasing social complexity, and
the introduction of new products, caused trade to grow exponentially.
The organization of long-distance trade began to take shape in the early
river valley societies that developed along the Tigris–Euphrates, Nile, and
Indus. The great empires that succeeded them created trade zones for over-
land and riverain traffic. Powerful states became dependent on income from