Robyn Lee

CHAPTER 12 QUESTIONS: ESTABLISHING WORLD TRADE ROUTES

A. Define the following terms:
5. value added:
The amount by which the value of an article is increased at each stage of its production, exclusive of initial costs

1. silk route:
The set of rough roads and transportation links across central Asia that carried trade and cultural exchanges as far as China, India, and the eastern Mediterranean. The routes flourished only when governments were strong enough to protect them and keep them safe.

6. free market economy:

An economy based on the power of division of labor in which the prices of goods are determined in a free price system set by supply and demand.

2. lateen sail:
A triangular sail affixed to a long yard or crossbar at an angle of about 45 degrees to the mast, with the other free corner secured near the stern.

7. supply and demand:

An economic model of price determination in a market. It concludes that in a competitive market, the unit price for any a particular good my vary until it settles at a point where the quantity demanded by the consumers will equal the quantity supplied.

3. transhumance:
A pattern of seasonal migration.

8. moral economy:
A phase used in a number of contexts to describe the interplay between moral or cultural beliefs and economic activities.

4. yurt:
A portable dwelling used by the nomadic people of central Asia, consisting of a tentlike structure of skin, felt, or hand-woven

B. Answer each of the following questions in sentences or short paragraphs on a separate sheet of paper. 1. a. What is a trade diaspora? Trade diasporas are networks of interconnected commercial communities living and working in major trade cities dispersed throughout Africa, Europe, and Asia. Trade diasporas appear in the archaeological record as early as 3500 BCE. Some have endured for a millennia. b. What was the importance of trade diasporas to the spread of world trade before 1500?

In a world that had no international courts or legal systems, shared religion and ethnicity often formed the basis for conducting long-distance trade. For example, while small in number, Jews were able to carry on international trade across the entire eastern hemisphere. Their religious diaspora in numerous far-distant points of settlement supported their trade diaspora. Dispersed in small communities from China to Western Europe and Africa, their common faith formed a bond of trust, and this trust enabled them to establish highly efficient trade networks. Baghdad, astride many of the key trade routes in western Asia, held the most prominent Jewish community in the world at the time, and there were also notable Jewish communities in Calicut and Cochin in southern India and in Kaifeng, China. c. What advantages did Jews and Muslims have for engaging in world trade in the period 1300-1500? Global traders formed commercial networks on the basis of shared religion and ethnicity. For the Jews, these trading communities operated within their own social and religious networks, enjoying trade relations with local people, but not encouraging their religions conversion. On the other hand, overseas Muslim trade communities often sought to attract converts to Islam, as happened especially in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. 2. What were the principal interregional trading networks in 1300? Between 1100 ad 1500 a relay system of trade by land and sea connected almost all populous regions of Eurasia, as well a North and East Africa. Long-distance traders carried goods along their own segments of these routes, and then turned them over to traders in the next sector. The western hemisphere was still separate, and had two major trade networks of its own.
3. Complete the chart below on Features of Amerindian

Civilizations (during the post-classical era). Include 4 or 5 bullet points per box.

Civilizati ons Maya

Political Patterns
The state came to control the affluent traders, which created a new set of unequal relations that was controlled by the kings rather than the merchants

Social Patterns
There was an increase of wealth of the traders, which created social tension

Cultural Patterns
In the 1520s, the Mayans were in decline, and the Aztecs dominated the valley of Mexico They inhabited the Yucatan peninsula of Mesoamerica Culture/people flourished from 200 BCE 900 CE

Economic Patterns
Mayan traders operated without interference, amassing a disproportionate share of wealth

Aztec

Traders gathered both goods and military intelligence for the ruling Aztec families Royal troops protected the ruling families and sometimes used attacks on pochteca as a justification for the confiscation of land

Aztec capital Tenochtitlan was a great marketplace Spanish soldiers wrote detailed accounts of the flourishing trade and markets Pochteca lived in their own wards in the towns, had their own magistrates, and supervised the markets The pochteca were to some degree foreigners living in a trade diaspora, with a high degree of independence from the state and temple

Market met every fifth day with an outcome of 40,000 to 50,000 merchants

Guilds of traders called the pochteca carried on long-distance trade, which slowly expanded through the 15th century They held trade expeditions for hundreds of miles

Inca

The state controlled trade The Incas consolidated their empire in the early 1400s The capital of the Incan Empire was Cusco The Inca state had no separate judiciary or codified sets of laws.

Each ecological region had a certain product in which they specialized in/grew They were mountain people connected together by extensive routes of communication and trade

Each ecological region had a certain product in which they specialized in/grew 32 million people were connected through these trade routes Architecture is the most important of Inca arts, with textiles that were at their height in architecture

The state controlled trade

4. What is a lateen sail? Where did it originate? What is its significance? A triangular sail affixed to a long yard or crossbar at an angle of about 45 degrees to the mast, with the other free corner secured near the stern. The sail was capable of tacking against the wind on either side. So named when they appeared in the Mediterranean, where they were associated with Latin culture, although their origin was actually far away. They helped ships to sail against prevailing winds, making travel much more efficient in the water.
5. Compare the relative importance of inland and overseas trade

for China in the 15th century. China is so huge that its international trade far outweighs its external trade. It is so rich and varied in its productivity that others came to China to obtain its products far more regularly than the Chinese traveled abroad in search of the products of others. During the Song Dynasty, the Chinese possessed a highly integrated system of internal markets and reached an extraordinary level of agricultural and industrial productivity. They could supplement the traditional exports of silk and porcelain with products also of iron and steel. As early as the fourth century C.E., the Chinese traded in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, although probably only as far west as Sri Lanka. With the decline of the Tang dynasty, the Chinese largely withdrew from this oceanic trade and instead concentrated on inland issues, reflecting their geographical location to the Yellow River valley and the north. After 1127, they returned to sea trade; this was during the time when the Mongols drove the Song Dynasty from power. With these various outside groups in control of the overland silk routes, seaborn trade was an obvious transportation and communication alternative. 6. How did the Mongol Empire facilitate world trade? Under the Mongol Empire, the largest land empire ever known, traffic on the silk routes, which had been on the decline after the Tang Dynasty, were revived. While the Mongols had little permanent contribution because they were absorbed into other, more settled and sophisticated cultures, they did establish the Pax Mongolica (Mongolian Peace), over a vast region. Here, intercontinental trade could flourish across the reopened silk routes.
7. Describe the rise of Arab seafaring to show how it came to be

predominant in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea. From the 8th to the 16th century, Arab Muslim traders and sailors became masters of the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean sea-lanes. Islam encourage trade; the haji to Mecca required every Muslim to at least once during his or her lifetime travel to the holy place, a necessitated travel, and thus, international trade connections flourished. Arab sailors sailed with the monsoon winds first to India, then to Southeast Asia, and some even on to the southeast coast of China. Using their lateen sails by catching the proper seasonal winds, they could complete a round trip from Mesopotamia to China in under two years. The rise of Arab Muslim sea traders led to a dominance of the sea lanes from the Mediterranean coast in the west all the way east to Guangzhou and Hangzhou in China, which frequently displaced previous communities of sailors. Along with their trade goods, Muslims also conveyed their religious ideas. In the 13th century, as the Muslim sultanate of Delhi came to rule northern India, many of the Hindu ocean-going traders, especially those along the west coast of Gujarat, converted to Islam. In regions as distant as Malaysia and Indonesia, locals began to assimilate to the religion; Islam came to be the dominant religion in Indonesia. The entire length of the Indian Ocean littoral, from East Africa through India and on to Indonesia, housed a Muslim, largely Arab, trading diaspora.