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• 1 2023-07-04T04:50:26-07:00 Trade 7 Rethinking how we look at trade and the human elements that make something valuable. plain 2023-07-08T15:16:06-07:00

  INTRODUCTION

  The practice of trading goods can be traced back to before recorded history. Trade was important for people to buy and sell their goods for an agreed upon sum of money or an equivalence of value in goods. Throughout history, food, tools, ideas, and practices have been exchanged across the globe. Traders and merchants historically specialized in the sale and exchange of these traded goods by learning the craft from other merchants and attempting to find the next “big thing” that could get them rich. With so much being bought and sold, we can ideally assume that everything has a value of exchange, therefore setting a price based on supply and demand.

  This aspect of trading begs the question of why we put a value on goods to begin with. While some items can be argued as being essential or required, some goods can be argued to be used for leisure or as a future investment. Some of these goods resulted in the decline and fall of kingdoms and empires due to their perceived value. For others, it resulted in a social or cultural experience that benefited the country to some extent. For now, let’s take a look into some of these goods to help us understand the history of trade and its history of valuing a tradable good.

  ACTIVITY

  For this activity, let’s start by looking at the complex trade networks that existed historically:

   

  Next, let’s read one of the following items below. These are items that have been deemed valuable historically:

  Tea & Sugar

  Ivory

  Silk

  Now that we have gone through this activity, let’s answer the following questions in the comment section:

  1) How and why do you think people make items valuable? 

  2) Based on the item you picked, what about the item made it valuable historically?

  3) Based on the maps, what other factors you think contributed to the value of these items?

• 1 2023-06-19T13:13:55-07:00 Spices 4 Questioning why humans had a fascination for spices. plain 2023-07-09T02:36:11-07:00

  INTRODUCTION

  The term “spice” refers to a substance that is made from a plant and used to give a special flavor to food. These spices range from black pepper, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg; and they are a part of cuisines and cultures across the globe. Trade for these spices historically was a lucrative business for merchants to explore. Famously, the Venetians were well-known for entering the spice trade with the Ottoman Empire, which went against the wishes of the Pope during this time. Today, spices of all kinds are used in both traditional and modern cuisines across the globe.However, why is it important to think of spices as an historical phenomenon? What makes these kinds of plants relevant to that of wheat, rice, and corn? While food such as wheat and rice were pivotal crops for farming and consumption, spices are arguably under a category of luxury items for most of history. Merchants sought out this trade as kingdoms who harvested these spices were made and broken by these crops. To understand this further, let’s look at the activity below.

  ACTIVITY

  Let’s start by looking at the video on the spice trade:

  Now let’s learn about Roman trade with the Tamil kings:

  Now that we have gone through this activity, let’s answer the following questions in the comment section:

  1) Would you consider the historical use of spices as a historical phenomenon? Why?

  2) Would you consider spices to have a value similar to cereal crops (wheat, rice, etc.)?

  3) How does the spice trade reflect the desire for global trade similarly to the Romans and Tamil kings?