Trade route Totally Explained

Everything about Trade Route totally explained

A trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a single trade route contains long distance arteries which may further be connected to several smaller networks of commercial and non commercial transportation.
Historically, the period from 1500 BCE–1 CE saw the Western Asian, Mediterranean, Chinese and Indian societies develop major transportation networks for trade. Europe's early trading routes included the Amber Road, which served as a dependable network for long distance trade. During the Middle Ages organizations such as the Hanseatic League, aimed at protecting interests of the merchants and trade, also became increasingly prominent. Organized caravans, visible by the 2nd millennium BCE, could carry goods across a large distance as fodder was mostly available along the way. However, caravans were useful in long-distance trade largely for carrying luxury goods, the transportation of cheaper goods across large distances wasn't profitable for caravan operators. With productive developments in iron and bronze technologies, newer trade routes - dispensing innovations of civilizations - began to rise slowly.

Maritime trade

Maritime trade began with safer coastal trade and evolved with the manipulation of the monsoon winds, soon resulting in trade crossing boundaries such as the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. South Asia had multiple maritime trade routes which connected it to Southeast Asia, thereby making the control of one route resulting in maritime monopoly difficult. A Roman trading vessel could span the Mediterranean Sea in a month at one-sixtieth the cost of over-land routes.

Visible trade routes

The peninsula of Anatolia lay on the commercial land routes to Europe from Asia as well as the sea route from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea. Records from the 19th century BCE attest to the existence of an Assyrian merchant colony at Kanesh in Cappadocia (now in modern Turkey). Parts of the Mediterranean world, Roman Britain, Tigris-Euphrates river system and North Africa fell under the reach of this network at some point of their history.

"The spread of urban trading networks, and their extension along the Persian Gulf and eastern Mediterranean, created a complex molecular structure of regional foci so that as well as the zonation of core and periphery (originally created around Mesopotamia) there was a series of interacting civilizations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley; then also Syria, central Anatolia (Hittites) and the Aegean (Minoans and Mycenaeans). Beyond this was a margin which included not only temperate areas such as Europe, but the dry steppe corridor of central Asia. This was truly a world system, even though it occupied only a restricted portion of the western Old World. Whilst each civilization emphasized its ideological autonomy, all were identifiably part of a common world of interacting components."

These routes - spreading religion, trade and technology - have historically been vital to the growth of urban civilization. The extent of development of cities, and the level of their integration into a larger world system, has often been attributed to their position in various active transport networks.

Historic trade routes

Combined land and waterway routes

Incense Route

The Incense Route served as a channel for trading of Indian, Arabian and East Asian goods. The incense trade flourished from South Arabia to the Mediterranean between roughly the 3rd century BCE to the 2nd century CE. This trade was crucial to the economy of Yemen and the frankincense and myrrh trees were seen as a source of wealth by the its rulers. Ptolemy II Philadelphus, emperor of Ptolemaic Egypt, may have forged an alliance with the Lihyanites in order to secure the incense route at Dedan, thereby rerouting the incense trade from Dedan to the coast along the Red Sea to Egypt. I. E. S. Edwards connects the Syro-Ephraimite War to the desire of the Israelites and the Aramaeans to control the northern end of the Incense route, which ran up from Southern Arabia and could be tapped by commanding Transjordan. Gerrha - inhabited by Chaldean exiles from Babylon - controlled the Incense trade routes across Arabia to the Mediterranean and exercised control over the trading of aromatics to Babylon in the 1st century BC. The Nabateans exercised control over the routes along the Incense Route, and their hold was challenged - without success - by Antigonus Cyclops, emperor of Syria and Palestine. The Nabatean control over trade further increased and spread in many directions. According to Milo Kearney (2003) "The South Arabs in protest took to pirate attacks over the Roman ships in the Gulf of Aden. In response, the Romans destroyed Aden and favored the Western Abyssinian coast of the Red Sea." Indian ships sailed to Egypt as the maritime routes of Southern Asia were not under the control of a single power. The current academic view is that the flow of goods across the Andean slopes was controlled by institutions distributing locations to local groups, who were then free to access them for trading.
Prior to the Inca dominance, specialized long distance merchants provided the highlanders with goods such as gold nuggets, copper hatches, cocoa, salt etc. for redistribution among the locals, and were key players in the politics of the region. Hatchet shaped copper currency was produced by the Peruvian people, in order to obtain valuables from pre Columbian Ecuador. According to Vadime Elisseeff (2000): Among the frequented routes of the Silk Route was the Burmese route extending from Bhamo, which served as a path for Marco Polo's visit to Yunnan and Indian Buddhist missions to Canton in order to establish Buddhist monasteries. This route - often under the presence of hostile tribes - also finds mention in the works of Rashid al-Din. One of the important trade routes of the world, this road has been a strategic artery with fortresses, halting posts, wells, post offices, milestones and other facilities. Emperor Sher Shah widened and realigned the road to other routes, and provided approximately 1700 roadside inns through his empire. Bridges, pathways and newer inns were constructed by the British for the first thirty seven years of their reign since the occupation of Punjab in 1849.

"Along this road marched not only the mighty armies of conquerors, but also the caravans of traders, scholars, artists, and common folk. Together with people, moved ideas, languages, customs, and cultures, not just in one, but in both directions. At different meeting places - permanent as well as temporary - people of different origins and from different cultural backgrounds, professing different faiths and creeds, eating different foods, wearing different clothes, and speaking different languages and dialects would meet one another peacefully. They would understand one another's food, dress, manner, and etiquette, and even borrow words, phrases, idioms and, at times, whole languages from others."

Amber Road

The Amber Road was a European trade route associated with the trade and transport of amber. Amber satisfied the criteria for long distance trade as it was light in weight and was in high demand for ornamental purposes around the Mediterranean. Under the reign of Tiberius Caesar Augustus, the Amber Road was straightened and paved according to the prevailing urban standards. Roman towns began to appear along the road, initially founded near the site of Celtic oppida. The prolonged struggle between the Romans and the barbarians further left its mark on the towns along the Amber Road.

Via Maris

Via Maris, literally Latin for "the way of the sea," was an ancient highway used by the Romans and the Crusaders. The states controlling the Via Maris were in a position to grant access for trade to their own citizens and collect tolls from the outsiders to maintain the trade route. The name Via Maris is a Latin translation of a Hebrew phrase related to Isaiah.]] Early Muslim writings confirm that the people of West Africa operated a sophisticated network of trade, usually under the authority of a monarch who levied taxes and provided bureaucratic and military support to his kingdom. Sophisticated mechanisms for the economic and political development of the involved African areas were in place before Islam further strengthened trade, towns and government in western Africa. However, this was to change with the development of Hanseatic trade, as a result of which German traders became prominent in the Baltic and the North Sea regions. Following the death of Eric VI of Denmark, German forces attacked and sacked Denmark, bringing with them artisans and merchants under the new administration which controlled the Hansa regions. During the third quarter of the 14th century the Hanseatic trade faced two major difficulties: economic conflict with the Flanders and hostilities with Denmark. These events led to the formation of an organized association of Hanseatic towns, which replaced the earlier union of German merchants. He further sets the date of dissolution of the Hansa at 1630 Scholar Georg Friedrich Sartorius published the first monograph regarding the community in the early years of the 19th century. The Roman historian Strabo mentions a vast increase in trade following the Roman annexation of Egypt, indicating that monsoon was known and manipulated for trade in his time. By the time of Augustus up to 120 ships were setting sail every year from Myos Hormos to India, trading in a diverse variety of goods. Berenice Troglodytica and Myos Hormos were the principal Roman ports involved in this maritime trading network, while the Indian ports included Barbaricum, Barygaza, Muziris and Arikamedu.
The Indians were present in Alexandria and the Christian and Jew settlers from Rome continued to live in India long after the fall of the Roman empire, which resulted in Rome's loss of the Red Sea ports, previously used to secure trade with India by the Greco-Roman world since the time of the Ptolemaic dynasty. spices became the main import from India to the Western world, bypassing silk and other commodities. The Indian commercial connection with South East Asia proved vital to the merchants of Arabia and Persia during the 7th century and the 8th century.
The Abbasids used Alexandria, Damietta, Aden and Siraf as entry ports to India and China. Merchants arriving from India in the port city of Aden paid tribute in form of musk, camphor, ambergris and sandalwood to Ibn Ziyad, the sultan of Yemen. Indian exports of spices find mention in the works of Ibn Khurdadhbeh (850), al-Ghafiqi (1150 AD), Ishak bin Imaran (907) and Al Kalkashandi (14th century). The wealth of the Indies was now open for the Europeans to explore; the Portuguese Empire was one of the early European empires to grow from spice trade. The entry of harmful foreign pollutants by the way of trade routes has been a cause of alarm during the modern times. A conservative estimate stresses that future damages from harmful animal and plant diseases may be as high as 134 billion US dollars in the absence of effective measures to prevent the introduction of unwanted pests through various trade routes.

Railway routes

The 1844 Railway act of England compelled at least one train to a station every day with the third class fares priced at a penny a mile. Trade benefited as the workers and the lower classes had the ability to travel to other towns frequently. Suburban communities began to develop and towns began to spread outwards. The efficient use of rail routes helped in the unification of the United States of America.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica (2002):

Railroads reached their maturity in the early 20th century, as trains carried the bulk of land freight and passenger traffic in the industrialized countries of the world. By the mid-20th century, however, they'd lost their preeminent position. The private automobile had replaced the railroad for short passenger trips, while the airplane had usurped it for long-distance travel, especially in the United States. Railroads remained effective, however, for transporting people in high-volume situations, such as commuting between the centres of large cities and their suburbs, and medium-distance travel of less than about 300 miles between urban centres.
Although railroads have lost much of the general-freight-carrying business to semi-trailer trucks, they remain the best means of transporting large volumes of such bulk commodities as coal, grain, chemicals, and ore over long distances. The development of containerization has made the railroads more effective in handling finished merchandise at relatively high speeds. In addition, the introduction of piggyback flatcars, in which truck trailers are transported long distances on specially-designed cars, has allowed railroads to regain some of the business lost to trucking.

Modern road networks

The advent motor vehicles created a demand for better use of highways. Roads evolved into two way roads, expressways, freeways and tollways during the modern times. Existing roads were developed and highways were designed according to intended use. Modern highways, such as the Trans-Canada Highway, Highway 1 (Australia) and Pan-American Highway allowed transport of goods and services across great distances. Automobiles continue to play a crucial role in the economies of the Industrialized countries, resulting in rise of businesses such as motor freight operation and truck transportation. This trend is especially notable since there has been a growth in vehicles and vehicle miles traveled by automobiles using these highways. The strategic advantages of port cities as trading centers are many: they're both less dependent on vital connections and less vulnerable to blockages.
Modern maritime trade routes - sometimes in the form of artificial canals like the Suez Canal - had visible impact on the economic and political standing of nations. Other waterways, like the Panama Canal played an important role in the histories of many nations. Inland water transportation remained significantly important even as the advent of railroads and automobiles resulted in a steady decline of canals.
Waterway commerce was historically important to Europe, particularly to Russia. Oil spills are recorded both in case of maritime routes and pipeline routes to the main refineries.

Free Trade Areas

Historically, governments followed a policy of protection of trade. International Free Trade became visible in 1860 with the Anglo-French commercial treaty and the sentiment further gained momentum during the post World War II era. People having been using air transport both for long and middle distances, with the average route length of long distances being 720 kilometers in Europe and 1220 kilometers in the US. This enormous industry annually carries 1600 million passengers worldwide, and covers a 15 million kilometer network with an annual turnover of 260 billion dollars. In 1998, 50 pure cargo service companies operated internationally. Examples of modern pipeline transport include Alashankou-Dushanzi Crude Oil Pipeline and Iran-Armenia Natural Gas Pipeline. International pipeline transport projects, like the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, presently connect modern nation states - in this case Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey - through pipeline networks.
In some select cases, pipelines can even transport solids, such as coal and other minerals, over long distances; short distance transportation of goods such as grain, cement, concrete, solid wastes, pulp etc. is also feasible.Further Information

Get more info on 'Trade Route'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://trade_route.totallyexplained.com">Trade route Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.