Trade provides mankind's most
significant meeting place, the market.
In primitive societies only religious
events - cult rituals, or rites of passage such as marriage - bring people
together in a comparable way. But in these cases the participants are already
linked, by custom or kinship - they already know one another.
The process of barter brings a crowd together in a more random fashion. New ideas, along with precious goods, have always traveled along trade routes. |
Agricultural produce and everyday
household goods tend to make short journeys to and from a local market.
Trade
in a bigger sense, between distant places, is a different matter. It
involves entrepreneurs and middlemen, people willing to accept delay and risk
in the hope of a large profit.
When travel is slow and dangerous, the trader's commodities must be as nearly as possible imperishable; and they must be valuable in relation to their size. Spices and rich textiles, for example. And, above all, precious ornaments of silver and gold, or useful items in copper, bronze or iron. |
As the most valuable of
commodities (in addition to being compact and easily portable), metals are a
great incentive to trade.
Key Vocabulary market
kinship
barter trade routes agricultural produce everyday household goods entrepreneurs middlemen commodities imperishable textiles What does this mean? And why is this an important thing to consider? "valuable in relation to their size" Can you connect the following concepts to the above text about markets? Key Concept
Global Interactions
Related Concepts
Trade
Growth
Resources
Consumption |