Global Trade in the Premodern World

Global Trade in the Premodern World offers an authoritative and expansive history of exchange and interaction across Eurasia from the prehistoric origins of trade to the integration of large parts of this world-system by the fifteenth century CE.

Global Trade in the Premodern World offers an authoritative and expansive history of exchange and interaction across Eurasia from the prehistoric origins of trade to the integration of large parts of this world-system by the fifteenth century CE.

The book tackles questions that are critical to our understanding of premodern globalization. How did global trade in the premodern world take shape? Who did the trading and what motivated them? Which commodities were traded and how did different goods influence how trading networks functioned? How did geography change how and where people carried goods? How did states and communities seek to control the practice of commerce? And finally, what was the impact of trade on political structures and in the relationship between different states, empires, and communities?

Drawing on the fruits of research in history, anthropology, and archaeology, as well as primary sources produced by authors from Africa, Asia, and Europe, Global Trade in the Premodern World is a book of remarkable scope written engagingly and accessibly with scholars, students, and non-specialists in mind.

Autorentext

Richard L. Smith was Emeritus Professor of History at Ferrum College, Virginia. His teaching and research were driven by wide-ranging interests in trade across Afro-Eurasia, especially in the first millennium CE. Smith's publications include Premodern Trade in World History (2008) and numerous chapters and articles.

Edmond Smith is Professor of Economic Cultures at the University of Manchester, UK. Their research and teaching explore the cultural and institutional origins of globalization across the second millennium CE. Smith has published numerous articles, chapters, and books, including the prize-winning monograph Merchants (2021).

Klappentext

Global Trade in the Premodern World offers an authoritative and expansive history of exchange and interaction across Eurasia from the prehistoric origins of trade to the integration of large parts of this world-system by the fifteenth century CE.

Inhalt

Note on Writing - Edmond Smith

Introduction: A Book of Routes and Realms

Trade in Global History

Scope and Structure

Chapter One: The Origins of Trade

Trade and Human Society

Long-Distance Trade in Prehistoric Eurasia

Case Study: The Incense Road

Case Study: The Amber Trails

Chapter Two: Trade Across the Steppe

Pastoralists, Nomads and Steppe Society

Forms of Exchange

Chapter Three: Controlling the Steppe Frontier

Strategies for Border Security

Crossing Borders

Case Study: China's Border Markets

Chapter Four: Travel and Transport

Measuring and Mapping

Traversing the Land

Traversing the Seas

Chapter Five: Merchants and Networks

Making Trade Work

Routes and Systems

Case Study: The Trans-Saharan Route

Chapter Six: Commodities of the Premodern World

The Premodern Market Stall

Global Commodities in Primary Sources

Bibliography

Index