Global Trade is Not New
Okay, so there’s an ongoing myth that our ancestors only traded very locally. And it’s true that a lot of people never traveled more than a day’s walk from their homes.
But the fact is that complex trade networks existed all over the world. The Silk Road is the most famous, but we’re also pretty sure Cahokia was a center of long distance trade.
If you’re writing in history or history-flavored fantasy, consider some of these incidents of trade over surprisingly long distances (modern technology only increases what we can trade, not how far).
Obsidian in Canada
Obsidian is a really useful stone if you haven’t cracked metallurgy yet. It is easily shaped into arrowheads and cutting tools but, once shaped, holds an edge nicely.
Alberta, Canada, doesn’t have obsidian…but the First Nations there did. Analysis has shown that most of this obsidian came from two sites in what’s now the United States – Bear Gulch, Idaho, and Obsidian Cliff, Wyoming.
Some of these pieces of obsidian traveled 750 miles…amongst people that had no means of transportation faster than shanks’ pony (unless it’s true they did have a few horses around). It appears that obsidian was traded at buffalo jump sites, although we don’t yet know what for.
One possible guess would be high value furs from arctic animals, which would not survive to be tracked.
Across the Mediterranean
The Mediterranean is a relatively nice sea. You don’t need great boats to sail across it.
And we’ve pushed back the date when people were doing it to about 8,500 years ago. How? We sequenced DNA from a guy who apparently had European ancestry dating to about that date. They actually think these people were sailing across the Med in…dugout canoes.
I’ve been to the Med. I’d buy it.
Why would they have done this? The fish are mostly close to shore. Exploration might have been part of it, but if these visits were regular, they were almost certainly trading something between Europe and North Africa. Spices? Stone for tools? We don’t know…yet.
But that revises upwards the possible open sea capability of simple dugout canoes.
Meow? Meow!
All domestic cats are descended from African wildcats, with the exception of some exotic breeds (and you won’t convince me the Norwegian Forest Cat and Maine Coon don’t have some northern European wildcat in their woodpile).
There is, in fact, a theory, supported by DNA evidence, that the Maine Coon might have been accidentally introduced to northeastern America by the Vikings…when the colonies failed, some of the cats stayed. It’s also supported by the folklore origin of the Maine Coon…the “raccoons” may have been large feral cats.
In China, they attempted to domesticate native leopard cats, but while they “lived alongside” these cats there was no actual domestication.
We now have a good estimate that domesticated felines found their way to China, likely along the Silk Road, some time between AD 600 and 900. The cats were prized, exotic pets, and may have been given as gifts to the elite. Most of them were white, but, at some point, a mutation presumably happened that created cats with darker colored paws…the ancestors of today’s Siamese and Himalayan breeds.
(If you want to know what the original domestic cats looked like, look at pictures of cats from the Greek islands…those kitties look just like Egyptian cat statues! Just watch them, they’re probably after your lunch).
The Indian Ocean
Favorable trade winds and valuable goods resulted in lots of maritime trade between East Africa, Arabia, India, Southeast Asia, and China (some cats may have found their way there this way too). From about 2,000 BCE up until the 15th century, when Europe started to dominate the region, this complex trading network moved all kinds of things.
Including Indian cotton, still one of the subcontinent’s best imports. You probably own more than one garment made from it. Other trade goods included spices, silk, gold from east Africa and gemstones from India.
Islam also followed this route, but so did Christianity and Judaism. The St. Thomas Christians claim to have been converted directly by the Apostle Thomas, who sailed to the region in 52AD or, alternatively, to be descendants of Jewish converts who traveled there. Certainly, Christianity was introduced to them along a trade route from the middle east. And there is also a Jewish community in the same area, so it ispossible the community split…but they claim to have been there for at least 2,000 years!
African Gold, Salt, and…
Trade across the Sahara became notable in the fourth century…although it likely started sooner.
Timbuktu, a major trade city, has a surviving library that contains evidence of trade routes, what goods were traded, and intellectual and cultural trade between Africa and Europe.
Most of the trade was in gold, salt, and ivory (Europe was a bit short of the alternative source of ivory, the walrus).
But some of it was the most shameful trade of all. Trade in humans goes back further than any of us like to think, and continues more than we want to admit. European and American slave traders, however, found it easier to ship slaves (and other goods) from west Africa in the Triangle Trade, significantly reducing the significance of the trans-Saharan trade.
Let’s talk about something a bit happier now.
Tea For…Horses?
The Hengduan Mountains in China produce a lot of tea. A lot of tea. It’s the perfect climate and soil for it.
Getting that tea to customers was tough; the road crossed many rivers. And much of this tea ended up in Tibet.
What did the Tibetans trade for their beverage?
Horses.
At the time, around the 7th century through the 13th, Tibet produced some of the best warhorses in Asia. And yes, they took tea in trade.
I think I’d rather have the horse, but I’m that weird Brit who doesn’t much like tea…
I’m out of space, but I hope I got you thinking about trade routes, what might be traded, and how long trade routes can be even if your fastest means of transportation is a horse, a camel, or a sailing ship.