The beginning – Prehistory
Our direct ancestors , the Hominini who roamed earth about 15–20 million years ago, may have set in process the saga of Global trade by shaping the first stone tools c. 3.3 million years ago . These tools, precursor to the global business of toolmaking, may have been used to hunt food and the earliest basis of how we begin to define human behaviour. The Business of toolmaking remains unchanged for another million years and becomes a form of Industry as the Oldowan and Acheulean Stone Tools are discovered.
Our ancestor, Homo habilis, an ancestor of Homo sapiens, is claimed to have manufactured Oldowan tools possibly to start the business of Butchering.
The earliest signpost in our knowledge of history and global trade begins from the Neolithic Revolution ( around 10,000 B.C) when human beings organised into groups living in settlements based on access to agriculture resources. In the fourth century B.C. world trade expanded from two centres, from Greece and Rome eastward and from China southward and westward. Chinese merchants reached Malaya, Java, Ceylon and the eastern coast of India by sea and pushed overland across the expanses of Asia to the valleys of the Indus and to Persia, Syria and the Black Sea³. The neolithic revolution and the later, industrial revolution are considered to two important markers in our understanding of global economic history. These groups of people start by cultivating plants, breeding animals and using stone tools including stone grinders. Perhaps with our current understanding of ancient history, global trade may have began with the exchange of goods across the settlements located in what is now called the ‘Fertile Crescent‘ in the Middle East.
We have attempted to signpost various sources, significant global events, places of importance, key historical actors and country specific context in understanding the history of international trade in this Globestrategy Resource.
Neolithic revolution
The shift from being a consumer of resources to producing resources using farming, marks an important marker in the beginnings of production.(The history of farming is highly contested).By managing resources including plants like wheat and barley that were abundantly present in the Fertile Crescent, human beings start Farming -the process of creating surplus production. Farming, thus created a need to distribute the surplus production. By moving settlements across regions of the world following a seasonal pattern possibly induced by climate change, human beings would have come into contact with other settlements and possibly would have exchanged their surplus resources. The Production of food resources also created the beginning of urban civilisation , foundations for wealth creation and social transformations like the creative arts. The historical evidence of people gathering together at regular intervals to socialise or acquire resources has been documented in the middle neolithic period.
We also have evidence of the beginning of long-distance trade routes in the Neolithic period. An example used to support the idea of a long-distance transfer of products by people has been the discovery of Obsidian glass in Neolithic Jericho probably came from central Turkey.Obsidian is presumed to have been highly prized as a commodity in the early trade history since it was very sharp and be used to create tough blades/tools. A widely traded global commodity, Silk was first produced in neolithic China and would later lay the foundations for the silk Road and from East Asia to Europe, India and Africa.
The Chalcolithic Period of Trade
The Chalcolithic Period is considered to be an age where copper starts to be used in the development of metallurgy technology but humans to fashion superior tools after discovering their use in the Neolithic period.A defining characteristic of this period is the emergence of painted ceramic pottery and houses.
Some works have considered this period to be a transition between the Neolithic age and the Bronze Age.In this period of history, we see human beings occupying the same territory in succession in this period, creating the vestiges of urbanisation and creation of hierarchical society structures. There is an increase in evidence (silos and granaries) in the creation of surplus production in this period of history. We also see the beginning of division of labour, the rise of metalworking industries, rise of specialism and perhaps domestication of the donkey in transportation of goods to different sites.
Early Bronze Age
Many countries like Cyprus have been part of the international trade in metals in the early and Middle Bronze Ages. One of the earliest known societies, the Indus Valley Civilization which dates from the Bronze Age is presumed to have been built on global trade including the use of boats and ships. This technology presumably enabled the civilisation to trade from China, India to parts of the modern day Iraq, Kuwait, parts of Syria. Anatolia in modern-day Turkey is another important place in the history of global trade. Objects made out of tin, copper, lead and silver have been located in this region, leading to a possibility of silver from Anatolia been traded for tin from Afghanistan.
The Silk Road
A key reference point in global trade has been the notion of a silk Road which was an ancient route crossing the middle of China, across Central Asia and finally reaching ancient Rome.Gradually becoming prominent during the Han dynasty, the growth of silk manufacture would gradually move into Korea and Japan where it became a protected industry. The silk Road was a network of camel caravan routes from China to the Middle East. its importance to global trade was largely as a form of currency, a medium for the arts and the transmission of ideology like Buddhism. A more detailed commentary on silk in antiquity can be read here.The Silk road or Sichou Zhi Lu would later become a bone of contention between the Huns and the Hans on who would dominate this route. A map of the route by Shizhao can be viewed here .
The Sumerian Civilisation
The Sumerian civilization emerged upon the flood plain of the lower reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers about 4000 B.C¹. Evidence from excavations indicates that farming communities appeared in the northern foothills of the Fertile Crescent as early as 9,000². Known for inventing time, (including the division of a day into 24 hours and one hour into 60 minutes) transforming communication and being technological disrupters(having invented or perfected many forms of technology, including the wheel, mathematics, and cuneiform script), the Sumerians were also famous for trade .
No later than the early third millennium traders were engaged in long distance commerce between cities in the ancient Near East . They transported gold, silver, copper, tin, precious stones, grain, wool and woolen goods, and a variety of foodstuffs in every direction via donkey caravans, river barges, and sea going ships³. According to Wayne and William (2012), “Transporting goods by donkey caravan, river boat, and sea-going ship, merchants reached Tilmun in the Persian Gulf, Magan in present day Oman, Melukka in the Indus Valley, Emar and Ebla far to the north, and Ugarit on the Mediterranean Sea. Ur traders imported large quantities of copper, precious stones, edible oils, and ivory”
Based on a stable city state governance model, inhabitants traded with Lebanon for cedar wood and are one of the earliest examples of resource seeking states. They have also been known for being shipping intermediaries between Iran and the Indus region.
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