Railroad

Railroad was an important innovation that temporarily served as the main type of transportation for people and goods. It allowed humans to travel long distances and convey a great volume of goods on the ground. The history of railroad went back to 1550 when Wagon ways appeared in German. They were represented by wood or stone rails, and horses that were the main pulling force. These rails allowed carts and wagons to move forward easier and faster than they could shift on dirty roads. With time iron rails entered into use and wagons with flanged wheels appeared. The next very important modification in the railroad was implemented when horse-drawn carts were replaced with steam powered vehicles. This made the transportation even faster and more beneficial. The certain schedule for trains started to use and payments for tickets were introduced. Thus, the railway in the 1800s remained strongly the modern railroad and began to spread widely across the world. The fist railroad in North America was open in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1815 and initiated the further integration and improvement of American railroad system.
The video below explains well how humans’ lives changed with the appearance of railroad and how it affected trade. It also gives certain understanding how railroad modifications were accomplished by the introduction of new technology.

SlaveTrade

The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade started around the mid-fifteenth century when the Portuguese lost the interest towards gold and began to see people as the main source of wealth. By the seventeenth century, slave trade flourished and reached its peak at the end of the eighteenth century. The main reason that slave trade began is that Europeans conquering the New World needed a workforce that could be used for agriculture. Since many native people were dying from diseases that came from Europe and European people could not adapt to the tropical climate, the best workers could be only Africans. They made themselves comfortable in American conditions, and many of them had experience in plant cultivation and the raising of farm animals.
The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was represented by the Triangular Trade and was very profitable for the European since all the merchants that were involved got some benefits from every stage of trade. The first stage of the Triangular trade was presented by exports of products that were produced in Europe to Africa. The most important goods that were involved in this route were beads, cloth, spirit, tobacco, metal goods and guns. The guns were used for the obtainment of new slaves. All the imported products were bartered for African slaves. The second stage of the Triangular Trade began when the slaves from Africa were shipped to America. Usually, they were sold to rich landowners who wanted to increase their profitability by the use of African people in their farms. The third stage of the Triangular Trade was when products such as tobacco, sugar, rum, and cotton that were produced in America were shipped to Europe.
At the same time slave trade had a destructive impact on African economy, society, and culture. It became a significant barrier in the development of capitalism and industrialism in Africa. As many European goods were cheaper and more attractive than African ones, a lot of native Africans were consuming products that were imported from Europe. This led to the decrease of profitability or to the close of existing manufacturing activities. For example, cheap and nice textiles from Europe prevented the development of local cloth production. Slave trade contributed many inter-communal wars, cruelty and murders and was intensively destructive for the Africans. That challenged uncertainty in everyone’s lives and influenced the meaning humans gave to the world and their role in it. People thought that only God and their strong beliefs could save them from misfortune and allow them to be alive.
Slave trade was led to the growth of wealth of European people and to strengthening of their superiority in the world. On the other hand, it was harmful to the growth of Africa and incensed the difference in the development of Africa and other world.

Sea Travel in Middle Ages

     To transport large amounts of goods merchants during the Middle Ages preferred to travel by sea.  In the 12^th century Europeans started to use rudders on their ships.  The rudder made the ship easier to steer.  Traveling by water was not safe; there was the threat of pirates and shipwrecks.    At dangerous points along the coasts, lighthouses were put up to help the sailors avoid a shipwreck.   Sailors tended to stay near the coasts as they believed the Earth was flat and that if the sailed to the end of the sea they would fall off.  With the help of the compass sailors and merchants  were able to travel long distances and began to explore farther into the oceans.  This lead to the Age of Discovery and Expansion, and the discovery of the American continent.  European explorers traveled to new lands and brought back new goods, and lots of gold.  And European religion and culture spread to the New World. 

Traveling By Land

     Moving of goods for trade in the Middle Ages was a long and tedious task.  It is not like today where we have machines to take us anywhere.  To travel by land people could use working animals, such as horses, camels, and mules, to pull carriages or carry the goods.  Some might even travel by foot.  There were towns and inns along the routes for travelers to rest and sell their goods.

     Some roads were paved with cobblestones from the Roman Empire but these roads were often full of potholes as peasants would take the stones to patch up their homes.  And the roads that were made of dirt would turn into a mud river when it rained.  Travel in the Middle Ages was hard and land travel was mostly used for smaller loads of goods.

Spice Trade

      Spice was considered a rare and valuable commodity in ancient times.  Spice trade was first done by land and later done by sea on routes from India to Africa and then up towards Europe.    From the 8^th to the 15^th century, spices were the most expensive and highly demanded product and the trading of spices, incense, and herbs made cities along the Mediterranean Sea very rich.  Some of the herbs and other things being traded were used in medicines at that time. 

     Europeans explorers discovered the American continent by trying to find another route to Africa.  In 1492, Christopher Columbus tried to find new trade routes with India by traveling west from Spain.  Instead of landing in India like he wanted in first set foot on what today is the Bahamas.  Eventually more explorers came to this new land to take the resources and take them back to their countries and to them in trade. Many of us would not be here today if the people of this time did not have such a high value for spices.  The spice trade has had a huge impact on all of us.

Connecting Cultures

This picture describes the partnership between cultures of a White American male and an Indian male. It shows the interest of the fur to both societies even though both come from different backgrounds and environments. Fur trading united all different types of people in the 16th century and lead to many new opportunities all around the world.

Fur Trade

The skin of Beavers were used in trade for money to be made in the economy as well as fashion to be elborated in different cultures. This picture shows the many different styles of hats made from Beavers. This became an art form to many seamstress throughout the country.

The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America

"Get the furs while they last"

Fur trade during the 1600's - 1800's was driven by fashion to create apparel such as hats, jackets, and sleigh blankets; this lead to a “Hollywood Epic” due to the high cost in fur and other animal skin. During this time tens of millions of Beavers, Sea Otters and Buffalo were slaughtered for their skin but fortunately none of these species became extinct. Boundaries were established in America with the help of the fur trade industry especially in the North West. The trading of fur was abused and mistreated by men which lead to the exploitation of the Swede’s, Dutch and French from the continent. Fur traders were some of the first white men the Indians have ever seen.

The Silk Road

     The Silk Road was a trade route that spanned from what is today, Northwest China to Western Iran.  This route began around 115-105 B.C. to establish trade between China and the Persian Empire, in which they traded garments of silk for tins, gems, and livestock.  The Silk Road is known for bringing gunpowder to the West and changing warfare, which until then was hand-to-hand combat.  Gunpowder was widely used by the Chinese by 1,000 C.E. in grenades, bombs, and rockets.  Today, gunpowder is used in many things such as firearms, explosives, and fireworks. 

     Along with providing gunpowder, the skills of silk worm breeding, silk spinning, paper making, printing, and the compass were brought along the route to the West and this sped up the development of the entire world.  New ideas and religions, such as Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and Islam, were spread to Ancient China by the merchants who traveled along the Silk Road.  The opening of the sea passage between Europe and the Orient in the 15^th century, eventually led to the decline of the Silk Road.

People tended to live near water because it was a very important source of food and drink. In order to move over the surface of the water, humans used different things that float. The earliest means of travel were rafts or canoes. With time boats with sails were invented that allowed people to move easily upstream and down the river. One of the earliest known boats was made from planks of cedar in Egypt. It was 143 feet long and 20 feet wide and dating from around 2500 BC. Byblos was the most essential port for the export of the good quality cedar wood and for Egypt’s boat-building at that time. Through history boats and ships were evolving gradually and getting many new elements and different designs, but all the time they were an important type of transportation.
Boat- and shipbuilding impacted trade, science, social life and culture significantly. Using well-built ships people could travel long distances and obtain the products that before had not been available. This extended the range of goods available to the society and began to change people’s needs. They wanted to get not only products of primary necessity but also luxury goods. Shipbuilding contributed to the prosperity of sea trade. Great number of sailors, traders and explores led to integration of knowledge, economies of many previously isolated territories and to the mix of cultures. At the same time the opportunity to travel allowed humans to explore new territories. This started to change humans’ imaginations about the world and contributed to many improvements and discoveries in geography. New detailed maps and complex geographical literature were created; many new regions such as Iceland, Greenland, East Europe, and North America were discovered. Journeys to different places of the planet also furthered to the evolution of the navigation system. A cross-staff, a compass and other tools for the determination of roots were invented.
This website contains the images of ships and gives a good idea of variety of crafts that existed through history. http://connect.in.com/old-ships/photos-1-1-1-944b732804a93c605c24bba3b6bb0f7e.html#image_button

In the Paleolithic times human culture developed walking tracks called game trails from domesticated animals which carried goods for trade. Animals like horses, oxen and donkeys flattened these tracks to reflect a high density of traffic. The travios was invented and it consisted of a platform or netting mounted on two long poles that was shaped into an isosceles triangle. This was pulled by animals to drag loads of goods over land. In turn of the travios the wheeled vehicle was created. A wheel enables efficient movement of an object across a surface. The early wheels consisted of axles and wooden disks. Rounded long boards were structured to support the weight of goods. No one is sure which culture started using the wheels first however evidence shows its existence in Mesopotamian around 3200 BCE. Before wheeled vechiles heavy goods and objects could not be transported without water or a mass amount of humans. The structure of the wooden wheel over time transformed into most of the wheels we see today. Transportation grew among countries which allowed trading of goods to be inner twined between cultures.

Money

     Money is an invention that was essential to the development of trade because it is something that everybody wants.  With the Barter System, both people had to have something that the other person wanted, but money allowed the seller to become a buyer when and where he wanted.  This gave people more options and also made it easier for them to travel long distances to trade items.  In the third millennium BC, the earliest money appeared in Egypt and Mesopotamia in the form of gold bars and rings.  It has gone through many changes from precious metals to the paper money and coins we use today. 

     Money has had three functions throughout history; it has been the measure of value, the medium of exchange, and the way to store wealth.  The rise of trade and the growth of the money economy lead to money becoming the new measure of a person’s wealth.  This changed the shift of power from those that owned the land to those that had the money, which lead to the development of democratic societies.

Barter

This video shows that barter was the first step in the trade evolution

Barter System

Trade has become an integral part of human lives since the moment people started to communicate in prehistoric times. The main reason that trade began to evolve is that every member of the society could not produce all the products by her- or himself in order to satisfy all his or her needs. The earliest form of trade was represented by the barter system. Barter is a method of exchange of goods and services without the involvement of a third party and money. It facilitated the exchange since currency did not exist at that time. For example, a hunter could exchange deer for fish from a fisherman. At the earliest stage of trade, people used to barter goods that were essential for life such as weapons and foods. Time passed and the choice of products to be traded started to expend. Tea, spices and salt became popular products of exchange. Primarily goods were exchanged just locally. As soon as people started to use animals for transportation, the area of trade widened significantly and gave more opportunities to find desired products and make better deals.
The evolution of trade influenced the development of culture and science significantly. It gave people an opportunity to enrich their knowledge, and contributed to the formulation of beliefs and values. Trade added up to the development of the Numerical System that was used for measuring volumes.
The barter system had a few large problems. There were no fixed criteria that helped determine the value of products. This caused a lot of heated debates and disputes. The second issue stemmed from the difficulty to meet people that needed a particular product that could have been exchanged for another one. Thus, the trade system needed some innovation that could help to solve these issues.