Source Collection: Trade and Technology c. 1450 to 1750
Introduction to this collection
This collection explores how ideas, technologies, and how things move around the globe transformed how people navigate, eat, wage war, trade, and even how we look up at the stars.
Guiding question to think about as you read the documents: How did cross-cultural interactions facilitate innovations in technology and how did these ideas impact exploration and trade from 1450 to 1750?
WHP Primary Source Punctuation Key
When you read through these primary source collections, you might notice some unusual punctuation like this: . . . and [ ] and ( ). Use the table below to help you understand what this punctuation means.
| Punctuation | What it means |
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ELLIPSES words … words |
Something has been removed from the quoted sentences by an editor. |
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BRACKETS [word] or word[s] |
Something has been added or changed by an editor. These edits are to clarify or help readers. |
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PARENTHESES (words) |
The original author of the primary source wanted to clarify, add more detail, or make an additional comment in parentheses. |
Contents
Source 1 – Two diagrams from Al-Tusi and Copernicus, thirteenth and sixteenth century (0:45)
Source 2 – The Book of the Benefits of the Principles and Foundations of Navigation, 1489 (2:45)
Source 3 – The Akbarnama, c. 1500 (7:50)
Source 4 – Tomé Pires on Indian Ocean merchants, 1512–1515 (9:50)
Source 5 – Two Ottoman maps, 1513 and 1728 (14:40)
Source 6 – Observations on Such Nutritive Vegetables as May Be Substituted in the Place of Ordinary Food, 1781 (16:25)
Source 6B (B as in Bonus!) – Images of the original English publication of Source 6 (20:30)
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Timestamps are in the source title. To locate a specific source in the audio file:
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Source 1 – Two diagrams from Al-Tusi and Copernicus, thirteenth and sixteenth century (0:45)
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Title Two diagrams from Al-Tusi and Copernicus |
Date and location Al-Tusi – thirteenth century, region of Persia that is now Iran Nicolaus Copernicus – 1543, modern day Poland |
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Source type Primary source – images from books written by Al-Tusi and Copernicus |
Author Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201–1274) Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) |
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Description The Persian thinker Nasir al-Din al-Tusi was what we call a polymath, meaning he was an expert in many things. He made key discoveries, including theories of how planets move. Nicolaus Copernicus of Poland was another polymath, and had expertise in astronomy and math. His key scientific achievement was describing the heliocentric model of the Universe—the idea that the Sun was at the center of the Universe and not the Earth. The images below show the similarities between their ideas, even though Al-Tusi lived over two hundred years before Copernicus. |
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Key vocabulary perpendicular designated |
heliocentric |
Guiding question
How did cross-cultural interactions facilitate innovations in technology and how did these ideas impact exploration and trade from 1450 to 1750?
Excerpt
Citation
Hartner, Willy. “Copernicus, the Man, the Work, and Its History.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 117, no. 6 (1973): 413–22. http://www.jstor.org/stable/986460
Source 2 – The Book of the Benefits of the Principles and Foundations of Navigation, 1489 (2:45)
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Title The Book of the Benefits of the Principles and Foundations of Navigation |
Date and location 1390, modern day United Arab Emirates |
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Source type Primary source – book excerpts |
Author Ahmad Ibn Mājid (1432–1500) |
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Description This next source may be useful to any aspiring sailors. Ahmad Ibn Mājid was an Arab navigator and cartographer whose work influenced European and Asian navigators for decades. The following is a brief excerpt from his famed The Book of the Benefits of the Principles and Foundations of Navigation. In this book, he shares the basics of navigation using the Moon and stars to travel and describes the relative locations of places. |
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Key vocabulary merciful compassionate worthy strive inlets Cancer (proper noun) |
equator blameworthy verily exalted meritorious |
Guiding question
How did cross-cultural interactions facilitate innovations in technology and how did these ideas impact exploration and trade from 1450 to 1750?
Excerpt
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Praise be to God and prayer and peace be upon the best of his lieutenants, Muhammad,1 and on his family and Companions.
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If a man wishes to do anything [by methods] not connected with the [science] of navigation, then he can do so, but whenever he lacks the Qibla2 directions of towns and islands which are in the Encircling Ocean, then he must find them by means of our science. So strive after it and [knowledge] will come bit by bit, for the learning of it can only come to an end at the end of one’s life and he who never overtakes anything will never leave it behind.
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When you reach that place (Sufala)3 the island of al-Qumr falls away on your left, but the land comes to an end on your right and turns towards the west and north. There are deserts and inlets, the first of the darkness when the sun is in Cancer. The land turns back from there to the land of the Kanim, which is in the possession of the descendants of Sayf b.4 Dhi Yazan.5 They are a white people to the south of the Sudan6 (who are white) on account of the distance of the sun from them in the north, like the whiteness of the Turks and the distance of the sun from them in the south. As for the blackness of the Sudan, it is because of their being burnt by the sun, for they are close to the Equator near to the sun all the time. When you get beyond the Kanim you come to the land of the Wahat,7 which is near to the land of the Westerners. In the old days the pepper road was from this place. When you come to the land of the Westerners it is near to Masä,8 which is the place that held back Yunus9 (upon him to be peace) “and the fish swallowed him while he was blameworthy.”
Citation
Hopkins, J. F. P., and Nehemia Levtzion. Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2000.
1 Muhammad is the Prophet in the Islamic faith.
2 Qibla: Muslims face towards Mecca to pray five times a day. The direction they face is called the Qibla.
3 Sufala: Likely in modern-day Bahrain
4 The b. here is an abbreviation of Ibn, meaning “son of.”
5 land of Kanim … Yazan: This is likely a reference to Kanem-Bornu, African trading empire ruled by the Sef (Sayf) dynasty that controlled the area around Lake Chad from the ninth to the nineteenth century, encompassing modern-day southern Chad, northern Cameroon, northeastern Nigeria, eastern Niger, and southern Libya.
6 Sudan does not refer the modern country but is rather an Arabic term derived from the word black which was used to describe many different groups of sub-Saharan Africans.
7 Wahat: A district in modern-day Libya
8 Masä: Somewhere in the Mediterranean region
9 Yunus: Islamic name for the biblical prophet Jonah
Source 3 – The Akbarnama, c. 1500 (7:50)
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Title The Akbarnama |
Date and location 1594–1596, modern day India |
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Source type Primary source – manuscript |
Author Abu’l-Fazl ibn Mubarak (1551–1602) |
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Description The book known as the Akbarnama is named after the person who commissioned it: the Mughal Emperor Akbar. It is a kind of pictorial biography and describes Akbar’s life using paintings, accompanied by inscriptions in Persian. The excerpted images below depict important battles fought by Akbar’s army. Many of these battles utilized gunpowder as a key technology. |
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Key vocabulary siege intensifies |
weaponry bullocks |
Guiding question
How did cross-cultural interactions facilitate innovations in technology and how did these ideas impact exploration and trade from 1450 to 1750?
Excerpt
Citation
Miskina and Paras (Emperor Akbar’s court artists). Akbarnama. Victoria and Albert Museum. https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O9611/painting-miskina/ and Hussein, Keshani ed. The Akbarnama: A Digital Art History Student Project, March 16, 2018. https://hkeshani.github.io/darc/akbarnama/.
Source 4 – Tomé Pires on Indian Ocean merchants, 1512–1515 (9:50)
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Title Tomé Pires on Indian Ocean merchants |
Date and location 1512–1515, Malaysia |
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Source type Primary source – manuscript |
Author Tomé Pires (c. 1465–1524 or 1540) |
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Description Tomé Pires was a Portuguese apothecary. In 1511, Pires set out to India on a business trip by participating in the thriving spice trade. He eventually traveled to Malaysia and Indonesia and then became the Portuguese ambassador to China. In his book, Suma Oriental, he describes the people he meets in the Middle East, India, and the Far East. The editors have footnoted some but not all of the many places—and many spices—that Pires mentions. |
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Key vocabulary coarse plundering merchandise indigo steeped |
pardonable hinder comprises vermilion factors |
Guiding question
How did cross-cultural interactions facilitate innovations in technology and how did these ideas impact exploration and trade from 1450 to 1750?
Excerpt
How They Trade in General: Cairo
The merchants from Cairo bring the merchandise which comes from Italy and Greece and Damascus to Aden,10 such as gold, silver, … vermilion, copper, rosewater, … colored woolen cloth, glass beads, weapons and things of that kind.
[The merchants of] Aden bring … raisins, opium, rosewater, quantities of gold and silver, and horses that Aden gets from Zeila and Berbera and the islands of [Sawakin], in the Strait, and from Arabia, and they come to do business in Cambay.11 They take back with them all the products of Malacca:12 cloves, nutmeg, mace, sandalwood, brazil woods, silks, seed pearls, musk, porcelain, and other things which may be [in the list of] merchandise from Malacca … And this trade is carried out by ships from Aden and ships from Cambay, many of one and many of the other. …
On Gujarati Traders
They are men who understand merchandise; they are so properly steeped in the sound and harmony of it, that the Gujartis say that any offense connected with merchandise is pardonable. … Those of our people who want to be clerks or factors ought to go [to Gujarat] and learn, because the business of trade is a science in itself which does not hinder any other noble exercise, but helps a great deal. …
The Merchants Who Come and Start Companies (in Cambay) for Malacca
As the kingdom of Cambay had this trade with Malacca, merchants of the following nations used to accompany the Gujaratis there in their ships, and some of them used to settle in the place, sending off the merchandise, while others took it in person, [that is to say], Macaris and people from Cairo, many Arabs, chiefly from Aden, and with these came Abyssinians,13 and people from Ormuz,14 Kilwa … Khorasans, and men of Shiraz. There are many of these in Malacca; and many people from the kingdom of the Deccan used to take up their companies in Cambay. The trade of Cambay is extensive and comprises cloths of many kinds and of a fair quality, rough clothing, seeds such as nigella, cumin, … and other things of the kind. They return loaded up [with] all the rich merchandise of the Moluccas, Banda, and China, and they used to bring a great deal of gold.
Citation
Pires, Tomé. Suma Oriental of Tomé Pires: An Account of the East, from the Red Sea to China, Written in Malacca and India in 1512–1515, edited by Armando Cortesão. London: Hakluyt Society, 1944.
10 Aden was in modern-day Yemen, and is still a major city there.
11 Cambay was in modern-day India (Khambat).
12 Malacca was a city in Malaysia. Modern Malacca City is the capital city of the Malaysian state of Malacca.
13 Abyssinia was an Ethiopian Empire.
14 Ormuz was in modern-day Iran (Hormuz).
Source 5 – Two Ottoman maps, 1513 and 1728 (14:40)
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Title Piri Reis’ and Ibrahim Muteferika’s maps |
Date and location 1513 and 1728, Ottoman Empire |
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Source type Primary source – map |
Author Piri Reis (c. 1465–1553) Ibrahim Muteferrika (1674–1745) |
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Description The two maps below were both created in the Ottoman Empire, but they were drawn over two hundred years apart. The first map, by Piri Reis, is the only half that remains of the original. It shows Western Africa and the eastern coasts of the Americas. The second map, by Ibrahim Müteferrika, shows South East Asia and includes, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines among others. It was part of a series that illustrated Katip Çelebi’s Cihannuma (Universal Geography), which was the first printed book of maps and drawings in the Muslim World. |
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Guiding question
How did cross-cultural interactions facilitate innovations in technology and how did these ideas impact exploration and trade from 1450 to 1750?
Excerpt
Citation
Piri, Ahmed Muhiddin (Piri Reis). “Map with coasts of Central and South America, sixteenth century.” Çelebi, Katip and Ibrahim Müteferrika. Cihannüma. Istanbul: Ibrahim Müteferrika, 1732.
Source 6 – Observations on Such Nutritive Vegetables as May Be Substituted in the Place of Ordinary Food, 1781 (16:25)
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Title Observations on Such Nutritive Vegetables as May Be Substituted in the Place of Ordinary Food |
Date and location 1781, France |
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Source type Primary source – manuscript |
Author Antoine-Augustin Parmentier (1737–1813) |
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Description The next source may be partly responsible for the phrase: You want fries with that? Antoine-Augustin Parmentier is most famously remembered for encouraging the French to eat more potatoes, which were originally from the Americas. In this excerpt from his book, he argues that the potato is far superior to grains. |
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Key vocabulary subsist robust afflicted advanced (in years) subterfuge prejudice |
constitution temperaments repost emulation consumption despised |
Guiding question
How did cross-cultural interactions facilitate innovations in technology and how did these ideas impact exploration and trade from 1450 to 1750?
Excerpt
But as it would be insufficient to remind prejudiced persons, that in the most populous provinces of Germany many millions of men subsist almost entirely on this food; or to quote the remark of an excellent observer concerning the Irish, whose chief nourishment consists of Potatoes: (The Irish, says he, are robust: they are strangers to many diseases by which other nations are afflicted; nothing is more common than to meet with persons advanced in years, and to see twins playing about the hut of the peasant.) I conceived, that in order to quiet all alarms, and to remove every subterfuge of prejudice, it would be necessary to enter upon some chemical discussions and enquiries. …
THE vegetable kingdom affords no food more wholesome, more easily procured, or less expensive, than the Potatoe [sic]. It is well known with what resources it furnished the Irish in 1740; many families would have been swept away without this supply: the eagerness with which children devour it, the preference which they give it to the chesnut [sic], would seem to show that it is well adapted to the constitution of man: persons of all ages and temperaments feed upon it without experiencing the slightest inconvenience. In the last German war these roots were the resource of many soldiers, who happening to be separated from the main body of the army, would have fallen sacrifices to fatigue and hunger, if they had not met with Potatoes, which they eat in excessive quantities after simple boiling, and with no other seasoning than a good appetite: gratitude induced several of them to import the plant into their own country, where it was unknown: they cultivated it with skill, and set an example which was soon imitated. At present there is scarce an elegant repost where Potatoes are not introduced with emulation in various disguises; and the great consumption in the Capital, proves that they are no longer despised there.
THE excessive price to which grain has been advanced of late years, forms a remarkable area at which the beneficial qualities of Potatoes have been began to be tried in many places. …
IF we consider all the properties of Potatoes, we shall be forced to acknowledge, that if there really exits a medicinal food, it is to be found in these roots.
Citation
Parmentier, Antoine Augustin. Observations on Such Nutritive Vegetables as May Be Substituted in the Place of Ordinary Food. London: J. Murray, 1783.
Source 6B (B as in Bonus!) – Images of the original English publication of Source 6 (20:30)
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Description Have a look at the same text in its original published form (translated from the original French publication of 1781). You’ll discover the medial S, which is no longer used in, whenever an S falls somewhere other than at the end of the word. These are the types of documents historians have to work with. Just be grateful it’s not handwritten! |
Excerpt
Citation
U.S. National Library of Medicine, Digital Collections. https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/bookviewer?PID=nlm:nlmuid-2721767R-bk
Eman M. Elshaikh
Eman M. Elshaikh is a writer, researcher, and teacher who has taught K-12 and undergraduates in the United States and in the Middle East and written for many different audiences. She teaches writing at the University of Chicago, where she also completed her master’s in social sciences and is currently pursuing her PhD. She was previously a World History Fellow at Khan Academy, where she worked closely with the College Board to develop curriculum for AP World History.
Image credits
This work is licensed under CC BY 4.0 except for the following:
Cover: “Map with coasts of Central and South America, sixteenth century.” Çelebi, Katip and Ibrahim Müteferrika. Cihannüma. Istanbul: Ibrahim Müteferrika, 1732. © Cambridge University Library.