DBQ Sources: Trade Networks
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT1200/ LESSON 2.9ACTIVITY DBQ SOURCES: TRADE NETWORKS, 1200-1450 CE1Unless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Credit: “DBQ Sources: Trade Networks, 1200-1450 CE”, OER Project, https://www.oerproject.com/PurposeUse a variety of primary and secondary sources to deepen your understanding of trade networks around 1200 to 1450 CE. ProcessAnalyze the following sources. If you are using these sources to respond to an essay prompt, you should underlineor highlightany evidence that will support your claim. You can also use theQuick Sourcing Tool. Document 1Marco Polo describes Cambaluc (modern-day Beijing) as an incredibly large and bustling city, filled with merchants from all over the world who come to trade rare and valuable goods, especially silk. The city is so busy with trade that 1,000 cartloads of silk arrive every day, and it's surrounded by many other cities that send traders to buy and sell goods.Marco Polo (1254–1324) traveled extensively throughout Mongol-controlled Asia. After returning to Venice, he recounted his travels, which were published and widely circulated throughout Europe.You must know that the city of Cambaluc has such a multitude of houses, and such a vast population ... that it seems quite past all possibility. ... In those suburbs lodge the foreign merchants and travelers, of whom there are always great numbers who have come to bring presents to the Emperor, to sell articles at Court, or because the city affords so good a mart [market] to attract traders. ...Guards patrol the city every night in parties of 30 or 40, looking out for any persons who may be abroad at unseasonable hours ...To this city also are brought articles of greater cost and rarity, and in greater abundance of all kinds, than to any other city in the world. For people of every description, and from every region, bring things (including all the costly wares of India, aswell as the fine and precious goods of Cathay itself with its provinces), ... and thus between court and city the quantity brought in is endless.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT1200/ LESSON 2.9ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: TRADE NETWORKS, 1200-1450 CE2As a sample, I tell you, no day in the year passes that there do not enter the city 1000 cart-loads of silk alone, from which are made quantities of cloth of silk and gold, and of other goods. ...Round about this great city of Cambaluc there are some 200 other cities at various distances, from which traders come to sell their goods and buy others for their lords; and all find means to make their sales and purchases ...Source: Marco Polo, The Book of Ser Marco Polo: The Venetian Concerning Kingdoms and Marvels of the East, Volume 1, trans. and ed. Colonel Sir Henry Yule (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1903), 412–15.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT1200/ LESSON 2.9ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: TRADE NETWORKS, 1200-1450 CE3Document 2Al-Qazwini writes about challenging journey from Morocco to the land of Gold in sub-Saharan Africa, where merchants trade items like salt and copperfor gold. Ghana, located on the route to the gold mines, is essential for trade and known as the richest region in gold, making it a key hub for merchants seeking wealth.Abu Yahya Zakariya’ ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini (1203–1283) was an Arab-Persian physician, astronomer, and geographer who wrote a geographical dictionary, Monument of Places and History of God’s Servants.The land of Gold. It is the land of the Sudan [the name given to sub-Saharan Africa] ...It is a three months’ journey from Sijilmasa [city in modern-day Morocco] to this country and merchants from Sijilmasa go there with great exertion. Their stock-in-trade is salt, pine and cedar wood, glass beads, bracelets of red copper and signet rings ofthe same, and bangles of brass. They have to cross over thirsty deserts with scorching winds and water so rotten it resembles ordinary water only in that it is liquid. ... Thus they travel with much suffering until they reach the place which separates them from the owners of the gold. ...The people of this town are among the richest men and the most wealthy, for it is on the road to Ghana, which is the mine of gold. ...Ghana. A great town to the south of the Maghreb adjacent to the land of Gold. Merchants meet in Ghana, and from there they enter the land of Gold. Were it not for Ghana that would be impossible. Ghana is the richest in gold of all God’s countries.Source: J.F.P Hopkins and Nehemia Levtzion, eds., Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2000).
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT1200/ LESSON 2.9ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: TRADE NETWORKS, 1200-1450 CE4Document 3In this passage, Pegolottirecounts the trade route from Eastern Europe to Cathay (China), explaining how merchants travel by ox-or horse-wagons and river, passing through Mongol-controlled areas, which are safe for trade. In Cathay, silver is exchanged for government-issued papermoney, called balishi, which merchants use to buy goods like silk.Francis Balducci Pegolotti was a merchant who traveled extensively in the early to mid-fourteenth century. We do not know much about this author apart from what is learned from the account of his travels—Notices of the Land Route to Cathay and of Asiatic Trade in the First Half of the Fourteenth Century.Inthe first place, from Tana [Azoz, onthe Don River]to Gintarchan [Astrakhan, onthe Volga River] maybetwenty-five days with an ox-wagon, andfromtentotwelvedayswithahorse-wagon.OntheroadyouwillfindplentyofMongols,thatistosay,soldiers.AndfromGittarchanto Sara[Sarai,ontheVolga]maybeadaybyriver,andfromSaratoSaracanco[Sarachik,ontheUralRiver],alsobyriver,eightdays.Youcando thiseitherbylandorbywater;butbywateryouwillbechargedlessforyourmerchandise....The roadyoutravelfromTanatoCathayisperfectlysafe,whetherbydayorbynight,accordingtowhatthemerchantssaywhohaveusedit....Cathayisaprovincewhichcontainedamultitudeofcitiesandtowns.Amongothersthereisoneinparticular...whichisagreatresortof merchants,andinwhichthereisavastamountoftrade....WhateversilverthemerchantsmaycarrywiththemasfarasCathay,thelordofCathaywilltakefromthemandputintohistreasury.Andto merchantswhobringsilver,theygivethemthatpapermoneyoftheirsinexchange.Thisisofyellowpaper,stampedwiththesealofthelord... Andthismoneyiscalledbalishi;andwiththismoneyyoucanreadilybuysilkandallothermerchandisethatyouhaveadesiretobuy.Source: Henry Yule, Cathay and the Way Thither: Being a Collection of Medieval Notices of China, Volume 2 (London: The Hakluyt Society, 1866), 287–94. Edited for brevity and clarity.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT1200/ LESSON 2.9ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: TRADE NETWORKS, 1200-1450 CE5Document 4Source: Still from Rebuilding the Silk Road (01:25), OER Project, https://www.oerproject.com/OER-Materials/OER-Media/Videos/Origins/Era4/Rebuilding-the-Silk-Road
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT1200/ LESSON 2.9ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: TRADE NETWORKS, 1200-1450 CE6Document 5Stefano describes the devastating impact of the Black Death in Florence in 1348, highlighting the skyrocketing prices of basic goods like food and clothing, as well as the shortage of resources for caring for the sick and burying the dead. With most businesses and guilds shut down, the streets were nearly empty, with only apothecaries and churches remaining open.Marchionne di Coppo Stefani, birth name Baldassarre Buonaiuti, (1336–1385) was a wealthy businessman, historian, and politician from Florence, Italy. He spent most of his time as a diplomat for the Florentine government and traveled to various cities in Europe.In the year of the Lord 1348 there was a very great pestilence in the city and district of Florence. ...Many died from [carrying away the dead], some rich, some after earning just a little, but high prices continued. Servants, or those who took care of the ill, charged from one to three florins per day and the cost of things grew. The things that the sick ate, sweetmeats and sugar, seemed priceless. ... eggs cost between twelve and twenty-four pence each; and he was blessed who could find three per day even if he searched the entire city. Finding wax was miraculous. ... Dressing in expensive woolen cloth as is customary in [mourning] the dead, that is in a long cloak, with mantle and veil that used to cost women three florins climbed in price to thirty florins and would have climbed to 100 florins had the custom of dressing in expensive cloth not been changed. ... Benches on which the dead were placed cost like the heavens and still the benches were only a hundredth of those needed ... None of the guilds in Florence was working. All the shops were shut, taverns closed; only the apothecaries and the churches remained open. If you went outside, you found almost no one.Source: Marchione di Coppo di Stefano Buonaiuti, Cronaca fiorentina. Rerum Italicarum Scriptores. Volume 30, ed. Niccolo Rodolico (Citta di Castello: 1903–13). http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/osheim/marchione.html
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT1200/ LESSON 2.9ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: TRADE NETWORKS, 1200-1450 CE7Document 6Al-Maqrīzī explains how the Black Death severely disrupted daily life and trade in Egypt and Syria. Many artisans shifted to handling the dead, and the prices of goods plummeted as people sold off belongings of the deceased. Essential workers like water carriers and domestics became scarce, causing wages and the cost of basic necessities, like water and grinding wheat, to soar. The government even had to encourage artisans to return to their trades.Ahmad Ibn Alī al-Maqrīzī (1364–1442) was an Egyptian historian who wrote about the impact of the Black Death on Egypt and Syria under the Mamluk dynasty.Most of the trades disappeared, for a number of artisans devoted themselves to handling the dead, while the others, no less numerous, occupied themselves in selling off to bidders [the dead’s] movable goods and clothing, so well that the price of linen andsimilar objects fell by a fifth of their real value, and still further until one found customers ...Thus the trade disappeared: One could no long find either a water carrier, or a laundress, or a domestic. The monthly salary of a groom rose from thirty dirhams to eighty. A proclamation made in Cairo invited the artisans to take up their old trades, and some of the recalcitrant [unruly] reformed themselves. Because of the shortage of men and camels, a goatskin of water reached the price of eight dirhams, and in order to grind an ardeb of wheat, one paid fifteen dirhams.Source: John Aberth, The Black Death: The Great Mortality of 1348 –1350: A Brief History with Documents (New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005), 87.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT1200/ LESSON 2.9ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: TRADE NETWORKS, 1200-1450 CE8Document 7 In thispassage, Abd-al-Razzāqwrites about the bustling trade ports of Ormuz and Calicut in the Indian Ocean, where merchants from all over the world, including Egypt, China, and Persia, gather to trade rare and valuable goods. These ports are known for their security and justice, attracting wealthy traders who trust the safety of their goods. Merchants exchange goods freely, either through barter or with money, and a small tax is paid on all items except gold and silver.Abd-al-Razzāq Samarqandī (1413–1492) was a Persian historian and Islamic scholar, who wrote about fifteenth-century merchants and trade in the Indian Ocean.Continuing my journey, I arrived ... at the shore of the Sea of Oman, and at Bender-Ormuz. The prince of Ormuz ... having placed a vessel at my disposal, I went on board of it, and made my entry, with everything that I could require, and I was admitted to audience of the prince. Ormuz ... is a port situated in the middle of the sea, and which has not its equal on the surface of the globe. The merchants of seven climates from Egypt, Syria, [Anatolia], [Azerbaijan], [Iraq and Persia] ... the whole of the kingdoms of [China] ... and the city of Khanbalik [former name of Beijing], all make their way to this port; the inhabitants of the sea coasts arrive here ... they bring those rare and precious articles which the sun, the moon, and the rains have combined to bring to perfection, and which are capable of being transported by sea. Travelers from all countries resort here, and, in exchange for commodities which they bring, they can without trouble or difficulty, obtain all that they desire. Bargains are made either by money or exchange. For all objects, with the exception of gold and silver, a tenth of their value is paid by way of duty. ...Calicut [Kozhikode] is a perfectly secure harbor, which, like that of Ormuz, brings together merchants from every city and from every country; in it are to be found abundance of precious articles brought there from maritime countries, and especially from Abyssinia, [southeastern India and Zanzibar] ... from time to time ships arrive there from shores of the House of Allah [Mecca] and other parts of the [Hijaz], and abide at will, for a greater or longer space, in this harbor... Security and justice are so firmly established in this city, that the wealthiest merchants bring to this place from maritime countries considerable cargoes, which they unload, and unhesitatingly send into the markets and the bazaars.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT1200/ LESSON 2.9ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: TRADE NETWORKS, 1200-1450 CE9Source: Omar H. Ali, Islam in the Indian Ocean World: A Brief History with Documents (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016), 50–53.