Rachel Jourdan-Aufiery-5/19-Before European Hegemony Part 2

The second part of the book begins discussing the merchants of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The Christian merchants of the Crusader lands and the Muslim merchants had a positive trading relationship. A result of that trading enabled the growth of the main port, Acre, for the Crusaders. Later in this section, Baghdad is described as one of the most flourishing countries of Islam during the tenth century. According to the text, Baghdad was rich in businesses, scholars, palaces, and inhabitants. Also, Baghdad had extensive boundaries and districts. However, Baghdad later experienced much disaster and misfortune throughout the eleventh and twelfth centuries. For instance, there was a famine in 1507;there were devastating floods between the years 1069 and 1075, and some religious conflicts starting in the year 1075. There were also many damaging fires occurring in cycles during all of those other conflicts.
Furthermore, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Venetians and the Mamluk state of Egypt attempted to create trade monopolies. The Venetians managed to exclude rival merchants in other Italian cities. Also, the Mamluk state in Egypt jeopardized the Karimi merchants by imposing restrictions on their trade with foreigners. They were quite successful in maximizing their profits in this way. A section of the book I found particularly fascinating was the impact of the Black Death on Egypt and Syria. According to a book written by Michael Dols, the Plague started in Alexandria in 1347, and it is suspectd to have traveled on the Black Sea. It became especially harmful in Cairo around 1348 and 1349. The prominent symptom of the Black Death were similar to that of pneumonia. It is estimated that about 10,000 people died each day in Cairo. Furthermore, Dols concluded based on records that about a total of 200,000 people dies in Cairo as a rersult of the Black Death. What would happen to society today in the United States if such a disaster were to occur?
Also, Egypt and Syria experienced several similar difficulties during the end of the fourteenth century. For instance, there was a decrease in industrial production because the materials from the Mamluk state such as cotton, sugar cane, and flax were not being processed in textiles and the sugar was purchased by Italian traders to process in Italy. Also, the Karimi merchants could not depend on imports from India because the goods were reshipped to European nations. Thirdly, the Mamluk state suffered oppression during the era of Circassian. Also, economic difficulties such as forced loans that affected thy merchants and occasional changes in the exchange rate.