The second half of Abu-Lughod's book starts by taking a look at commerce in Baghdad and the Persian Gulf. Once the epicenter of trade, this region was taken over by the Mongols causing trade to be severely disrupted. Next, Abu-Lughod writes of the rise and fall of Cairo, Egypt. Initially, Cairo is set up to dominate the world market. The Persian Gulf region had just declined, there was minimal threat from Crusaders, and Egypt had a very strong, militaristic government. Cairo began to trade textiles and refined sugar heavily but was most likely undone by the Black Plague. Next, the 3 regions of the Indian Ocean were analyzed. India was a great exporter during this time, not a great importer. India was so rich in resources that it did not wish to trade much so its role on the global stage was small relative to its size. The Straits regions were then involved in the discussion, primarily to mention their dependence on the world system and reliance on external demand. Finally, China is noticed for its unbelievable technology which led to silk, paper, iron, and steel production. When China largely withdrew from the world trade system for a combination of reasons including Confucian ideology, plague, and hate for the Mongols, Portugal stepped in and the era of European Hegemony began.
What interests me about this unbelievably dense web of connections is the financial systems that were in place. The currencies varied from country to country, but gold and silver always held their value. Credit was extended to people at this time indicating an unbelievable amount of trust. I wonder how efficient the system was or if disputes over money erupted amongst the merchants all the time in the trade hubs.
Something that deserves more discussion is the way in which weather made the travels of maritime merchants much more difficult. Ibn Majid outlines the importance of seasonal travel quite well in the text. I think we often think of trade as hopping on a boat and sailing from port to port. We don't think of the complications of navigation, the monsoons on the open ocean, the risk of vitamin deficiencies such as scurvy, hunger, or even mutiny. Travel must have been so miserable at those times. I'd like to know what the probabilities were for successful trips from point A to point B. I'd also like to know what percentage of sailors were likely to die along the way due to the hardships of the ocean.
-Roman H
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The weather comment is a good point. During monsoon seasons and other bad weather season's the areas of travel had to change. Did trade slow down a lot during bad weather seasons or did they try to fight through it?
ReplyDeleteThe weather comment certainly raises an interesting point. I can only vaguely imagine the difficult, dangerous and long voyages people had to deal with. But it is the great complications of these voyages that illustrate the significance those ports/facilitators had in the world system. I am also curious about the percentages of success in those trips as well as the rates of mortality for sailors. I think that they probably had to slow trade down during the bad weather seasons.
ReplyDelete