History of international trade

The history of international trade chronicles notable events that have affected the trade between various countries.

In the era before the rise of the nation state, the term 'international' trade cannot be literally applied, but simply means trade over long distances; the sort of movement in goods which would represent international trade in the modern world.

Chronology of events

Ancient

* The domestication of the

horse

around 4800 BCE allowed for the development of horse riding around 3700 BCE, and long distance travel across the

Central Asia

n steppes.
* The Maritime Jade Road (2000 BCE to 1000 CE) was established by the animist indigenous peoples of

Taiwan

and the

Philippines

, and later expanded throughout Southeast Asia. The network operated for 3,000 years.
* Indus–Mesopotamia trade
* Records from the 19th century BCE attest to the existence of an

Assyria

n merchant colony at Kanesh in

Cappadocia

.
* The domestication of

Dromedary

camels around 2,000 BCE allowed

Arabian

nomads to control long distance trade in spices and silk from the Far East.
* The

Egyptians

traded in the

Red Sea

, importing spices from the "Land of Punt" and from

Arabia

.Rawlinson 2001: 11–12
*The Olmec (c 1200-400 BCE) developed a culture with a polytheistic pantheon, monumental architecture, and artisanal goods which was spread across Mesoamerica partly by long distance trade for obsidian, jade, and luxury feathers.
*The Chavín (c 900-250 BCE) of the northern coast of

Peru

and Tiwanaku (c 550-1000 CE) in the

Andes

were able to build large cities and temples out of stone after growing wealthy from trade networks using llama trains. Trade across the Andes was able to transport maize, llama wool, and

coca

from the regions they were produced.
* Indian goods were brought in Arabian vessels to

Aden

. Cargo was shipped as part of the Indian and Egyptian trade.
* The "ships of Tarshish", a Syrian fleet equipped at Ezion-Geber, made several trading voyages to the East bringing back gold, silver, ivory and precious stones.

Classical

* Tiglath-Pileser III attacked Gaza in order to control trade along the Incense Route.
*The

Achaemenid Persian Empire

(559-330 BCE) incorporated Central Asia into Near Eastern and Indian Ocean trade networks.
* The Greek Ptolemaic dynasty exploited trading opportunities with India prior to the Roman involvement.Young 2001: 19

* The

Silk Road

was established after the diplomatic travels of the

Han Dynasty

Chinese envoy

Zhang Qian

to Central Asia in the 2nd Century BCE, with Chinese goods making their way to India,

Persia

, and the

Roman Empire

, and vice versa.
* With the establishment of

Roman Egypt

, the Romans initiated trade with India.Shaw 2003: 426
* The goods from the East African trade were landed at one of the three main Roman ports, Arsing, Berenice, and Moos Hormones, which rose to prominence during the 1st century BCE.
* Hanger controlled the Incense trade routes across Arabia to the

Mediterranean

and exercised control over the trading of aromatics to

Babylon

in the 1st century BCE.Larsen 1983: 56 Additionally, it served as a port of entry for goods shipped from India to the East.
* Due to its prominent position in the incense trade,

Yemen

attracted settlers from the

fertile crescent

.
* Pre-Islamic Mecca used the old Incense Route to benefit from the heavy Roman demand for luxury goods.
* In

Java

and

Borneo

, the introduction of Indian culture created a demand for aromatics. These trading outposts later served the Chinese and Arab markets.
* Following the demise of the incense trade, Yemen took to the export of coffee via the Red Sea port of ''la-Mocha.''
*The Maya had a class of wealthy merchants who traded long distances and between city states, although despite their wealth they were separated from the ruling nobility. Markets convened on specific days of the Maya calendar, and at times traders used cocoa beans as currency.
*The Ghana Empire (c 300 - 1100 CE) grew rich from the Trans-Saharan trade of gold for salt with Arab and

Berber

caravans from North Africa.

Medieval

* The Sogdian city of

Samarkand

exported unique foods, the Bactrian city of

Balkh

spread

Buddhism

to traders, and the Khwarazmian city of

Khwarazm

traded for furs from

Siberia

, while serving as key links in the Silk Road.
*

Guangzhou

was China's greatest international seaport during the Tang Dynasty (618–907), but its importance was eclipsed by the international seaport of

Lanzhou

during the Song Dynasty (960–1279).
*At the eastern terminus of the

Silk Road

, the Tang Dynasty Chinese capital at Chang'an became a major metropolitan center for foreign trade, travel, and residence. This role would be assumed by

Kaifeng

and

Hangzhou

during the Song Dynasty.
*The Baqt was a treaty signed around 652 to regulate trade and travel between the Christian kingdoms of Nubia and Muslim-ruled

Egypt

, protecting traders from both regions but requiring tribute to be paid by the Nubians to uphold the treaty.
*The city of Sijilmasa, ruled by the Islamic dynasties of

Morocco

, and the oasis city of Auodaghost to the south, ruled by nomadic

Berber

confederacies, served as staging points for the long desert crossings of the Trans-Saharan trade. Copper, cowries, and salt were sent south by camel, while ivory, gold, and slaves were sent north.
*The Sahelian kingdoms stood between the Trans-Saharan trade with the

Maghreb

and gold fields to the south. The oasis city of Oualata served as a trading post and customs station for Trans-Saharan caravans, though some North African traders went on to the larger cities of

Timbuktu

and Gao along the

Niger River

.

*
*Merchants arriving from India in the port city of Aden paid tribute in the form of musk,

camphor

,

ambergris

and

sandalwood

to Ibn Riyadh, the

sultan

of Yemen.
*After the first wave of the Islamic conquests in Persia and Central Asia in the 8th century, the Umayyad Arabs,

Tibetans

, Tang Chinese, and

Western Türks

competed for control of the Silk Road in Central Asia.
*The

Abbasids

used

Alexandria

,

Tammie

,

Aden

and Sirrah as entry ports to India and China.Donkin 2003: 91–92
*Swahili city states like Kilwa,

Mombasa

, and

Mogadishu

took part in the Indian Ocean trade, acting as middlemen for trade with the East African interior as well as exporting cowries,

ambergris

, and animal skins.
*Islamic caliphates began trading for slave soldiers or

mamluk

s in the 9th century, including Turks and

Slavs

, in the hopes that these enslaved foreigners would have no choice but to remain loyal. As they rose to command armies, many mamluk slaves gained power and prestige.
*Indian exports of spices found mention in the works of Ibo Khurdadhbeh (850), AL-Afghani (1150) and Lakisha bin Trimaran (907).
*The Trans-Saharan trade introduced kingdoms in the West African

Sahel

to Islam.
* The Hanseatic League secured trading privileges and market rights in England for goods from the League's trading cities in 1157.
*The

kingdoms

of the

Zimbabwe plateau

traded gold for manufactured products, like glass beads, iron goods, and jewelry, from the Middle East and China through middlemen on the

Swahili coast

.
*The kingdom of Benin served as a regional center of trade in West Africa as well as with the Portuguese after their arrival, exporting finely made cloth produced by their women as well as trading metal goods, ivory, and slaves.
*The Mongol conquests in the 13th - 14th centuries created the largest contiguous empire in history, which also facilitated commerce and cultural exchange over vast distances.
*

Marco Polo

traded internationally in China
*

Mansa Musa

, sultan of the Mali Empire, made a Hajj or pilgrimage in 1324 across the Saharan desert to

Mecca

, the holy city of Islam, to demonstrate his piety and project his wealth to potential trading partners in North Africa. He brought with him a large retinue, gifts, and so much gold that his spending caused economic inflation in

Cairo

.
*Ibn Battuta explored the far corners of the Islamic world from 1325 - 1354, including traveling with trade caravans to West Africa and following trade winds across the Indian Ocean to China.
*

Zheng He

made several voyages across the Indian Ocean and South China Sea from 1405 - 1433, going as far as the Swahili coast seeking the source of luxury goods which had previously reached

Ming China

through intermediaries.
* Pochteca were the merchants of the Aztec Empire (1426-1521) who carried trade goods, tribute, and information about neighbors from beyond the empire's borders. Artisanal products produced in the city of

Tenochtitlan

served as valuable trade goods, while the city of Tlateloco was home to a large market serving thousands of people a day.
*The early Portuguese slave trade with Africa traded iron goods, textiles, and horses for hundreds of West African laborers a year destined for the

Azores

and

Iberia

. Unlike in the African slave trade they came from, captives were taken far from their homelands and had less legal rights.

Early modern

* Due to the Turkish hold on the

Levant

during the second half of the 15th century, the traditional Spice Route shifted from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea.
*

India

's

Bengal Sultanate

, later absorbed into

Mughal Bengal

, a major trading nation in the world, was responsible for 12% of Global industrial output between the 15th and 17th centuries, signaling Proto-industrialization.
*The kingdom of Kongo was introduced to Christianity by trade with the Portuguese, leading to the conversion of the soon-to-be king Afonso I in 1491. However, despite early friendly relations with the Portuguese, the constant warfare and loss of population from the slave trade to Portuguese Brazil led the kingdom to decline.
* In 1492 a Spanish expedition commanded by

Christopher Columbus

arrived in America.
* Portuguese diplomat Pero de Covilha (1460 – after 1526) undertook a mission to explore the trade routes of the Near East and the adjoining regions of Asia and Africa. The exploration commenced from Santarém, Portugal, Santana (1487) to Barcelona, Naples,

Alexandria

,

Cairo

and ultimately to India.
* Portuguese explorer and adventurer Vasco da Gama is credited with establishing another sea route from Europe to India by sailing around Africa from 1497-99.
*The places in the Americas where indigenous populations were most decimated by Old World disease epidemics starting in the 1520s, like Brazil, the Caribbean, and Thirteen Colonies, British North America, were where colonial empires relied most on the Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade to provide laborers for plantations and mines. This trade, in turn, was destructive to the societies of West Africa where slaves were captured and sold.
*The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade transported unprecedented numbers of captive slaves, numbering in the millions, from Africa to colonial empires in the Americas. Conditions in transport ships were extremely inhumane and many slaves died in their attempted capture and in transit. Slaves were able to start families and established new populations in the Americas, although families could be broken up when family members were sold away.
* In the 1530s, the Portuguese shipped spices to Ormus, Hormuz.Donkin 2003: 170
*The Spanish empire had to establish coastal patrols and forts in the late 1500s to protect gold and silver transported in trading ships across the Atlantic from foreign pirates.
*The Manila galleon, Manila Galleon was a fleet of Spanish trading ships annually sent across the Pacific between Spanish possessions in Mexico and the Philippines from 1565 - 1815 to trade with China. American silver was traded for Chinese silk and other goods, with some estimates saying that half of the silver of the Americas ended up in Ming China.
*While Spanish Empire, Spain tried to monopolize transatlantic trade with its empire in the Americas using the Spanish treasure fleet, fleet system, smuggling with other countries like the Dutch Republic, Dutch was extremely common. This weakened economic control by the Spanish crown but at times strengthened local economies in the Americas.
* Japan introduced a system of foreign trade licenses to prevent smuggling and piracy in 1592.
* The first Dutch expedition left Amsterdam (April 1595) for South East Asia.Donkin 2003: 169
* A Dutch convoy sailed in 1598 and returned one year later with 600,000 pounds of spices and other East Indian products.
* The Dutch East India Company was formed in 1602 and received huge imports from Mughal India, especially Bengal Subah.Om Prakash (historian), Om Prakash,
Empire, Mughal
, ''History of World Trade Since 1450'', edited by John J. McCusker, vol. 1, Macmillan Reference USA, 2006, pp. 237–240, ''World History in Context''. Retrieved 3 August 2017
* The first English outpost in the East Indies was established in Sumatra in 1685.
* Japan introduced the closed door policy regarding trade (Japan was sealed off to foreigners and only very selective trading to the Dutch and Chinese was allowed) in 1639.
* The 17th century saw military disturbances around the Ottawa river trade route. During the late 18th century, the French built military forts at strategic locations along the main trade routes of Canada.Easterbrook 1988: 127 These forts checked the British advances, served as trading posts which included Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Native Americans in the fur trade, and acted as communications posts.
* In 1799, The Dutch East India company, formerly the world's largest company went bankrupt, partly due to the rise of competitive free trade.

Later modern

* Japan was served by the Portuguese from Macau, Macao and later by the Dutch.Donkin 2003: 170
* Despite the late entry of the United States into the spice trade, merchants from Salem, Massachusetts traded profitably with Sumatra during the early years of the 19th century.
* In 1815, the first commercial shipment of nutmegs from Sumatra arrived in Europe.Corn 1999: 217 "The first commercial shipment of Sumatran nutmegs reaching Europe in 1815 ... Similar experiments were tried in ... as well as Grenada in the West Indies. The tests were successful to the point where by the mid-nineteenth century these upstart colonies collectively rivaled Banda's exports.
* Grenada became involved in the spice trade.
* The Siamese-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce, Siamese-American Treaty of 1833 called for free trade, except for export of rice and import of munitions of war.
* Opium War (1840) – Britain invaded China to overturn the Chinese ban on opium imports.
* Britain unilaterally adopted a policy of free trade and abolished the Corn Laws in 1846.
* The first international free trade agreement, the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty, was finalized in 1860 between the United Kingdom and France, prepared by Richard Cobden and Michel Chevalier; it sparked off successive agreements between other countries in Europe.
* The Japanese Meiji Restoration (1868) led the way to Japan opening its borders and quickly industrializing through free trade. Under bilateral treaties restraint of trade imports to Japan were forbidden.
* In 1873, the Wiener Berserk slump signaled the start of the continental Long Depression, during which support for protectionism grew.

Post-World War II

* In 1946. the Bretton Woods system goes into effect; it had been planned since 1944 as an international economic structure to prevent further Great depression, depressions and wars. It included institutions and rules intended to prevent national trade barriers being erected, as the lack of free trade was considered by many to have been a principal cause of World War II, war.
* In 1947, 23 countries agree to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to rationalize trade among the nations.
* In Europe, six countries form the European Coal and Steel Community (SPECS) in 1951, the first international organisation to be based on the principles of supranationalism, supranational ism.

* The European Economic Community (EEC) is established by the Inner Six European countries with a Common Commercial Policy (EU), common commercial policy in 1957.
* The European Free Trade Association (FEAT) is established in 1960 as a trade bloc-alternative by the Outer Seven European countries who did not join the EEC.
* Four important ISO (International Organization for Standardization) recommendations standardized containerization globally:Rushton, A., Oxley, J., Croucher, P. (2004). ''The Handbook of Logistics and Distribution Management''. Kogan Page: London.
** January 1968: R-668 defined the terminology, dimensions and ratings
** July 1968: R-790 defined the identification markings
** January 1970: R-1161 made recommendations about corner fittings
** October 1970: R-1897 set out the minimum internal dimensions of general purpose freight containers
* The Ranger Committee is formed in 1971 to advise on the interpretation of nuclear goods in relation to international trade and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NOT).
* 16 October 1973: OPEC raises the Saudi Arabia, Saudi light crude export price, and mandate an export cut the next day, plus an Embargo on oil exports to nations allied with Israel in the course of the Yom Kippur War, Yom Kipper War. (also see Oil depletion, Oil crisis)
* The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NEG) was created in 1974 to moderate international trade in nuclear related goods, after the explosion of a nuclear device by a non-nuclear weapon State.
* The breakdown of the Soviet Union leads to a reclassification of within-country trade to international trade, which has a small effect on the rise of international trade.
* After expanding its membership to 12 countries, the European Economic Community becomes the European Union (EU) on 1 November 1993.
* 1 January 1994: The European Economic Area (SEA ) is formed to provide for the Freedom of movement, free movement of persons, goods, services and capital within the internal market of the European Union as well as three of the four member states of the European Free Trade Association.
* 1 January 1994: the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) takes effect.
** November 2018 - the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement is signed which replaces NAFTA
* 1 January 1995: World Trade Organization is created to facilitate free trade, by mandating mutual most favored nation trading status between all signatories.
* 1 January 2002: Twelve countries of the European Union launch the Euro zone (euro in cash), which instantly becomes the second most used currency in the world.
* 2008-2009 : during the Great Trade Collapse, a drop of world GDP of 1% surprisingly caused a drop of international trade of 10%.
* In 2013, China began its economic integration and infrastructure project, called the Belt and Road Initiative.
* 2014: India launches its Make in India initiative and announces its Look East policy (India)#Act East policy, Act East Policy.
* Timeline of Brexit: the United Kingdom votes in 2016 to leave European Union, which it formally does in January 2020.
* 30 October 2016: the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Union is signed
* 30 December 2018: the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership enters into force
* 1 February 2019: the Japan–European Union relations, European Union–Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) enters into force.

See also

* Arms industry, Arms trade
* Economic history of the world
* Fur trade
* Industrial archaeology
* Slave trade
* Spice trade
* Triangle trade
* Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

*

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*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*Needham, Joseph (1986). ''Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 2, Mechanical Engineering''. Taipei: Caves Books Ltd.
*Ebrey, Walthall, Palais, (2006). ''East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
*Morton, Scott and Charlton Lewis (2005). ''China: Its History and Culture: Fourth Edition''. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
* Krugman, Paul., 1996 ''Pop Internationalism''. Cambridge: MIT Press,
* Mill, John Stuart., 1844 ''Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy''
* Mill, John Stuart., 1848 ''Principles of Political Economy with some of their Applications to Social Philosophy''
Full text

* Smith, A. 1776, ''An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations''

External links

The BBC's illustrated history of free trade

Dictionary of Traded Goods and Commodities
a dictionary of trade in Britain, 1550–1820. Part of British History Online, by permission of the University of Wolverhampton.

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