Ancient Trade Routes

[Homo Sapiens]

My friend and I were talking about these today, and how even though popular belief holds that ancient societies were very inverted, when it is actually quite the opposite. I know of the Silk Route, the Amber Route, the Tin Route that the Carthaginians used, and the trans-Saharan caravans transporting gold, ivory and slaves. My friend also claimed there was a Cinnimon Route, across the Indian Ocean from Indonesia to Madagascar. Is there any evidence to support this claim? And have I missed any other main trade routes?

[GodEmperorLeto]

Well, they weren't cosmopolitan in, say, the 19th century Parisian or contemporary NYC sense of the word. But some cities had people from far and wide buying, selling, and trading.

Many of these trade routes, however, were full of middlemen, jacking the prices up drastically. The old adage for prices is the 2/5/20 ratio. The number equals the amount the price is multiplied per distance unit over sea/river/land. So routes like the Silk Road resulted in incredibly expensive prices. A single travelling merchant often wouldn't range much further than a hundred miles or so, before selling his wares to another merchant going further in the same direction. This also helped to drive prices up for things like silk, until only incredibly wealthy Romans (and later Byzantines) could afford it, and even then, in only thin layers.*

Regardless, we've found Roman coins in ancient Indian ruins. Augustus recieved embassies from three Indian rajahs, and there were emissaries/explorers/entrepreneurs traveling between the Roman Empire and Han China during the second century. If these are the recorded trips that survive to modern times, what about the records that don't? Or even trips that weren't recorded? Indeed, it is safe to assume that the ancient world by the time of the Han and Roman Empires, was much more cosmopolitan than many believe.

Keep in mind that it would still take at least a year (maybe two) to reach Loyang (the Han capital) from Rome. It isn't like they could take the train or a 747. Distance and time were still massive inhibitors to travel. However, entrepreneurialism did create a great degree of international commerce.

*I'd like to cite a source for this factoid, but I can't find the damn article. The author is a Mz. Liu Xinru, and it is on the ancient/late antique silk trade, just in case that means anything to anybody.

[Angadil]

My friend and I were talking about these today, and how even though popular belief holds that ancient societies were very inverted, when it is actually quite the opposite. I know of the Silk Route, the Amber Route, the Tin Route that the Carthaginians used, and the trans-Saharan caravans transporting gold, ivory and slaves. My friend also claimed there was a Cinnimon Route, across the Indian Ocean from Indonesia to Madagascar. Is there any evidence to support this claim? And have I missed any other main trade routes?

Yes, there is reasonably good evidence for that Cinnamon Route. There are references in some classical source or another (could look it up for you, if you are really interested) and you also have the fact that Madagascar, being so close to the African coast is actually inhabitted by peoples of Malay ancestry speaking languages of the Malay group. We'd be talking here of large flotillas of Malay outrigger canoes that would ride the monsoons for the trip.

[Teutobod II]

My friend and I were talking about these today, and how even though popular belief holds that ancient societies were very inverted, when it is actually quite the opposite. I know of the Silk Route, the Amber Route, the Tin Route that the Carthaginians used, and the trans-Saharan caravans transporting gold, ivory and slaves. My friend also claimed there was a Cinnimon Route, across the Indian Ocean from Indonesia to Madagascar. Is there any evidence to support this claim? And have I missed any other main trade routes?

Salt Routes in central Europe...
several towns in Germany are still called "Hall" (Celtic for salt) => Bad Reichenhall (salt is still won here today) , Schwäbisch Hall...

[QwertyMIDX]

A lot of early greek colonies were actually greco-punic colonies. The ancient world was incredibly globalized.

[Dooz]

A lot of early greek colonies were actually greco-punic colonies. The ancient world was incredibly globalized.

Aren't they all?

[Teleklos Archelaou]

A lot of early greek colonies were actually greco-punic colonies. The ancient world was incredibly globalized.

"A lot"? I knew a few were, but comparatively, were there really a lot?

[QwertyMIDX]

Depends what you mean when you say early greek colonies I suppose. A large number of the early ones in Sicily were, and I think many of the Italian ones as well. Not so much for Black Sea colonies though.

[cunctator]

Graeco-roman merchants during the principate also sailed directly to india from egyptian red sea ports across the indian ocean in whole fleets and also traded with along the eastern african and southern arabian coasts. The trade is described by the Periplus Maris Erythraei ( http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/periplus.html ), Strabo and others.

[QwertyMIDX]

Yeah, that pissed the Southern Arabians off something fierce, perviously they'd made a killing on playing middle men with Indian trade goods.

[Homo Sapiens]

Yes, this afternoon I found a historical atlas in my school's library with a map detailing the Silk and Cinnamon routes. But another question: the map was dated to c. 2nd century AD. Was the Cinnamon route established by EB's timeframe? If it was, it could make an interesting addition to the provinces around the Red Sea.

[Shorebreak]

As someone posted earlier, the Periplus of the Erythraei Sea is our best source for this. It details 3 main routes into the Roman Empire via Aegyptus and Mesopotamia: one originating somewhere south of the horn of Africa while the other two originated from India, one ending near the site of the Suez canal and the other ending near Basra, where it was shipped up the Euphrates and overland into Syria. Some products are mentionied; however, they are escaping me at the moment. I think cinnammen orginated in Celyon, although im far from certain. I dont think that it could have consistantly made its way up from Madigascar due to the anicents lack of geography and the poor organizational skills of sub-saharan african tribesmen. I also belive that Indonesia first came into the trade networks during the time of the Abassid empire, sometime in the eighth-ninth centuries. There are also papyrii records of taxable goods which survive; they may help to expalin what was coming into the empire. It can be assumed that these routes were not extemely old, as the Romans had just learned of trade winds (detailed in the account), which enabled them to cross the Indian ocean, and the Parthian empire had recently come to control the traditionial overland routes which had been more accessable during Selucid times. This shift forced Roman merchants to bypass the old routes, much like Columbus had hoped to due in 1492. The fabled Silk Road to China has not been proven to exist during this time either, as there was no direct link between the two empires. A network may have existed which passed Chinese goods to merchants in India, then from India to merchants from persia or Rome. Apparently the Indians took great pains to conceal the source of Chinese goods from the Romans. The first contact between the two empires occured during the reign of Justinian if I remeber correctly, which was in the 6th century.