Chapter 7 Commerce and Culture

The chapter begins by talking about a man who is buying an iPod for his son's graduation and he explains how quickly it gets to his house. This is a great way to start the chapter in my opinion because it gives the reader something to relate to that will tie into the chapter. It certainly caught my attention.

This chapter deals a lot with trade and it's importance that it had through out all of Eurasia. Trade has always been an interesting topic to me and is still done today. It may not be as important but now these day you can trade video games at your local gaming store. You can also trade your valuables with friends. In the past trade was done through routes and much more needed goods were traded for other valuable goods. Unlike today, trade was extremely necessary, and it wasn't done as quickly as it can be done today. Silk contained a huge role in trade. Gold was a powerful value and even slaves were traded.

Trade was through several different routes. Sand roads were used, but also during this era, sea routes were used as well. This allowed trade to happen between continents and islands which played a helpful role for the isolated islands, which now they weren't so isolated form the world anymore.

Trade didn't only take the form of psychical objects but the trade of ideas and philosophy were traded as well. This caused a great spread of Buddhism throughout Eurasia. Also diseases were traded as well which led to the black death. Back in middle school my 7th grade history teacher spent a lot of time talking about the black death. It must had really interesting her, but it really interested us, as a class as well. It was thought to be the end of the world during that time since no one could find a cure. The spread of this disease was massive and scary. I remember watching several documentaries on this catastrophe, and we even looked at many painting that distributed an artist's point of view of the time.Talking about the black death, or the plague, had to have been my most favorite history class moment, even though my teacher was super mean at the time, this topic made the class tolerable because it would actually put her in a good mood.

by Andrew Murillo