Finding About Trade and Traders


 
 
Concept Explanation
 

Finding About Trade and Traders

Finding About Trade and Traders: To find about trade and trade routes, historians use evidence present in the literature of the period like sangam poems and Sangam literature. Northern black polished ware, one of the fine pottery, especially bowls and plates, were found from several archaeological sites throughout the subcontinent. Traders may have carried them from the places where they were made, to sell them at other places. South India was famous for gold, spices, especially pepper, and precious stones. Pepper was particularly valued in the Roman Empire, so much so that it was known as black gold. So traders carried many of these goods to Rome in Ships across the sea and by land in caravans. There must have been quite a lot of trade as many Roman gold coins have been found in South India.

Traders explored several sea routes. Some of these followed the coasts. There were others across the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, where sailors took advantage of the monsoon winds to cross the seas more quickly. So, if they wanted to reach the western coast of the subcontinent from East Africa or Arabia, they chose to sail with the South -west monsoon. And sturdy ships had to be built for these long journeys.

Contact between lands can occur in different ways:

  • Interaction through trade: for example, the flourishing trade that existed between people of Indus Valley civilization and Mesopotamia.
  • Interaction through migrations: for example, the migration of the Aryans into India.
  • Contact through religion: for example, the spread of Buddhism from India to Central Asia.
  • Contact through conquest: for example, the Tamil conquest of South-East Asia.
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