Question

“Trade and cultural exchange went hand-in-hand during pre-modern times.” Explain the statement with any two examples.

Hint:

Use the silk routes as the main example. Show what goods moved along them, then show that missionaries, preachers and even foods travelled the very same roads.

Answer 1

Concept:

• The routes built for trade were also the routes along which religion, art, language and food travelled.
• Merchants, preachers and pilgrims used the same roads and ships, so goods and ideas moved together.

Step 1: The first example, the silk routes.
The silk routes are a good example of vibrant pre-modern trade and cultural links between distant parts of the world. Chinese silk and pottery travelled west along them, as did textiles and spices from India and South East Asia.
In return, precious metals, gold and silver, flowed from Europe to Asia.

Step 2: Show the cultural traffic on the same routes.
Trade and cultural exchange always went hand in hand. Early Christian missionaries almost certainly travelled the silk routes to Asia, and early Muslim preachers followed a few centuries later.
Much before all this, Buddhism emerged from eastern India and spread in several directions through the intersecting points on the silk routes.

Step 3: The second example, the exchange of food.
Traders and travellers introduced new crops to the lands they visited. Noodles are believed to have travelled west from China to become spaghetti, and Arab traders took pasta to fifth century Sicily.
A merchant carrying goods therefore also carried a way of eating.

Step 4: State the pattern behind both examples.
Wherever a trade route opened, the people who used it carried their faith, their language and their habits with them. Commerce was the vehicle, and culture travelled as the passenger.

Final Answer: The silk routes carried silk, pottery, textiles and spices one way and gold and silver the other, and along the very same roads Buddhism, Christianity and Islam spread, while traders also carried foods such as noodles and pasta across continents.