Text III. The History of World Trade

The earliest trade we do know something about is the caravan trade across the deserts of Asia around 2500 BC to and from cities in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Arabia. These caravans had to carry fodder for the animals and food for the drivers and merchants. Not much space was left for the cargo. As a result, the goods carried were light but valuable, things such as gold and precious stones – that is, luxuries and not necessities.

After this, trade by sea started to become more common. The Phoenicians on the coast of Syria are thought to have been the first to develop commerce by sea around 1000 BC.

The Phoenicians lived at the same time as Greeks and the Romans. Athens was the first big commercial city in Europe, and it was the first community to import and export necessities in large quantities. Grain was imported for the increasing population from the shores of the Black Sea, and exports included figs, olive oil, wine, honey, pottery, metalware, and textile.

The Roman Empire (27 BC – 476 AD) was the next big trading community. Increasing quantities of luxuries were imported from the East and North Africa. Imports included tin, slaves, cloth, and jewels. The Romans also traded with China, and brought back silkworms to start a silk industry in Europe.

In the fifth century AD, Byzantium (later called Constantinople and now Istanbul) became the political capital of the Roman Empire, and remained the world’s commercial capital until the 12^th century.

In the 12^th and 13^th centuries, Venice and Genoa became the world’s leading trade centres. In 1271, the Venetian, Marco Polo, went by land and sea to China and helped establish trading links. Venice was well placed to be the main European commercial centre.

The modern World began as the “Age of Discoveries”. The great voyages of Spanish and Portuguese explorers, such as Christopher Columbus (1492), Vasco da Gama (1498), and Ferdinand Magellan (1519), opened up new trade routes to Africa, and India. This was the beginning of ocean travel.

By the 17^th century, the Dutch dominated the world’s trade, with the French and the English as their close rivals. All three nations opened up the tropical lands of the East and West Indies, and imported sugar, tobacco, tea, and coffee into Europe.

During the 19^th century, the industrial revolution led to greater production, and the pattern of World Trade started to become what it is today.

Today, we seem to witness the globalization of world trade. We move toward a system in which national markets are merging into one huge global marketplace. Thus, in many industries we are not talking about “German market”, “American market”, Ukrainian market”, but about the global market.

Companies such as Coca-cola, McDonald’s, Levi’s jeans are the vivid examples of this trend of development.

Task 1. What do you think:

- When did people first start trading?

- What were the earliest goods to be traded?

- Can you give the names of great explorers who opened up new trade routes?

- What does Ukraine export and import? What countries does Ukraine trade with?

Task 2. Read through the new words and try to memorize them.

1. flint	кремень
2. slave	раб, невольник
3. desert	пустыня
4. fodder	корм
5. cargo	груз
6. precious stones	драгоценные камни
7. luxury	предмет роскоши
8. necessity	предмет необходимости
9. pottery	фаянс
10. jewels	драгоценные камни
11. silkworm	шёлкопряд
12. explorer	исследователь
13. trade routes	торговые пути
14. rival	конкурент, соперник
15. to witness	быть свидетелем
16. to merge	соединятся
17. vivid example	яркий пример

Task 3. Read and pronounce correctly the following geographical names:

1. Mesopotamia [,mesəpə’teimjə] Месопотамия

2. Egypt [i:dзipt] Египет

3. Phoenicians [fi’ni∫iənz] финикийцы

4. China [‘t∫ainə] Китай

5. Byzantium [bi’zæn∫iəm] Византия

6. Venice [‘venis] Венеция

7. Genoa [‘dзenouə] Генуя

8. East and West Indies [i:st ənd ‘west ‘indiz] Ост и Вест-Индия

9. Europe [‘juərəp] Европа

Read through the text and answer the following questions:

• What is known about the beginning of trade?

• What do you know about the earliest trade which starter across the deserts of Asia around 2500 BC?

• Who is thought to been the first to develop commerce by sea?

• Which city has become the political capital of the Roman Empire and the world’s commercial capital?

• When did Venice and Genoa become the world’s leading trade centers?

• When did the modern world begin?

• Who dominated the world’s trade by the 17^th century?

• When did the pattern of the world trade start to become what it is today?

• How do you understand the process of globalization of the world trade?