Chapter 7 Commerce and culture
This chapter talks about commerce and culture. After we moved out from the “ state of nature” and started to produce goods that were more than we can consume, the commercial activities had born. As the book says that, “economically speaking, Commerce often altered consumption and shaped daily life.”(282) Indeed, because of the birth of commercial activities such as trade, the dynamic of our consumption has changed dramatically. Before trading even exist, people who live in certain areas only consume their own local products, and the specialized products became a distinguished feature of those societies. For example, China was famous for their silk and jade while certain incense only can be found in southern Arabia. Trade, open a gate for people in both places to enjoy the good from outside of their areas.
Because of the unique meaning of these products, there a great need from different places in the world to exchange their specialized good. It brought a big economic change around the world. “In some society, trade became a means of social mobility, as Chinese merchants, for example, were able to purchase landed estates and establish themselves within the gentry class.”(282)
The changes that brought from the commerce were not just economical, also social and cultural. Like the textbook states that “ trade became a vehicle for the spread of religious ideas, technological innovations, disease-bearing germs, and plants and animals to regions far from their place of origin.” Such example as the spreading idea of Buddism in Central and East Asia via the Silk Roads. The idea of the Buddism exposed to the merchants who went to the journey of India and brought back into the Central and East Asia. Or, those ideas got directly spread by the merchants who from India who went on their journey to Central and East Asia.
“ Trade also had the capacity to transform political life.” (282) Because of the trading activity and the production, society has to deal with a lot of new issues. So they form different departments to provide the security of the trading activity, to determine the tax policy and many other parts of the trading activity.
Because of the unique meaning of these products, there a great need from different places in the world to exchange their specialized good. It brought a big economic change around the world. “In some society, trade became a means of social mobility, as Chinese merchants, for example, were able to purchase landed estates and establish themselves within the gentry class.”(282)
The changes that brought from the commerce were not just economical, also social and cultural. Like the textbook states that “ trade became a vehicle for the spread of religious ideas, technological innovations, disease-bearing germs, and plants and animals to regions far from their place of origin.” Such example as the spreading idea of Buddism in Central and East Asia via the Silk Roads. The idea of the Buddism exposed to the merchants who went to the journey of India and brought back into the Central and East Asia. Or, those ideas got directly spread by the merchants who from India who went on their journey to Central and East Asia.
“ Trade also had the capacity to transform political life.” (282) Because of the trading activity and the production, society has to deal with a lot of new issues. So they form different departments to provide the security of the trading activity, to determine the tax policy and many other parts of the trading activity.
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