Introduction
The subject of trade and transport leads into different questions and forms of analysis depending on the perspective adopted. From an economic point of view, trade is part of developing systems of exchange by which the production and consumption of goods are linked over small and longer distances. Major questions include which and what quantities of goods were traded where and by what means, how much of a surplus was available for trade, and how effectively trade, transport, and currency fulfilled their purposes within a specified geographical range. Which social, political, and technological circumstances affected volumes of trade, and what factors stimulated or prohibited the development and expansion of markets? The emergence of price-setting markets is central for economic history. Economic historians are aware that trade via markets is only one possible way of moving goods and services from their place of production to that of consumption, but it is the one with the...
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Further Reading
McCormick, M. 2001. Origins of the European economy: communications and commerce, AD 300-900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Morley, N. 2007. Trade in classical antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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von Reden, S. (2014). Trade and Transport in the Ancient Mediterranean. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_1485
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