Trading Tastes: Commodity and Cultural Exchange to 1750

by Erik Gilbert, Jonathan T. Reynolds

Part of the Key Themes in World History series, Trade in World History illustrates the patterns and impact of trans-continental and trans-oceanic trade from antiquity to the present through its examination of four commodities-spices, salt, sugar, and silk-and their production and long-distance trade. Trade in World History is the story of how trade served as an engine of cultural contact and exchange around the world and helped usher in modern globalization.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

176 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2005

Reviews

[Kevin Driskill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating and thought provoking. An interesting exploration of the interchange of ideas and cultures that took place alongside commercial trade.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great resource for world history classes, as everything is arranged nicely by product- there are sections on salt, sugar, silk, and spices. At various points the authors include primary sources, complete with questions that one could ask students about these primary sources (thanks guys! That came in handy). Loses a few points for being kinda shoddily printed- the book is just physically hard to page through and read.
Best historical tidbit from this book: By about 300 CE, some people in China had figured out how to tap natural gas wells and pipe the gas to the surface in bamboo pipes. They basically made gas burners to heat seawater for salt production. 1700 years ago!!! Crazy. That is amazing. My ancestors in Britain were what, putting rocks in circles?

[Msadventure]

This was a fascinating book on how the movement of trade goods, specifically salt/spices/sugar/silk, influenced and facilitated the spread of ideas and cultural information between people groups. It was eminently readable but I was put off by the numerous grammatical (either from the authors or from the typesetting, I have no idea) errors in the text. There were missing words, incorrectly used words, incomplete sentences. Other than this admittedly minor problem which really has no impact on the sweep of the research, it was a fun and interesting read.