How the Grain Trade brought about Modern Civilization
When people discuss what brought about society or civilization, they usually attribute the biggest factors to things such as farming and the discovery of fire-many overlook the way that grain trade impacted humanity. Grain trade allowed cities to form and created the arts and sciences as we know it.
Before we discuss how the Grain trade gave us modern civilization, we need to look at how humanity got to where it is. There were many moments in history that were key in giving us our culture, arts, sciences and survival. We have never been so advanced or cultured in our history because of the accumulation of our past.
The definition of culture is important to discuss as many people have different ideas of what culture means. For this article culture is both the physical incarnations of humanity such as music, paintings and movies as well as the more abstract aspects of humanity such as manners, habits and political thought. Culture is both the way people think, and the way they express that thought. Arts are a manner of cultural expression.
Science is the advancement of humanity. We would not be where we are without our greatest scientific minds. They gave us advancements in farming, medical, transportation and basic life. Every single piece of equipment that people operate on a farm can exist because of science and the engineers who take the natural phenomena and bend it to our will.
The trade of ideas is the discussion of events and ideals between two people. It happens in cafes, restaurants, at home and the internet. But before we had quick, reliable long distance communication, those ideas would have to be discovered by one person and brought back to their home. The people who most travelled the paths on which those ideas could be implemented were traders. And the most traded goods are agriculture products and foodstuffs.
The Grain trade came about when humanity figured out how to farm and then realized that it was more efficient to farm only one good and trade the surplus. This allowed people to stick around in areas and eventually cities formed. These cities were placed in strategic locations, often near water, to facilitate trade and make feeding the entire city easier. This brought people together, speeding up the trade of ideas and formation of culture. Cities offered a sanctuary that let people dedicate their minds to things beyond basic survival allowing the arts and sciences to flourish. All this because people started bringing food to trading centers. Early on in Greek history, farmers couldn’t trade over large distances so they would go to the nearest city and sell it to a merchant who would be able to buy space on a ship that would send it to another city. That merchant would have a conversation with the shipper who would then have a conversation with a different merchant in a different city, bringing both grain and ideas. Cities allowed humans to discuss concepts and brought about the ideas of Aristotle and Plato along with advancing science. Those sciences then led to advancements that propelled humanity to the renaissance.
Grain trade helped create the Silk road. The route between Asia and Europe which facilitated much advancement out of the dark ages and accelerated the exploration of the world. Out of the Silk road-which began as a commercial endeavor-came the exchange of more than physical goods. It brought mystery, curiosity, new science and culture. These are the things that brought about the renaissance.
During the Dark Ages, people would produce enough food for them and their communities, any extra food was given/sold to individuals who would store it. Then the Americas were discovered. This tripled the agricultural output that European countries had access to and let those in Europe focus on what their heart desired. This let scientists be scientists, as opposed to farmers and helped discover the useful properties of steam. Steam gave us the industrial revolution. The excess of grain allowed the European to expand their trade networks to the rest of the world and their colonies. These colonies then brought back their culture to every other country in the world. Where would we be without this extensive trade network?
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