Trade+And+commerce+Mesopotamia


 * Introduction **

Mesopotamia was located in the Fertile Crescent almost 8000 years ago, Mesopotamia is now today's South Asia. Mesopotamia was low on natural resources, therefore people of Mesopotamia needed to trade with neighbouring countries for resources to survive and grow.


 * Trading of Mesopotamia **

Trading started in Mesopotamia when farmers learned how to irrigate their land, once they grew more food then they could eat, farmers used surplus food for trading. Other foods Mesopotamians traded were grains such as flax, oils and textiles (cloth or goods made by weaving, knitting or felting). In return Mesopotamians received items such as timber, wine, precious metals and stones. These trade items were used for mostly building transportation, but to also improve their civilization by building more buildings.

Trading by Land
====Merchants used many different methods to trade by land, when you needed to bring very little trade items to somewhere nearby you would walk by foot, and strap goods to your back. When you needed to travel to a different region such as Assyria, Babylonia or Sumeria then you would need to travel by cart or donkey. Carts were made out of wood and had durable wheels attached on the bottom, and donkeys just carried the goods as you walked along with it or sit on top of it. When they traded by land they traded items such as wine, grain and valuable stones, they didn't bring big portions when trading by land. These are just some ways that Mesopotamians traveled by land.====

Trading by Water


====Mesopotamians also traded by water because they were surrounding by two rivers, they have more transportation for traveling by water because they traveled by sea more then land. Some of the transportation's Mesopotamians used would be a a guffa, a guffa is a round boat that can only go down stream and not up.They also made rafts out of wood and animal skins, they were used to only travel downstream instead of up. Mesopotamians also used a river boat and gulf boats, gulf boats are stronger then river boats and were meant to ship from Mesopotamia to the gulf. River boats were made out of reeds, rope and bitumen, transportation's that travel by water of these carried big portions of barley, stone, ivory, reeds and textiles. These are some of the transportations people used in Mesopotamia.====


 * Trade Routes **

Trading is a very dangerous job, no matter what type of transportation you use, your still at risk. When you were to travel by donkey or by cart you would need to worry about the supply of food that you have for the journey. When you travel by boat you would not only need to worry about the supply of food, but also pirates attack your boat and steal your trading goods.

media type="youtube" key="5ri-x3dXBQM" height="295" width="348" align="left"

This video is about the Mesopotamians trade routes, this is very educational and really understanding. It is ten minutes long but you learn so much from this video.


 * Mesopotamian Currency **

Archehologist said that no Mesopotamian coins or currency was so far discovered. Since they didn't have currency Mesopotamians used silver and grains for fixed money prices. Otherwise Mesopotamians still traded.




 * Critical Thinking **

====As time passes humans become more evolved and learn new things which will change the future, this is what happened during the time period when Mesopotamia existed. Mesopotamians created transportations such as the cart, gulf boats, and so on. Now a days, we took their invention and recreated it into something more powerful.==== ====In Mesopotamia when they would travel by land they would use a cart, now a days we use bicycles and cars. When they were to travel by water in Mesopotamia you would use a river boat or a gulf boat. In present day we use huge ships to transport everything overseas. Also back in Mesopotamia they traded textiles, grains and oils, here in Canada we also trade clothing, grains and oils.====

====I think that these transportation's improved as time went by because humans can explore more of nature and find better materials to use for transportation. As time went by people found ways to ship items overseas, or just by land without having to worry about all the supply of food and water.====

====These relate a lot together because with the transportation they just evolved in form and have the same purpose. Also Mesopotamians and Canadians ship out the same items. These are some similarities between Mesopotamia trades and transportation and modern day transportation and shipped items.====


 * Conclusion **

This concludes the end of my report of Trade and Commerce of Mesopotamia, not only has this taught me a lot but I'm glad this is online where it can be useful to others. There is so much more to explore about Mesopotamia but i hope you learnt many things from this Wiki.

Bibliography

To help you understand better, i put the website name that i got the information from. Then i wrote what information i used for what part of this wiki.

Information

Ancient Mesopotamia for Kids <span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">[] <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">= Part of Introduction

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">BBC Mesopotamia <span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">[] <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">= Part of Introduction

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">British Museum- Trade and Transportation <span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">[] <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> = Part of introduction

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Classics Community Center, Trading in Mesopotamia <span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">[] <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> = How trading originated

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Collapse, Mesopotamia <span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">[] <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">= What Mesopotamians traded

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Dictionary, Textiles <span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">[] <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">= definition of textiles

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Socyberty, Trade and Transportation <span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">[] <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">= How people traded and shipped items.

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Wiki Answers Mesopotamian Currency <span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">[|http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_kind_of_money_did_ancient_mesopotamia's_use] <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">=Currency of Mesopotamia

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Books <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">World Book Encyclopedia 2001

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Links <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Mesopotamia Trade Routes Video <span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">[] <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">= Video and Trade Routes

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Pictures <span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">[] <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">= Textiles Pictures

<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">[] <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> = Fertile Crescent Map

<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">[] <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">= Grain Picture

[]= Guffa Picture

[]= People Riding Donkeys Picture

[]= <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Silver Picture

<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">[] <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">= Mesopotamia Trade Route Picture

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Check out these websites for more trade and commerce information!

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">- By Chelsea Leong