Trade

The Secret Life of Ordinary Objects ← Series Home The Box That Changed Everything: How Standardized Shipping Containers Created the Global Economy The shipping container—a simple metal box, typically 20 or 40 feet long—is perhaps the most important, and least celebrated, innovation of the 20th century. This humble rectangular prism, stacked by the thousands on ships and trucks, fundamentally restructured the global economy. ...

Key Takeaways Security First: Mongol military power suppressed banditry and made routes safe for the first time. Unified Taxation: One authority meant one tax system instead of dozens of tolls. Infrastructure Investment: The Yam network supported commercial as well as official travel. Legal Framework: Consistent law enabled contracts across cultures. Scale Effects: Security attracted more trade, which funded more security, creating a virtuous cycle. The Silk Road is ancient. Trade between China and the Mediterranean stretches back 2,000 years. ...

Key Takeaways Unified Market: For the first time, a single political authority controlled trade from Korea to Poland. Standardized Systems: Common laws, protected routes, and consistent administration enabled commerce. Technology Transfer: Printing, gunpowder, and navigation tools moved from East to West. Cultural Exchange: Ideas, religions, and people crossed continents as never before. Unintended Consequence: The same routes that carried silk also carried the Black Death. In 1245, Pope Innocent IV sent an envoy named Giovanni de Plano Carpini to the Mongol court. His journey took two years and covered over 10,000 km through territories no European had crossed in centuries. ...

The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt 1 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 1: The Mandate of Salt 2 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 2: The Garum Grid: Salt, Sex, and Power in the Roman World 3 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 3: The Adriatic Empire: Venice, Salt Monopoly, and the Spice Trade 4 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 4: Friday’s Treasure: Cod, Herring, and the Northern Salt Wars 5 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 5: Liberté, Egalité, Tax Breaks: The Gabelle, Contraband, and Revolution 6 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 6: The Rock and the Soul: Gandhi’s March to End an Imperial Tax 7 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 7: Sodium’s Perfect Marriage: When Chemistry Dethroned the Miner 8 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 8: Big Salt, Little Salt: The Global Corporation and the Gourmet Revival 9 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Intro: The Rock That Built Civilizations ← Series Home The enduring Roman idea that establishing saltworks was synonymous with building empires was carried forward into the maritime republics that rose after Rome’s collapse in the fifth century. The Mediterranean, once the most economically vital region of the Western world, entered a period of intense competition. ...

The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt 1 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 1: The Mandate of Salt 2 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 2: The Garum Grid: Salt, Sex, and Power in the Roman World 3 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 3: The Adriatic Empire: Venice, Salt Monopoly, and the Spice Trade 4 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 4: Friday’s Treasure: Cod, Herring, and the Northern Salt Wars 5 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 5: Liberté, Egalité, Tax Breaks: The Gabelle, Contraband, and Revolution 6 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 6: The Rock and the Soul: Gandhi’s March to End an Imperial Tax 7 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 7: Sodium’s Perfect Marriage: When Chemistry Dethroned the Miner 8 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 8: Big Salt, Little Salt: The Global Corporation and the Gourmet Revival 9 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Intro: The Rock That Built Civilizations ← Series Home Prologue: The Rock and the Economy Salt stands as one of the first international commodities of trade. This substance, essential for human survival and health, inevitably became the focus of the world’s first state monopoly. Long before it fueled empires in Europe, salt drove politics, philosophy, and technology in China. Chinese history, documented across 4,000 years, begins as a history of pivotal inventions. Leaders throughout China, including Mao Zedong, proudly list the numerous Chinese firsts. These inventions include the papermaking process, printing technology, gunpowder, and the magnetic compass. ...

The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt 1 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 1: The Mandate of Salt 2 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 2: The Garum Grid: Salt, Sex, and Power in the Roman World 3 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 3: The Adriatic Empire: Venice, Salt Monopoly, and the Spice Trade 4 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 4: Friday’s Treasure: Cod, Herring, and the Northern Salt Wars 5 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 5: Liberté, Egalité, Tax Breaks: The Gabelle, Contraband, and Revolution 6 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 6: The Rock and the Soul: Gandhi’s March to End an Imperial Tax 7 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 7: Sodium’s Perfect Marriage: When Chemistry Dethroned the Miner 8 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 8: Big Salt, Little Salt: The Global Corporation and the Gourmet Revival 9 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Intro: The Rock That Built Civilizations ← Series Home I bought the rock in the rundown hillside mining town of Cardona, Spanish Catalonia. It presented as an irregular, pink trapezoid. Curved indentations, etched by rain, marked its surface. The rock had a peculiar translucence and looked like a cross between rose quartz and soap. This resemblance to soap came because the stone dissolved in water. Rainwater wore its edges smooth, similar to a used bar of soap. ...