2015-09-06
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In the 12th and 13th centuries, Venice and Genoa became the world's leading trade centres. In 1271, the Venetian, Marco Polo, went by land and sea to China and helped establish trading links. Venice was well placed to be the main European commercial centre. It had, of course, the sea, and it was by sea that luxuries such as spices and silks arrived from the East. These were then re-exported in fleets of ships to ports in Spain, England, and Flanders.
During the late Middle Ages, Bruges became the leading trade centre in northern Europe. Other goods went overland, across the Alps to French and German cities.
The modern world
The modern world began as the 'Age of Discoveries'. The great voyages of Spanish and Portuguese explorers, such as Christopher Columbus (1492), Vasco da Gama (1498), and Ferdinand Magellan (1519), opened up new trade routes to the Americas, Africa, and India. This was the beginning of ocean travel.
Britain and other countries of northern Europe formed big companies, and each was given a certain part of the world to explore and exploit. The new companies penetrated into distant lands, and brought back their products, many of which were new and unknown: tomatoes, potatoes, cocoa, green beans, and corn. By the 17th century, the Dutch dominated the world's trade, with the French and the English as their close rivals. All three nations opened up the tropical lands of the East and West Indies, and imported sugar, tobacco, tea, and coffee into Europe.
During the 19th century, the industrial revolution led to greater production, and the pattern of world trade started to become what it is today.
Today
Today, mass advertising persuades people of many different nationalities to use the same products. Millions of people around the world drink the same soft drinks, drive the same cars, wear the same clothes, and eat the same hamburgers.
In previous centuries, trade was more local, and people's tastes varied from one country to another. Imports used to bring diversity. It is ironic that today's vast internationalmarkets have resulted in a world with more homogeneous tastes.
