Global trade defined in eight everyday items (2024)

The earliest traces of wine come from Georgia, where it was made and stored in large earthenware pots buried in the ground to stay cool. But to trade wine, it had to be transported. In the Bronze Age, wine was first carried in amphorae – large, bulbous pottery vases with handles near the neck, lined with wax.

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From around 3500-2500 BC, there was a lively trade in amber from the Baltic coast in northern Europe to southern Europe. Amber – tree sap left over from prehistoric forests, often with trapped insects or plant matter inside – was plentiful in the Baltic but highly prized for decorative purposes further south along the Mediterranean and Adriatic coasts where there was little to none. The demand for these stones grew so high that it led to forgeries as early as 2000 BC.

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Often seen as one of the first truly global trade routes, the Silk Road – actually a network of roads – ran from China to Rome. It began when Chinese silk merchants sought to exchange their valuable wares for the large and powerful horses of Central Asia. The road’s heyday ended around the 15th Century AD, as traders from the west found faster routes via sea to the east, cutting out the Central Asian traders.

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Glass beads were made for many millennia in Africa, but became commonly used in international trade throughout the Islamic period. The beads were a form of currency, and also prized for their beauty. As glassblowing technologies were developed in present-day Syria in the 1st Century BC, glass objects became more prevalent in daily life.

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Across cultures, a ravenous demand for salt – for use in food and in traditional medicine – has driven long-distance trade for millennia. Several trade routes for salt evolved during the late Roman Empire and throughout the Middle Ages, from the Via Salaria in Italy to the Old Salt Road in Germany. In 5th Century Ghana routes unfurled across the Sahara Desert, to trade salt – abundant in north-west Africa, including present-day Morocco – with gold from nations to the south such as Ghana.

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In Medieval west Africa, the other half of the salt trade was gold. In what is now Ghana and Mali, gold was abundant in soils and rivers. Annual caravans transported gold by camel across the desert. Some traders still make the same gruelling journey today. The trade in gold across the Sahara saw relatively small quantities arriving in the north at any one time. When the 14th Century emperor Mūsā I of Mali travelled to Cairo in Egypt with a tonne of gold, he famously overwhelmed the market.

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Camellia sinensis – the tea plant – thrives throughout China, India and Sri Lanka, to name a few. A Chinese legend has it that prehistoric ruler of China, Shennong, was sitting beneath a tree when its leaves fell into his kettle. He drank the infusion and discovered its mind-clarifying properties. In the 9th Century, tea became firmly rooted beyond China, when it was adopted in Japan as a drink for monks and the elite classes. Later, around the 17th Century, the drink became popular in Europe.

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The orange is originally native not to the groves of Florida, but the foothills of the Himalayas. It was brought further afield to the Mediterranean around the 15th Century, most likely by Italian or Portuguese travellers. Along with other citrus fruits it played an important role as global trade expanded, helping ships’ crews to stave off scurvy. Sailors planted citrus trees along the coasts of their voyage routes, aiding in the trade and spread of oranges around the world.

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Coffee cultivation began in earnest around the 15th Century. Since then it has sparked a series of social revolutions, from the European coffee houses of the 17th Century, to Italy’s timeless espresso bar culture, to today’s cult shops from London to Shanghai.

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Since antiquity, we have harnessed wind for power – not least sailing ships, pumping water and grinding grain. But the first turbines to harness wind power for electricity were invented in the 19th Century, developed by inventors in the US and Scotland in 1887. Today, more than 515 Gigawatts of power comes from wind globally, making up 4% of the world’s electricity supply.

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Queen Elizabeth I received a wristwatch in the 16th Century as a gift, but they were slow to catch on more widely. They became popular in times of war, when military manoeuvres had to be planned and coordinated with precision. In the mid-19th Century, the Swiss were dominating the market for timepieces, predominantly pocketwatches. Watches finally took over the mass market in the early 20th Century, after soldiers returning from the First World War helped make them fashionable.

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