Pre-modern global trade

Classical southern Odoneru Ocean trade network

Further information: Adonerum § Economy

The Adonerii cities were primarily fueled by mercantile activity and Odoneru Ocean commerce, establishing extensive trade networks that stretched from Vallos to Ultmar. The Adonerii civilization at its peak was not especially involved in natural resource extraction, instead relying on native trade partners in places where it colonized to provide those materials to the trading network. Urceopolis, as an example, entered prominence as a central trading point where Gaelic tribes provided raw materials to the Adonerii in exchange for foreign goods and coins. The furthest flung colonies of the Adonerii, then, served as "extraction points", where the goods of locals could enter the ancient Occidental world without need for large sprawling empires or the need for large groups of slaves, which many Adonerii successor states would later employ.

Vandarch trade network

The Vandarch Sea acted as a preferable alternative route to sailing along the western coast of Levantia due to the often deadly Kilikas Storm Belt. The Sea connected to the Odoneru through Dericania and terminated in modern Urceopolis, while sheltered ports in Penthrav connected the Coscivian world to the Occident. Trade along the east-west Vandarch route began in earnest after the conqquest of the Fenni peoples by Gaelic invaders, and typically stopped at various points along the coast before filtering out of the Vandarch region or proliferated along rivers inland. Additionally, this trade route was the de facto sink for Gaelic trade with Gothica, and a north-south route to Saelin and the northeastern coast of Levantia by way of the Torr and Deir Rivers and a short overland route branched out beginning after the Gallian Wars.

Sea of Istroya trade network

Further information: Ancient Istroyan civilization

The main participants in Sea of Istroya commerce were the class of Ancient Istroyan traders known as emporoi (ἕμποροι). The Ancient Istroyan states collected a duty on their cargo, typically at 1% or higher. By the end of the 5th century, the tax had been raised to 33 talents in more high-use ports. The growth of trade in Ancient Istroya led to the development of financial techniques. Most merchants, lacking sufficient cash assets, resorted to borrowing to finance all or part of their expeditions. A typical loan for a large venture in 4th century BC, was generally a large sum of cash (usually less than 2,000 drachmas), lent for a short time (the length of the voyage, a matter of several weeks or months), at a high rate of interest (often 12% but reaching levels as high as 100%). The terms of the contract were always laid out in writing, differing from loans between friends (eranoi). The lender bore all the risks of the journey, in exchange for which the borrower committed his cargo and his entire fleet, which were precautionarily seized upon their arrival at the port the loan was offered. Trade in Ancient Istroya was typically free. One of the main drivers of trade in Ancient Greece was colonization in western Audonia, the Daria and Al'qarra regions in particular, and southeastern Levantia, in modern day Burgundie. As larger city states set up colonies, there would be trade between the founding city and its colony. Furthermore, differing climates between cities and their respective colonies created comparative advantages in goods. Larger city states often exported more value added goods, such as olive oil, back out to colonies. The number of shipwrecks found in the Sea of Istroya provides valuable evidence of the development of trade in the ancient world. Only two shipwrecks were found that dated from the 8th century BC. However, archaeologists have found forty-six shipwrecks dated from the 4th century BC, which would appear to indicate that there occurred a very large increase in the volume of trade between these centuries. Considering that the average ship tonnage also increased in the same period, the total volume of trade increased probably by a factor of 30.

Oduniyyad Caliphate

Further information: Oduniyyad_Caliphate § Trade_Empire

As the Oduniyyad_Caliphate expanded over the sea

Crusades

Further information: Crusades § Sea_of_Istroya_trade_network

Vilauristre Conference

Further information: Vilauristre Conference

The Vilauristre Conference was a prominent maritime confederation within the Holy Levantine Empire from 1175 until 1595. In its heyday, the Conference played a significant role in shaping the region's political, economic, and cultural landscape, especially as a major conduit of the Crusades. The Conference united a network of coastal cities, fostering trade, promoting mutual defense, and exerting considerable influence over the Seas ofIstroya, the Canete, Urlazio, and the Founders Sea. It is often considered the formal end of the Ancient Istroyan domination of the Sea of Istroya trade network and the start of the Latino-Oduniyyad domination of the Istroya. At its zenith, the Vilauristre Conference controlled many vital trade routes between the Holy Levantine Empire and the Third Caphiric Imperium, maintained a formidable fleet, and established diplomatic relations on behalf of the Holy Levantine Empire in Audonia, Levantia, and Sarpedon. Its member cities prospered through transoceanic trade and the protection afforded by the Conference's naval might. Over time, the Conference's influence extended beyond Maritime Dericania as it participated in the Crusades, limited colonization, and engaged in maritime exploration. However, the 16th century brought a period of religious turmoil to the Holy Levantine Empire, culminating in the Great Confessional War. The Vilauristre Conference, by this point predominantly Protestant, found itself aligned with the Protestant League against the Catholic Holy League. This conflict ultimately led to the downfall of the Conference, as it was crushed by the superior forces of the Holy League, its last bastions collapsing to the Dragonnades in 1595.

Great Plague

Further information: Great Plague

The Great Plague, also known as the Vilauristrean Scourge or the Audonian Plague, was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people in the Occidental and Audonian world, peaking in Levantia from 1347 to 1351. The bacterium Yersinia pestis, which results in several forms of plague (septicemic, pneumonic, and the most common, bubonic), is believed to have been the cause. The plague created a number of religious, social, and economic upheavals with profound effects on the course of history. The Great Plague is thought to have originated in the dry plains of central Dolong, in Audonia, where it traveled along the Silk Road, reaching the Oduniyyad Caliphate by 1336. From there, it was most likely carried by fleas living on the black rats that traveled on all Caliphal and Vilauristre Conference merchant ships, spreading throughout the Istroyan, Caneten, and Odoneri basins. From there, it spread to the interiors of Levantia and Sarpedon. It resulted in an approximately 20-year cessation of trade on the Sea of Istroya.

Maritime Dericanian domination

Further information: Maritime Dericania

1585-1815

Cotton and textile trade

Primarily in Daria in Audonia. Cotton, pulse, flax, and linen grown in the central part of the region was turned into valuable textiles on the southern coast of the Aab-e-Farus and then traded along the Silk road.

Spice trade

Archeological records indicate that people from the Neolithic era traded in spices, obsidian, sea shells, gemstones and other high-value materials as early as the 10th millennium BC. This spice trade was associated with overland routes early on, but maritime routes proved to be the factor which helped the trade grow, especially in what is today the Middle seas region. The first true maritime spice trade network in the Audonia was by the Austronesian peoples of the islands in the Ocean of Cathay. They established trade routes with modern Daxia and Yanuban as early as 1500 BC, ushering an exchange of material culture (like catamarans, outrigger boats, lashed-lug and sewn-plank boats, and paan) and cultigens (like coconuts, sandalwood, bananas, and sugarcane), as well as connecting the material cultures of Daxia and peoples of Daria. Oyashimanes in particular were trading in spices (mainly cinnamon and cassia) with coastal settlements in Al'qarra using catamaran and outrigger boats and sailing with the help of the westerlies in the Sea of Capelan. This trade network expanded to reach as far as the Aab-e-Farus and the Ancient Istroyan civilization. It continued into historic times, later becoming the Maritime Silk Road. In the first millennium BC the Arabs, Persians, and Arunids were also engaged in sea and land trade in luxury goods such as spices, gold, precious stones, leather of exotic animals, ebony and pearls. The sea trade was in the Aab-e-Farus and the Sea of Kandahar. Luxury goods including spices, ebony, silk and fine textiles were traded along the overland incense route. Spices are discussed in biblical narratives, and there is literary evidence for their use in ancient Istroyan, Adonerum, and Great Levantine society. The trade in spices lessened after the fall of Great Levantia, but demand for ginger, black pepper, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg revived the trade in later centuries.

Myanga Ayil Khanate's role in the spice trade

Further information: Myanga Ayil Khanate § economy, and Kandara § Myanga_Ayil_Khanate

Oyashi spices brought through eastern Kandara, down the lakes and rivers to the Mbukese Bay and then through the Aab-e-Farus.

Oduniyyad Caliphate's role in the spice trade

Further information: Oduniyyad_Caliphate § Trade_Empire

Under the Oduniyyad Caliphate the spice trade flourished and many spices were introduced to Sarpedon. Additionally, the spices of Sarpedon were exchanged across the Caliphate's holdings in Audonia and traded with the Daxians for silk, porcelain, and later, gunpowder. Taxation on the spice trade and Silk Road were an essential element of the economy of the Caliphate, especially after its expansion faltered and the Crusades began to be more costly over time.

Occidental involvement in the spice trade

The trade was changed by the Crusades and later the Occidental Age of Discovery, during which the spice trade, particularly in black pepper, became an influential activity for Occidental traders. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, the Maritime Dericania monopolized the trade between Levantia and Audonia. The Prevailing Winds Route, travelling north up the southerneastern coast of Levantia to the Orenstine Peninsula, catching the westerlies from Levantia to Audonia, then catching the trade winds back to Levantia, was pioneered by the Burgoignesc explorer-navigator Samuel-Emmanuel Brouage de Capelan in the late 1510s, resulting in new maritime routes for trade. This trade, which drove world trade from the end of the Middle Ages well into the Renaissance, ushered in an age of Occidental domination in Audonia. Channels such as the Middle seas region served as bridges for cultural and commercial exchanges between diverse cultures as nations struggled to gain control of the trade along the many spice routes. In 1628, the Daxians opened the first trans-Polynesian route between itself and the Caphirian Province of Pelaxia.

Salt trade

Salt mined or harvested from modern day Alcairet, Bulkh, Umardwal, and Kandara were traded most prolifically by the Arunid, Oduniyyad, and Burgoignesc empires along the Silk Road and through the Sea of Istroya Trade Network.

Silk Road

Rough sketch of the Silk Road

The Silk Road was a network of Audonian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-19th century. It played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the East and West. The name "Silk Road", was first coined in the late 17th century, by a Daxian historian who was chronicling the history of the Qian empire. His book was published in some of the Burgoignesc colonies in South Eastern Audonia and soon the term Silk Road became ubiquitous.

The Southern Route

Further information: The Southern Route

Pre-modern slave trade

Myanga Ayil Khanate chattel network

Further information: Myanga Ayil Khanate § Economy

Oduniyyad chattel network

Further information: Oduniyyad_Caliphate § Trade_Empire

Throughout its entire existence, 624–1517, the Oduniyyad Caliphate engaged in all forms of slavery. Chattel slave trading was primarily conducted within the confines of the empire but it was, at certain points in Daxian history, a vital commodity in the Silk Road trade. Historians estimate that over the almost 900 year reign of the Caliphate, approximately 75 million people were enslaved, primarily for military and government services, around 25 million of them were transported as chattel slaves across the Sea of Istroya, in both directions, meeting the criteria for global trade statistics.

Cathay slave trade

Further information: Southern slave trade

The Southern slave trade also called the Cathay slave routes refers to the capture and enslavement of people mainly from the regions of Crona, Peratra and Audonia and their transportation across the vastness of the Ocean of Cathay to Sarpedon. The trade was regulated by the Qian dynasty and the main participants and executors of it were the South Seas Trading Company and other large Daxian slave cartels.

Bergendii chattel network

Further information: Burgoignesc colonial empire

For around 250 years, 1577-1832, Bergendii slavers took over the existing chattel networks as the Oduniyyad Caliphate collapsed. They used their pharisedoms as slaving hubs and as slave markets and enslaved around 10 million people of Audonian origin, often referred to as Ebidi, and transported them all over the world in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th century.

Other trans-oceanic trade routes

Bourgondi/Martillien-Canespa trade

Further information: Veraise_colony, Medimeria § Initial_settlement, and Canespa-Burgoignesc_relations

Burgundie and Canespa have maintained formal relations since the early 1700s when merchant explorers from the Veraise colony came in contact with coastal settlements in Canespa.

During that time, the Veraise colony traded with Canespa for food stuffs and potatoes, a stable food staple that transported well. They were later joined by merchants from the Duchy of Bourgondi via their Medimeria colony who transported food back to Levantia.

Tobacco trade

Further information: Veraise colony

Tea trade

Further information: Tea belt

Maritime Dericanian tea empire

Tea was almost exclusively traded within Audonia until the advent of the Burgoignesc colonial empire. Tea, salt, slaves, and spices were the backbone on which the Burgoignesc colonial empire was built. Massive tea latifundii were formed under the patroonship system of the Dericanian colonizers and the existing tea forms were formed under loyal tea estate holders. Tea production in Daria is historically estimated to be have 350 tonnes a year in 1586, but by 1646 in the Burgoignesc colonies alone production was recorded to 1.3 million tonnes a year. The various Maritime Dericanian states then used their trade networks to export that tea all over the world, creating tea markets on every continent. Most countries outside of Audonia and western Sarpedon (including Vallos were introduced to or became dependent on tea via the trading companies of Maritime Dericania.

Great Trade League of the Vandarch

The Great Trade League of the Vandarch, known more commonly as the Wandarker Bund.