To see the trade routes, follow the money.
No community, in the past or now, was totally self-sufficient, and money enabled individuals to communicate with other communities. In reaction to unique social and political contexts, people used various forms of currency to mobilise resources, decrease risks, and develop alliances and friendships.?
The abundant and near-universal evidence of exotic commodities transportation across varied locations inhabited by people who were independent of one another – from hunter-gatherers to pastoralists, farmers, and city dwellers – demonstrates the importance of currency as a unifying force. It’s as if there was a universal language that everyone could understand.
For example, the effective global trade, Americans from the Early Formative Period, which lasted from 1450 to 500 B.C., utilised obsidian, mother-of-pearl shell, iron ore, and two types of pottery as currency to trade across the Americas. Between 700 and 1450 A.D., the Maritime Silk Road commerce joined Europeans, Asians, and Africans in a worldwide trade that was both revolutionary and essential.
In 2012, a person found a 600-year-old Chinese Yongle Tongbao coin at the ancient Kenyan trade port Manda in the Indian Ocean during his own excavation efforts. Chinese coins were little copper and silver disks with a hole in the centre, allowing them to be worn on a belt. Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty minted this coin.