Although trade connects distant people and regions, bringing
cultures closer together through the exchange of material goods and
ideas, it has not always led to unity and harmony. From the era of
the Crusades to the dawn of colonialism, exploitation and violence
characterized many trading ventures, which required vessels and
convoys to overcome tremendous technological obstacles and
merchants to grapple with strange customs and manners in a foreign
environment. Yet despite all odds, experienced traders and licensed
brokers, as well as ordinary people, travelers, pilgrims,
missionaries, and interlopers across the globe, concocted ways of
bartering, securing credit, and establishing relationships with
people who did not speak their language, wore different garb, and
worshipped other gods. Religion and Trade: Cross-Cultural Exchanges
in World History, 1000-1900 focuses on trade across religious
boundaries around the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic and Indian
Oceans during the second millennium. Written by an international
team of scholars, the essays in this volume examine a wide range of
commercial exchanges, from first encounters between strangers from
different continents to everyday transactions between merchants who
lived in the same city yet belonged to diverse groups. In order to
broach the intriguing yet surprisingly neglected subject of how the
relationship between trade and religion developed historically, the
authors consider a number of interrelated questions: When and where
was religion invoked explicitly as part of commercial policies? How
did religious norms affect the everyday conduct of trade? Why did
economic imperatives, political goals, and legal institutions help
sustain commercial exchanges across religious barriers in different
times and places? When did trade between religious groups give way
to more tolerant views of "the other " and when, by contrast, did
it coexist with hostile images of those decried as "infidels "?
Exploring captivating examples from across the world and spanning
the course of the second millennium, this groundbreaking volume
sheds light on the political, economic, and juridical underpinnings
of cross-cultural trade as it emerged or developed at various times
and places, and reflects on the cultural and religious significance
of the passage of strange persons and exotic objects across the
many frontiers that separated humankind in medieval and early
modern times.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
