In the 1st-2nd centuries AD, with the discovery of the indian ocean monsoon law, the spread of shipbuilding technology in the Mediterranean world along the Egyptian Red Sea coast, the improvement of transportation between the Egyptian Red Sea ports and the Nile, and the expansion of the eastern commodity consumption market, the Roman Empire's ocean-going maritime trade in the East developed rapidly.
Around the 2nd century AD, participants in the coastal trade took various measures to seek advantage and avoid harm. Merchant ships sailing in Rome and the Near East and even India were loaded with a wide variety of valuable goods, and shipping merchants were very profitable.
Maritime trade routes from the time of the Roman Empire
With the advent of the "Roman Peace", the increase in consumption, the promotion of political competition and the prevalence of extravagance in the middle and late period of the empire, the demand for Oriental products increased unabated, and the oriental maritime trade became increasingly prominent in the Roman economy.
At the height of the Roman Empire, eastern trade was larger and more complex in operation than scholars generally emphasized, and occupied a pivotal position in the imperial economy.
Although Western European scholars after the Middle Ages failed to notice the importance of the Roman Empire's "Eastern Trade", Eastern Trade, as an important part of the economic history of the Empire, was despised by Roman historians such as Edward Gibbon. However, after modern times, with the gradual attention of the academic circles to ancient trade and shipping, the proposition of ancient Roman oriental trade has been put back on the foreground, as a typical example of the interaction and interaction of ancient civilizations along the "Maritime Silk Road", and has become one of the attention points of the academic community.
Roman Imperial port
As an important stronghold and granary of the Roman Empire in the eastern Mediterranean world, Egypt began to trade with the core areas of the Roman Empire during the Ptolemaic Dynasty. Moreover, as a transit point in the Mediterranean-Red Sea-Indian Ocean, Egypt played an important role in the imperial trade in the East.
Trade with the subcontinent probably did not predate the late Ptolemaic era. But egypt alone could not support the huge demand for imperial trade. After the 2nd century, the activity of the Indian Ocean-Red Sea route became a key node in Eastern trade.
Mediterranean-Red Sea-Arabian Sea-Indian Ocean route
This ancient ocean route relied on the advances in navigation technology of the time. The first is the discovery of monsoon laws in the Indian Ocean. The Indian Ocean monsoon refers to the northeast monsoon that blows every winter in the Arabian Sea and the west coast of the Indian Ocean and the southwest monsoon that prevails in summer. The use of the monsoon for maritime activities has linked the Mediterranean-Red Sea route with the original North Indian Ocean route and become a direct route.
Second, with the "Hellenization" and roman conquest, Phoenician and Greek shipbuilding technology spread to the Red Sea region, bringing here new ships strong enough to be able to handle direct ocean voyages. The Roman conquest also brought infrastructure, such as the development and facilities of the port, and the "Roman road" that connected the area to the Imperial Mediterranean trade network.
Ruins of ancient Roman roads
As a result, under the long -term "Roman Peace", economic trade was able to develop freely, and trading ships in the Indian Ocean were able to sail westward, bringing a wide range of rare goods to the empire.
The fertile Indian subcontinent provided the empire with unimaginable supplies and goods. In the mid-to-late 2nd century, the Roman jurist Elius Marcianous compiled a legal document known as the "Port alexandria Tariff List", listing as many as 54 kinds of goods; the vast majority came from the Far East, including spices, gemstones, fabrics produced in India, and silk and silk products from China.
It is worth noting that the oriental trade did not bring about luxury jewelry exactly as previously envisaged, for the Roman upper class to meet the needs of luxury life, but mainly to meet people's needs and improve the quality of life of the medium and high-end goods.
Ancient Roman nobility
In recent years, scholars have recognized that the products shipped from the East, especially spices and some agricultural products, such as gansong and pepper, are indispensable in the life of ancient Mediterranean society because of their religious, seasoning or medicinal value, far from being linked to extravagant luxuries and luxuries, and play a pivotal role in the daily life of Mediterranean residents.
In addition, for a long time, the academic community has held a derogatory and downplayed attitude towards the maritime commercial trade in the agricultural era, especially the luxury jewelry trade. But during the centuries-long "Peace of Rome," the city of Rome, with its large population, and large cities such as Alexandria and Antiochus, were also in their prime. Cities with large accumulations of wealth and wealthy people inevitably bring strong spending power and demand.
The extravagant life of the upper class in ancient Rome
Caligula's wife, Kassania, was worth up to 40 million Cervantes in jewelry. In this case, the importance of eastern trade is self-evident. What's more, according to port documents, papyrus and other records, the tariffs levied by the Empire on trading ships were a huge number, bringing huge revenues to the Empire.
The Roman army marched to fight
Although the maritime trade in the agricultural era has not been able to occupy an absolute dominant position, the eastern trade of the ancient Roman Empire has indeed become an important product and pillar of imperial peace, not only linking the two economic circles of the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean, creating a prosperous maritime era, but also leaving a considerable maritime development heritage and experience for future generations.
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