European+Trade+Commodities

**Amber** (Upper Paleolithic - Neolithic)
Amber was also a commodity that was traded between Europe and Asia. Amber is a hard translucent yellow, orange, or brownish-yellow fossil resin, used for making jewelry and other ornamental objects (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/amber). The type of amber that was being traded was called Baltic Amber. This amber is only found in Northern Europe in its dense forests. This are accounts for 80% of known amber in the world (http://archaeology.about.com/od/baterms/qt/baltic_amber.htm). Amber and Baltic amber have been used in Europe beginning in the early Upper Paleolithic, although no evidence for widespread trade that long ago has been discovered. Amber was recovered from the Gravettian period La Garma, a cave site in the Cantabrian region of Spain; but the amber is of local derivation rather than Baltic. Many cultures have been known to have traded amber tremendously, for example, Unetice, Otomani, Wessex, Globular Amphora, and Roman Culture. Many neolithic artifacts made of amber have been found at Juodkrante and Palanga Sites in Lithuania. Historic and prehistoric raw and worked amber have also been found in Biskupin and Mycenae throughout Scandinavia, where it has been thought to have come from.

The only way to find out what ancient people traded is to look at artifacts of the world's past. By doing research on the web I have found an article about European trade during the Bronze Age. Underwater archaeologists discovered a sunken trade ship off the coast of Salcombe in Devon. After conducting the field research on this 3,000 year old vessel, archaeologists concluded that European trade was thriving during the bronze age. The ship was destined for Britain with a nice load of two hundred and fifty nine copper ingots, a bronze sword, and three wrist bracelets known as 'torcs'. The copper and tin found aboard this vessel would have been used to make bronze weapons, tools, ornaments, jewelry, and other object. Archaeologists believe that the copper and tin were being imported into Britain and originated in a number of different European countries (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/archeology/7228108/Bronze-Age-shipwreck-found-off-Devon-coast.html). Archaeologists also think that the copper would have come from Iberian peninsula, Alpine Europe, and possibly other locations in France.

Dr. Stuart Needham, a bronze age archaeologist, had this to say about the wreck, "Everyone knows that man has been walking around on land since time immemorial, but I think people now will be surprised to know how much they were plying the seaways at this time, up and down the Atlantic seaboard and across the Channel".

Silk (1 AD)

Silk was the most guarded secret in Chinese history. No one in the west had known that silk existed until it arrived in Rome at about 1 AD. Silk is a fine lustrous fiber composed mainly of fibroin and produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons, especially the strong, elastic, fibrous secretion of silkworms used to make thread and fabric (http://www.answers.com/topic/silk).

Medieval European Trade Commodities


During the middle ages European trade expanded gradually. This happened because merchants formed associations to keep travelers safe while they traveled abroad. The Italians and the Germans were well know for promoting and financing trade throughout the middle ages. They were capable of this because these countries straddled the trade routes, meaning they were right in the middle of the trade routes.

Mostly every country in medieval Europe were either exporting items, trading items, or offering items for money.The countries that frequently trade with one another were located on the eastern and western side Europe. The east side traded luxurious goods like spices, jewelry, and textiles for western processed goods and raw materials. Salt was a major export in northern Europe for two major reasons, it provided taste for the food, and it was the only way for preserving food for long distance travel. In the long run, salt was king in the middle ages (http://www.suite101.com/content/hanseatic-league-a49026). The Baltics were well known for trading their abundance of raw materials. These included timber, tar, furs, and skins. Eastern Europe traded their luxurious goods consisting of spices, jewelry, and textiles with western Europe for their raw materials and processed goods.

The Medieval navigators imported spices, groceries, linen, Egyptian paper, pearls, perfumes, and a thousand other rare and choice articles. In exchange they offered chiefly the precious metals in bars rather than coined, and it is probable that at this period they also exported iron, wines, oil, and wax. England prospered during the Middle Ages due to the commerce and trade in the wool which was brought from England (http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/middle-ages-trade-commerce.htm).

__The spice trade__
After the first crusade, which lasted one year from 1096-1097spices were introduced to Europe from the middle east. Once people tried the spices they loved them. Europe found a new import that the people loved and it has never stopped flowing into Europe after that. Spices became a way for wealthy people to show off their social status. Every rich person had spices in their house. Once this 'spice boom' struck it began being traded north, south, east, and west.

During the early modern European times (15th and 16th century), European trade was in full effect. The ongoing warships that sailed the seas made it easy to import trade goods from different parts of the world. Now that it was cheaper grain was imported in bulk from the Baltic and exported to the Netherlands and other parts of Europe. The discovery of America gave way to a new trading products such as tobacco and log-wood. As the Spanish exploited the gold and silver deposits of Mexico and Peru it made Europe be able to have a commodity precious metal which was in high demand by the people. With the Asian shipping trade captured, Europe was now able to transfer Japanese copper to China and India, India cotton textiles to southern Asia, and Persian carpets to India.

Modern Europe operates on three categories of trade. Agriculture, fisheries, and industrial goods. I am going to elaborate on each of these four categories to give the reader an understanding on how well they operate with each commodity.

__Agricultural Trade__
Europe's agricultural trade is always in demand. Europe imports mostly basic agricultural commodities and exports high quality farm products and other processed agricultural products. The agricultural commodities that Europe trades with the world are put into two groups, raw materials and processed materials. The raw commodities that Europe trades are fruits, vegetables, cotton, tobacco, oilseeds and oils, other raw products, livestock, cereals, sugar, and dairy. The processed commodities that Europe trades are cigarettes, soft drink fruit juices, wine vermouth, alcoholic beverages, and food preparations.

__Fisheries__
Europe is mostly dependent on the import of fish from large markets that are mostly found in Japan. Modern Europe imports ten different kinds of fish. The different kinds of fish that are imported are fresh, chilled or frozen pacific salmon, frozen shrimps, prepared or preserved tuna or skipjack, frozen fillets of Alaskan pollack, frozen fillets of freshwater fish, frozen prawns, frozen fillets of cod, and frozen octopus. Europe gets all of these different kinds of fish from different places. Below is a table that illustrates where the fish come from.

Europe also exports fish and fishery products. These products range from bluefin tuna, flours, meals and pellets of fish, saltwater fish, and frozen mackerel.The graph below illustrates where these commodities were exported to.
 * Pacific Salmon || Norway, Faroe Islands ||
 * Shrimps || Ecuador, Argentina, India Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Madagascar, Columbia, Venezuela ||
 * Canned Tuna || Ecuador, Seychelles, Mauritius, Thailand, Philippines, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Madagascar, Papau New Guinea, Columbia ||


 * Bluefin Tuna || Japan, Panama, US, Korea ||
 * Flours, Meals, and Pellets of Fish || Norway, Russia, Taiwan, Nigeria, South Korea, Belarus, Iran, Japan, Switzerland, Siberia ||
 * Fresh Salt Water Fish || US, Switzerland, Albania, Russia, Andorra, Tunisia, Canada, Croatia, United Arab Emirates ||

__Industrial Sector__
Europe's industrial sector is very large and very technologically advanced. This sector contains automotives, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, civil aviation, steel, electronics, textiles and footwear, machinery, and non ferrous metals.

__Automotives__
Europe is a leader in the global automotive market, with integrated automobile operations that combine research, design, development, production and sales. Europe is a leader in the global automotive market. Europe exports cars, buses, trucks, components, and automobile parts to China, the middle east, Japan, South Korea, India, and Turkey. The biggest market for European automotive exports are USA, China, Switzerland, Russia, and Turkey.

__Pharmaceuticals__
One of Europe's best performing sectors is pharmaceuticals. The EU is the second global manufacturing location for pharmaceuticals behind the US and ahead of Japan. This industry is also the 5th largest sector in the European Union. Europe exports its pharmaceuticals all across the globe, for example, Switzerland, japan, Russia, Canada, and the US.

__Chemicals__
Europe is the world's most important chemical producer. The continent accounts for 30% of the worlds production of chemicals and trades more than 40% of its chemicals with countries like US, Canada, Switzerland, China, Japan, and India.

__Civil Aviation__
Civil aviation takes part in European trade in a small way. Europe exports medium air crafts, small civil aircraft, helicopters and aero-engines, as well as parts and components to USA, China, India, Brazil. Europe was the second largest civil aircraft producer after the United States.Europe is dominated by the production of large civil aircraft, an aircraft designed to carry more than 100 passengers and relies heavily on external suppliers.

__Steel__
Steel is the number one used metal in the entire world. Including the world as a whole, Europe is the second largest exporter of steel. In 2009 Europe produced 139 million pounds of crude steel to be exported to Turkey, Algeria, USA, Switzerland, India.

__Electronics__
This sector of European trade is dominated by imports from US and Japan. These two countries account for half of Europe's imports of electronics. The EU imports products, from the US and Japan, like electronic components, especially semiconductors and integrated circuits, personal computers, digital mobile phones, and automobile electronics. the EU is also a big importer and exporter of computer and office equipment, including hardware, peripherals and software as well as consumer electronics.

__Textiles and Footwear__
Textiles and footwear are the world's most traded goods. Europe is the world's second largest exporter of textiles and footwear. Some of the countries that Europe exports to are Switzerland, Russia, USA, Turkey and Tunisia.

__Non-ferrous metal__
Non-ferrous metals are put in two categories; common metals and precious metals. The common metals that Europe imports and exports are aluminum, copper, zinc, lead, and nickel. The precious metals that Europe imports and exports are gold, silver, platinum, and palladium.

Conclusion
Europe has come a far with with importing and exporting commodities with different civilizations, cities, states, countries, and continents. From commodities starting out with bronze and then going to raw materials, textiles, and spices, to finally ending in technological goods like industrial materials, medications, and electronic goods. Europe has really dominated the trade business in the world. Europe was listed as the top exporter and importer of commodities in 2008 (http://www.photius.com/rankings/economy/exports_2010_0.html).