Global trade: Did you mean...?

Execrable Human Traffick, or The Affectionate Slaves, oil on canvas by George Morland, c. 1788. Depicted here is a scene of a man being abducted by slavers on the coast of Africa as his family watches. From the 16th to the 19th century...

Macao (Macau) is located on a peninsula in the estuary of the Pearl River delta in southeast China and it was a Portuguese colonial settlement from c. 1557 until 1999. Macao was a major trade hub of the Portuguese Empire and with its unique...

This map is derived from the book Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. It depicts trade routes in the ancient world, ports in the Chera territory and other parts of India and the trade routes connecting them to other parts of the world along with...

Map showing the flow of goods and enslaved people across the Atlantic between Europe, Africa and America in the transatlantic triangular trade which the European colonial powers operated from the 16th to the 19th centuries CE. This triangular...

Map depicting Medieval Japan and its trade relations with its neighbours, China and Korea. The map shows the major trade goods exchanged between Japan, China, and Korea. Black lines show the approximate routes taken by the Wako Pirates. Each...

The Wolof (aka Jolof or Djolof) Empire was a state on the coast of West Africa, located between the Senegal and Gambia rivers, which thrived from the mid-14th to mid-16th century CE. The empire prospered on trade thanks to the two rivers...

Did you know that the Ghana king would automatically keep any gold nugget extracted that weighed between 25 grams and half a kilo? This video is all about the lucrative gold trade of ancient and medieval West Africa. West Africa was...

A map indicating the major trans-Saharan trade routes across West Africa c. 1100-1500 CE. The darker yellow areas indicate gold fields.

The Late Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean (c. 1500–1200 BCE) was marked by an unprecedented level of diplomatic and commercial interdependence among regional powers. Great kingdoms, including New Kingdom Egypt (c. 1550–1077 BCE), the Hittite...

A trade union scroll for the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, created in January 1851. The scroll shows illustrations of important engineers and inventions during the Industrial Revolution. (Science Museum, London)