Asian+Transitions+in+an+Age+of+Global+Change

The Asian Trading World and the Coming of the Europeans: MI: Trading Empire: The Portugese Response to the Eoncounter at Calicut MI:
 * Asia made up only a small segment of a larger network of commercial exchange and cultural interaction. This trading system stretched thousands of miles from the Middle East and Africa all along the coasts of the giant Asian continent. Both the products exchanged in this network and the main routes that had followed those who sailed it had been established for centuries.
 * The Asian sea trading network can be broken down into three main zones, each of which was focused on major centers of handicraft manufacture. In the west was an Arab zone anchored on the glass, carpets, and tapestries of the Arab heartlands at the head of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. India, with its superb cotton textiles, dominated the central portians of the system. China which excelled in producing paper, porecelin, and silk textiles, formed the eastern pole.
 * Of the raw materials circulating the system, the broadest demand and the highest prices were paid for spices which came mainly from Ceylon and the islands at the Indonesian archiepalgo. Long-distance trade was largely in high priced commodities such as spices, ivory from Africa, and precious stones. But silk and cotton textiles were also traded over long distances. Bulk items such as rice, livestock, and timber normally were exchanged between the ports within each of the main trading zones.
 * Since ancient times, monsoon winds and the nature of the ships and navigational instruments available to sailors had dictated the main trade routes in the Asian trading network. Much navigation was of the coasting variety, sailing around the shoreline and charting distances and location with reference to towns and natural landmarks.
 * The Arabs and teh Chinese who had compasses and large well-built ships could cross large expanses of open water such as teh Arabian and South China seas. But even they preferred established coastal routes eather than the uncharted wild open seas.
 * Two general characteristics of the trading system at the time of the Portugese arrival were critical to European attempts to regulate and dominate it. First, there was no central control. Second military force was usually absent from commercial exchanges within it.
 * Although Arab sailors and merchants were found in ports throughout most of the network, they had some sense of common cause. They sailed and traded to provide for a livelihood and to male profits for the princes and merchants who financed the expeditions. The same was true for the Chinese, southeast Asian, and Indian merchants and sailors who were concentrated on certain aspects of the trading network.
 * Trading vessels were lightly armed for protection against attacks by pirates.