What trading was there in the tenth century?
1 Answer
The most notable trading hub in the world in the tenth century was Constantinople in the Byzantine Empire. Constantinople is located in the middle of three major old-world continents: Asia, Europe, and Africa. The Mediterranean, Marmara, and Black Seas including the Bosporous Straits allowed for this marine trade, which was the most important form of trade in the tenth century.
The location of Constantinople allowed for many trade partners in the middle east, India, Imperial China, Russia (Kiev Rus as well), and emerging European kingdoms (this union however eventually lead to the dissolution of Byzantium's political power, however never its religious rule in the regions).
Just to clarify, most of central Europe at this time was barbaric and based on individual disunified kingdoms rather than nation-states, so any inter-coastal European trade was close to impossible.
Due to Constantinople's trade advantage over the entire known world at the time, Arab peoples were able to trade with western Europe and British colonization/imperialism of these areas including SE Asia became somewhat of a national mission for Britain at the time and at later dates.
