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Transcontinental Trade and Economic Growth

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Transcontinental Trade and Economic Growth M. SHATZMILLER: TRANSCONTINENTAL TRADE AND ECONOMIC GROWTH Transcontinental Trade and Economic Growth in the Early Islamic Empire: The Red Sea Corridor in the 8th-10th Centuries Maya Shatzmiller The question of why and how sustained economic growth the long term, it surely qualifies as a ‘trend’ or a ‘cycle’ occurs in historical societies is most frequently studied in in historical economic growth.7 Several long-term fac- relation to the European model, otherwise known as the tors brought about a series of changes in the key econom- ‘Rise of the West’, the only model to have been studied ic components of the empire: an increase in monetary in detail so far.1 The debate continues over why western supply and circulation; the development and elaboration Europe forged ahead and remained so consistently, while of state fiscal institutions with an efficient system of tax other societies, including eastern Europe, were unable to collection; the creation of legal institutions to uphold stage their own ‘rise’ through intensive growth, maintain property rights; demographic growth resulting from both it consistently once it occurred, or indeed successfully internal population growth and the importing of slaves; emulate the European model. On the other hand, there is a increased output in the manufacturing sector as a result mounting feeling of dissatisfaction with the notion of ex- of increased division of labour; and finally, an increased clusiveness and uniqueness which accompanies the debate volume of trade, efficient markets, commercial techniques about ‘The Rise of the West/Europe’.2 Those who study and development of credit tools. It is the trade component non-Western societies suggest that alternative interpreta- that will concern us here, since it presents us with an ele- tions and comparative studies of economic growth do exist ment that is variable in a comparative context – the ele- and should be looked at, rather than simply accepting the ment being the role of intercontinental trade in economic European model at its face value. Such calls for the study growth.8 of “… causes of economic progress whenever and wher- ever it has occurred…” are made, most frequently, in the A short introduction and a definition of Islamic trade in the pages of the Journal of the Economic and Social History period from the 8th to the 10th centuries, is necessary first.9 of the Orient.3 To date, no Islamic example has been sug- The definition of Islamic trade in this paper is compre- gested for study in the context of economic growth, prob- hensive; it includes both international and inter-regional ably because, unlike Asian economies, which are currently movement of goods by Muslims and non-Muslims to and a site of economic growth, contemporary Islamic societies from lands under Islamic rule and the use of maritime and do not inspire such images.4 John Hall summed it up: overland routes. Although the political unit considered in “The cyclical [nature of the] state in Islam was unstable, this paper is that of an empire, regional economies also and this affected the economy in two ways. It was arbi- play an important role. In terms of institutional arrange- trary and predatory enough to interfere directly in the ments, there is no difference between an Islamic region and market, with the workings of justice and the autonomies of cities. On the other hand, government was weak. Land an Islamic empire except for scale. Both share the premise went out of circulation with a corresponding loss of tax of an ‘Islamic system’ with distinct and recognisable legal, revenue and a limitation on the number of state servants political, social and economic institutions of trade. Three it was possible to recruit.”5 chronological cycles can be observed in the history of How could the economic history of one of the world’s great- medieval Islamic trade: the 8th-10th, 11th-13th and 14th-16th est civilizations be reduced to such an abysmal record? centuries AD. Each demonstrates changes in the economic fundamentals of their political units and institutions, in the In fact, an example, or ‘case’, of Islamic economic growth global conditions affecting precious metals and transport occurred in the Abbasid Empire in the period between system, and in the sources which we use to study them. the 8th and 10th centuries AD, and this deserves our atten- Any study of the economic history of Islamic trade in tion.6 Though it proved neither robust nor sustainable in the 8th-10th centuries suffers from a serious handicap in comparison with later periods: it lacks archival documen- tation, although the Egyptian papyri and recently discov- ered legal documents from Central Asia fill in some of the 1. Most recently Acemoglu et al. 2005, an important paper on the Atlan- tic trade and its influence on institutions as an economic growth factor. 2. Among the collected studies dealing with these and related questions, see Baechler et al. 1988; Jones 1988. 3. Hence with JESHO. See Goldstone 1993: 104-119. 7. Goldstone 1993: 116. 4. In fact, the institutions affecting Islamic economic performance have 8. For comparative aspects, see McCormick 2001; Findlay & O’Rourke been singled out in recent literature as the causes impeding economic 2007: 71-73. This last work in particular highlights several historio- progress in Islamic societies. See Kuran 2003: 414-446. graphical debates that have the question of maritime commerce as their 5. Hall 1988: 29. focus. 6. The nature of these modifications and the way they occurred is the 9. See Shatzmiller 1995. For a critical review of the current views of subject of my current research project, nearing completion. Islamic trade, Shatzmiller 2007. 119 CONNECTED HINTERLANDS gaps.10 As a result we lack the numbers needed for quan- and to catalogue them, estimating Islamic mint production tification,11 depriving us of quantitative studies and analy- in the cities, and the rhythm of their diffusion along the ses based upon them. Lumping the cycles together, and overland routes.16 the general failure to link Islamic trade to the economic factors that fed it – productivity, the division of labour, Based on the finding of 1,212 hoards, minted by 273 in- demographics and manpower distribution, money and cap- dividual mints, an estimated half a million dirhams were ital – produce dubious interpretations.12 In the past, qualita- deposited in Europe. The hoards contained coins minted in tive studies of Islamic economic history were also sub- a wide range of regional mints from Morocco and Ifri- ject to methodological diversity and disagreement, with Ca- qiya, Basra, Kufa and Baghdad in Iraq, to Rayy, Isfahan, hen advocating close reliance on texts, and Lombard favor- and Sistan in Iran, and to Transoxiana, Balkh, Samarkand ing sweeping generalizations.13 On the other hand, mutual and Shash, as well as in Armenia. Most of the coins ignorance among Islamic and European economic histor- (81% of them) were retrieved from hoards outside the Is- ians of each other’s work led to ignorance of economic lamic lands, usually in Northeastern Europe, while the rest theory among the Islamists, and ignorance of Islamic came from hoards located throughout the Middle East, history among the generalists.14 The lack of econometric North Africa and Central Asia. The supply of money for applications has resulted in an image of permanency, or trade with Northeastern Europe appears to have increas- one-dimensional linear progress and a literature which is ed in each century, and the hoards were deposited in an ac- fragmentary and, in the final account, misleading. celerated rate, with each decade represented by at least one hoard, and eight of the ten by more than two.17 Islamic Silver on the Transcontinental While the earliest hoards of the 9th century (i.e. between and Maritime Routes AD 800-825) were composed of North African dirhams, The large number of Islamic silver dirhams found in hoards these disappeared from AD 825 onwards and the rest of the along the northeastern trade routes in Russia, Sweden and century was dominated by dirhams struck in Iran and Iraq, the Baltic, are a strong indication of an intensive Islamic and – most importantly, as the legends on the coins reveal trade with this part of Europe, and a conspicuous sign of an – in Central Asia and Transoxiana. That this region was abundance of specie and monetary circulation in Islamic driving the Northeastern overland trade is shown more lands and on commercial routes especially for the purpose prominently in the 10th century: the quantity of dirhams in- of trade. The Northeastern hoards have been known and creases by 75% over the previous century. All the dirhams studied intermittently over the last hundred years, but their were minted in the Samanid mints of Samarkand, Bukhara, significance for economic history has only recently became Shash and Balkh, and this was clearly a priority for the evident. Noonan, a historian of medieval Russia, initially state. The peak of dirham exports occurred in the first dec- studied the content of the hoards in terms of the origins ade of the 10th century, with a constant flow of 16,125,000 of state formation in Russia, and the role of trade in the dirhams for each decade until the AD 940s, after which founding of both Kiev and Novgorod by the Vikings, but exports declined to 10,250,000 dirhams for each decade quickly realised that the story of Islamic dirhams in North- until the AD 970s.18 Noonan suggested that 125,000,000 ern Europe was bigger than simply that of its ramifications whole dirhams, each weighing 3 g, were transported from for Russian history.15 While he was unable to translate the Central Asia to northern Europe during the course of the numismatic evidence into economic parameters, Noonan 10th century.19 Some 80% of them were struck in Central nevertheless set out to study the dirhams systematically, Asia, compared to just 70,000 dirhams that came from the Near East.
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