Chapter Chapter Two: Trade
You may collect game or sports cards. Maybe you collect coins from far-away places. A friend may have a duplicate of something you collect but do not have. If you’re a bully and big enough you might take one of your friend’s cards or coins – not a good idea. You would lose a friend. Your former friend may call on someone bigger than you to take them back. Everyone would be affected by bad behavior, and no one would remain happy. There is a better way. You might have something your friend wants, and you can trade. An exchange of goods might bring each something wanted. You can trade, swapping goods. If you don’t have anything the other wants you can exchange services. Your friend may want money. If you want to pay what he asks, then the coin or card is yours. You may have done this. Exchanges like these are the basis of trade. For centuries, most people got what they want by exchanging goods and services.
Money
Even if they buy and sell for money, it’s not the money that people want but what they can buy with it. Money is a medium of trade. Explore the dictionary or other resource to discover what this means. Without its use
…show more content…
Because Marco’s adventures appeared in a popular book, his travels are best known, but others from the West had already been to the Orient. William of Rubruck, a French Catholic priest, made the journey in 1255, leaving us a record of his adventures much more reliable than Marco Polo’s stories. Marco was fond of tall tales, but William was a careful observer. William de Rubruck found Europeans living in China and the Mongolian lands, most of whom were brought there as prisoners taken when the Mongols invaded Europe (1235-1241). He heard of Germans made to work in mines and he met a Hungarian who was a servant. Some of these prisoners escaped, living as bandits or trying to make their way home. Rubruck wrote of this,