The First Global Products
In the ancient world consumers shared similar material wants and needs, leading to the emergence of the first universal commodities. Most of these early common items like olive oil and salt were traded locally reaching their geographical zenith as they moved across neighboring regions. Others like incense and spices moved over contiguous intercontinental routes, further pushing out trade across the globe. Silk, perhaps the first global luxury product, fully united Europe and Asia and all regions in between. The commercial exchanges of these ancient consumer products acquired the roots of globalization and the principles applied in their international dealings helped form the platforms of conceptual business use today.
Ancient Commodities
Olive Oil
For thousands of years, perhaps as far back as 37,000 BCE, the inhabitants of the Mediterranean region have cultivated the olive tree and used its fruit in their daily lives. The stone mortars and presses used in the oil extraction process are part of the artifacts and archeological remains of numerous ancient societies, making this product the earliest commercial commodity in the world and qualifying it as one of the first globally marketed products.
This precious article of trade was used to light homes and for cooking and flavoring. When infused with flowers and grasses, olive produces medical ointments and cosmetics. Warriors ritually rubbed it all over their bodies while the leafy branches of the oil tree crowned the victorious. In ancient times religious ceremonies decreed that drops of it should periodically anoint the bones of dead saints and martyrs through holes in their tombs. Clay jars of the valued substance have even been found in the tomb of Tutankhamen alongside his most prized possessions that symbolized his wealth and divine status. In the land of the Hebrews, King Solomon and King David placed such great importance on their cultivation of olives that empirical guards watched over the groves and warehouses to ensure the safety of the trees and their precious oil. Many citations about olive oil are contained in the Old Testament and other holy writings. After the great flood during Noah’s time, a dove carried an olive leaf to Noah, suggesting that the waters had receded and that the land still existed. In mythical Greece, the olive was said to be a gift of Athena to the Athenians as a sign of her emblematic presence in the lives of moral men. In the 6th century BCE, Solon, the great Athenian legislator, drafted the first law protecting the olive tree including prohibition of its uncontrolled felling, a crime punishable by death or exile.
Traditional historic inquiry places the origin of olive trees in ancient Iran and Turkistan, while some scholars believe the trees grew in multiple locations as they seem to have appeared simultaneously in southern Anatolia (now Turkey), Palestine, and the Levant region (now Syria and Lebanon). Still others feel that its life-sustaining and ritual-like importance prompted its importation by adjacent cultures and introduced into other societies by merchant traders in agricultural products. The Minoans of Crete were among the first cultures to achieve prosperity based on the export trade of olive oil. Storage units with a capacity of 250,000 kg of huge pithoi-type construction have been found in the Minoan palace of Knossos. This large inventorying of the oil seems to attest to its commercial value as a trading good to be bartered and exchanged for other commodities in the neighboring lands and even distant ports in the Mediterranean Sea. Such a mammoth storage space would seem to have sustained its pivotal position as the driver of the agricultural economy of the region, as no other ancient product was awarded such revered capacity. Homer, the great poet of Greek literature, called it liquid gold, perhaps a precursor for the 20th-century term, black gold as reference to the value of oil in the modern economic society.
The grinding wheels for oil extraction were the centerpiece of settlements throughout the entire Mediterranean basin and the Middle East, often placed at the gates of a town or city indicative of their importance in the daily economic lives of the inhabitants. Archeologists continue to uncover the stone pieces of ancient olive presses, often in the vicinity of wine presses. The importance of such instruments to extract the valued oil for early world communities cannot be overstated. They were the mechanical lifeblood of the people. Ancient settlements were constructed around the olive oil presses. The surrounding community of growers, buyers, and others gathered at the gates of towns, thus creating the first commercial trading markets. The commercial transport of olive oil provided the driving force for merchant journeys to both adjacent and faraway lands, providing the impetus for the construction of seagoing ships to haul the precious cargos. Those who traded in this first global commodity were beneficiaries of wealth and power. Most of us are familiar with the tradition of awarding an olive branch to winners at the ancient athletics games, like the Olympics. A lesser-known custom of these games is that the prize awarded to the champions of the most important events, such as the Panathenaea, was large amounts of olive oil contained in special amphorae and at times exceeding a total of 5 tons. Since the winners of these athletic contests were exempted from Athenian laws prohibiting normal citizens the right to export olive oil, they were likely to become instant millionaires, as trade merchants would flock them and offer to assist in disposing their prize overseas where it was highly valued. The import-export trade of olive oil was the backbone of the world’s ancient economy, much like oil today. From 600 BCE merchants from Phoenicia, Egypt, and the southern steppes of Russia (Scythians) were drawn to replenish their stocks of olive oil at the prosperous Greek colonial trading posts of the Black Sea (today Romania). Such trading importance for the word’s then hottest commodity was the motivational force for the innovations applied to the construction of advanced ships built solely for the purpose of transporting olive oil from Greece to their trading ports around the Mediterranean. The necessity for technological advancements, like today, was driven by a commercial imperative in the ancient world.
The evolution of the modern concept of business marketing strategy based on (a) low cost, (b) differentiation, and (c) segmentation had its origin in the olive oil industry. Oil produced from groves near the ocean was considered inferior and sold in bulk at low prices while those varieties harvested from inland mountainsides were perceived as exhibiting superior characteristics and hence demand a higher price. The extracted oil had come from over 700 cultivated varieties of olives, while the numerous varied filtering processes further added to differentiations in color (from mellow yellow to jade green) and in taste (peppery, sweet and buttery nutty, grassy, or even the flavor of green apples). Its consistency can appear in a clear version or cloudy with bits of fruit left in which further denoted its marketing avenue as low cost or differentiated. The purest of oils were considered a luxury item and were targeted to a segmented group, the wealthy aristocrats who believed that it conferred strength and youth, a magical medical elixir for the body as opposed to a mere cooking ingredient or lamp fuel.
The value and quality of this prized commodity was often quoted with reference to the products geographically based quality, a precursor to today’s marketing references to the “made-in” connotation. While Greek production was considered above others due to its initial development other areas began to emerge vying for competitive consideration, chief among them Spain and later Italy. Romans during the spread of their empire did not immediately cultivate olive oil in Italy but relied on established producers in the distant lands, like those in Spain, they had conquered; thereby keeping the economies of such areas and the trade routes intact. After a time, however, olive oil cultivation was brought home. While olive oil was the first universal commodity due to its alignment in the necessary food chain and coincided with the ancient world’s agricultural economic emphasis, it trade distribution was both domestic and regional. Other products also impacted the economies in these early times and their international trade movement was more intercontinental.
Salt
Closely aligned to olive oil extraction and the cultivation of the earth for basic sustenance to sustain and improve life on Earth was the early gathering of salt. Neolithic settlements were placed near salt springs as early man recognized its life-sustaining value. The mineral was prized for its health advantages, because when ingested periodically it helped the body retain water—a life-sustaining requirement. It was exalted for its ability to preserve animal flesh in the curing process along with fish and vegetables; when salted, the produce could travel beyond local boundaries and not spoil, thereby retaining its commercial value. Hence it eliminated mankind’s dependence on nature and the availability of seasonal food sources. Beyond its health benefits its ability to flavor food was another worthwhile attribute. It also acted as a mordant for fixing textile dyes as well as a principal component in the preparation of soaps and cleaning agents. In a spiritual context salt was given as a blessing, as it was thought to drive out evil spirits, hence the old adage that throwing a pinch of salt over one’s shoulder wards off evil. Religious texts attribute the mineral as forming one of the basic elements of life. In the Old Testament the story of Lot’s wife being turned to a pillar of salt is used to symbolize that once God removes the spirit or the soul due to an affront to his commands, the body is reduced to its basic physical component, salt. In the New Testament, Matthew 15:3 relates Jesus speaking to his disciples, telling them, “You are the salt of the earth,” a reference to their valued importance in spreading his gospel and influencing the society of the day. Ancient documents record a central role for salt not only in the West but also in the East. Over 4,700 years ago, one of the earliest known treatises on pharmacology was published in China. Known as the Peng-Tzao Kan-Mu, a major portion of the text concentrated on the medical uses of salt in the treatment of and prevention of numerous bodily ailments. In many cultures around the world there is a uniform tradition to offer bread and salt to welcome visitors.
While it is difficult to historically say for sure where the first salt harvest occurred, the Afar people, whose ancient tribes encompassed portions of Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Djibouti in the Middle East, harvested salt from the lowest and hottest region in Africa, Lake Assal in Djibouti. Some historians feel that the gathering of this commodity precipitated the initial trading across regions on Earth. The highly valued salty spheres tumbled naturally at the brine’s edge in the extremely hot and dry conditions that enabled the tiny salt beads to grow into a size resembling a golf ball thereby taking this common commodity into the realm of today’s designer like arena of increased value. Afar salts, their signature product, were as prized as today’s prestige brands, such as Rolls-Royce in the car industry and Louis Vuitton in leather goods.
In the ancient civilizations of West Africa it was the key commodity that connected the northern and southern tribes. While the northern mines produced salt, the southern areas extracted gold from the hills. The old empire of Ghana, located between the regions, flourished due to its positioning on the prosperous merchant trade route that connected the two. The barter that took place was so highly valued that an ounce of salt for an ounce of gold was at one time the normal rate of exchange.1 Ancient Ghana also derived power and wealth from its gold mines. Gold’s true value was in the trading process and as a bartered exchange unit for salt. This African Kingdom on the southern edge of the Saharan trade routes became a prized commercial center where the Muslim merchants used their wealth to establish mosques and schools and the king drew on the talents of such scholars to administer his territory.
The accumulation of gold in the north, due to the selling of sub-Saharan salt, made its way across northern Africa, as Arab merchants operating in southern Moroccan towns bought the precious accumulated metal from the Berbers and transported them to the East. Early trade routes were constructed for the transport of salt around the world. Herodotus tells of a caravan route that united the salt oases of the Libyan desert as ancient traders carried this valuable staple from North Africa to southeastern Mediterranean ports and onto Europe. Caravans of up to as many as 40,000 camels moved across the 400-mile stretch. Hence salt helped spark the trade process, which spanned an entire continent, contributing to the expansion of gold as a valued intermediary across the entire world.
During the era of the Roman Republic and their expanded territory, the price of salt was controlled. Such a monopoly over one of the prime economic resources of the period, a staple in the diet of its citizens, enabled the government to acquire funds to maintain the empire and its protracted war machine. Preceding precious extracted ores like gold and silver, salt at one time had been a medium of exchange. A possibly misguided word analogy is built around the use of salt in such a context. During the Roman era soldiers were purportedly compensated with a salarium argentum, which means salt payment. Some linguistic scholars translate the term to mean they were given money, which in turn enabled them to buy salt, while others interpret the word to signify the receipt of a ration of salt. Whatever the exact interpretation, it is interesting to note that the conceivable origin of the English term “salary” originated with this practice, which signifies the use of salt as a value substitute for the legal tender of the realm.
Whatever one’s take on the root of the word “salary,” the intrinsic value of salt in the ancient world is further appreciated by the fact that the Chinese also maintained a government monopoly on its production and that salt cakes bore the seal of the emperor; hence its acceptance as legal tender or money within the realm. Marco Polo’s experiences with the commodity are well noted during his appointment by the khan as a collector of taxes on exchanges of the salt-water-extracted substance.2 The movement of salt contributed greatly to our knowledge of the ancient highways of commerce. So important was the salt trade in world history that the routes in Europe, including Great Britain, and the Middle East over which this valued commodity moved were known as the Salt Lines. Some researchers have theorized that these early references to geographical positions on the earth’s surface may have been the precursor of the later navigational coordinates, longitude and latitude.3 On these series of long straight lines the Alan Butler book describes the growth of towns and eventually cities built on perhaps a mysterious and spiritual influence that radiated from them as well as being the home base of some of the most influential families and men in ancient times. This fact helps to substantiate the related phenomena around the world wherein trade routes were the impetus for the construction of social centers and the furtherance of civilizations in such areas.
One of the oldest roads in Italy is Via Salaria (from the Latin word for salt), over which Roman salt from Ostia was carried into other parts of Italy. During the Middle Ages the designation for networks of interconnecting routes was the term “salt roads,” in recognition of the prime commodity carried by merchants of the day as they crisscrossed Europe. It was an expensive resource not because of the extraction process but because of the high cost of carrying the heavy bulk goods by river, sea, and land, which required the coordination of numerous middlemen. The role of commercial agents in the maintenance and expansion across territories of a delivery network cannot be overstated. The commercial trading of this valued commodity and life-sustaining material enabled civilizations to grow and prosper. The mining of salt and the collateral need to establish commercial centers for its distribution were the bases for the formation of towns and cities like Munich and Salzburg; while the salt mines of Poland provided the wealth to establish a kingdom and later a state. Liverpool rose from a small English port to become the chief exporting channel because of the huge amount of salt dug out of the great Cheshire mines in the 1800s. While the mineral itself was the prime ingredient it was the merchant traders that provided the capital and intermediary steps that led to the growth of the civilizations placed around its core centers and surrounding areas.
Salt also played an important political role in India’s successful independence movement to separate itself from the bonds of English colonial rule at a time when the British controlled most of the world’s salt trade. Mahatma Gandhi’s famous Salt March (known as the Salt Satyagraha) shook the British Empire in 1930. It was a nonviolent protest against England’s salt tax and its monopolistic burden on the Indian people, which prevented them from harvesting local resources. It contributed to India’s achievement of self-rule, which on a global basis underscored the need for free trading principles via private enterprise. Today oil is the prime energy source and the number one commodity for the world, replacing the precious ancient dominance of olive oil and salt. Their combined legacy in the development of globalization and international business principles remain important.
Incense and Spices
The history of incenses and spices set the stage for the first real era of extensive international trade and was one of the forerunners of modern-day global integrated economics and the borderless world. Records of their East-West trading routes have existed since the beginning of recorded history. Some archeologists date the cross continental trading of spices to jars of cloves found in small ceramic vessels produced in Syria as evidence that trade with tropical Southeast Asia existed as far back as 1720 BCE. Babylonian and Assyrian clay tablets detail the existence of the incense trade in their regions but it was not until the Arab-Nabatean tribe (note that earlier they were profiled as founders of Petra) took an interest and began to dominate the trade, which was previously controlled by Europeans, in the final trading links to the Mediterranean that originated in the East. The actual beginning of the cross territorial spice trade is historically difficult to pinpoint. Archeologists deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions during the period of the New Kingdom (Egyptian Empire) more than 3,600 years ago discovered references to the pharaoh’s exchange relationships, including large cargoes of aromatic resins and other unique flavoring and scents. While a few of these exotic spices might have been produced in Africa, many of them, like cinnamon and cloves, could only have originated in the tropical climates of southern India and Indochina, leading researchers to conclude that the beginning of intercontinental trade is as old as recorded history. In medieval Chinese and Muslim texts very specific details about these mysterious spice routes are recorded with directions and voyage lengths for each stop of the journey, which most scholars believed to have been unchanged from the ones used centuries or thousands of years earlier.
The route—which consisted more of general directions through numerous integrated haphazard paths then of a recognized singular roadway—linked the Mediterranean world with Eastern sources of incense and spices. Stretching from the Levant and Egypt south across the Arabian Peninsula through Persia, touching India, and onward to China and Southeast Asia. As early as the time of King Solomon (ca. 967 BCE), the flow of trade was extensive, and it allowed his kingdom to profit through tax or tariff on such goods passing through his domain. It is estimated that more than 3,000 tons of incense moved along the trading trail a year, making the material the most widely exchanged commercial commodity in the world at that time.4
During its peak in the 3rd century BCE until the 2nd century CE, a span of nearly one-and-a half millennia, the existence of such valued items is a testament to their impact on the development of civilization on Earth. The importance of the flow of international trade for incense and spices is perhaps best exemplified by the main character of the movie Dune, which was also based on Frank Herbert’s science fiction epic of the same name, who proclaimed, “He who controls the spice, controls the universe.”5 The story in both the 1965 novel and the 1984 film versions depicts a time when spice is the lifeblood of the future fictional universe and it was essential that the spice must flow in order for all life to succeed. Dune tells the story of the fight for control over the desert planet Arrakis, the only source of the spice known as melange, the most important and valuable substance in the universe. The story explores the complex and multilayered interactions of politics, religion, ecology, technology, and human emotion as the forces of the empire confront each other for control of Arrakis and its unique spice.6 Although it is difficult to exactly ascertain Herbert’s motivations, there is no doubt that it was inspired, or at least influenced, by the historical importance of the aromatic and spice trade in antiquity, as the book closely mirrors real-world elements surrounding the spice trade and its prime principle: great demand on one side and highly controlled and funneled supply on the other. The value of ancient aromatic resins like myrrh and frankincense as prized riches was even mentioned in the biblical story of the hallowed gifts bestowed on the baby Jesus at birth when visited by the three kings. While the religious tale may be mythical it is a fact that at various periods in mankind’s history spices were as valuable as gold, silver, and rare gems.
Arab merchants dominated not only the trade of these rare residues from their lands but also the more lucrative spice trade during its emergence. In primeval Europe, as well as hundreds of years later, food was the chief concern of the people. Spices were used for preserving food, masking the appetite-killing stench of decay. It is also used in making poorly preserved food palatable. Heavily salted meat also cured with pepper and cooked with a variety of spices was the only remedy to starvation. Those who traded in these heavily desired ingredients were the key players in the ancient commercial world. The Arab middlemen were able to weave a marketing fable to drive out early European traders from the spice trade, granting them a monopoly on the spices for centuries. They had them believe that all the spices they traded (cinnamon, pepper, cassia, cardamom, ginger, turmeric, nutmeg, mace, and a host of others) could be extracted only from their lands—a bit of mercantile guile. But in fact, most spices merely transited Africa from India and Southeast Asia—the journeys to which required a multitude of intermediaries that initially transferred these valuable food seasonings by sea—making it finally to the eastern African continent and southern Arabia. The use of middlemen holding a monopolistic grasp on the channels of distribution in selected industries and the marketing practice of using a false or quasi-geographical sourcing or manufacturer identity to further induce consumer confidence in products are used in the modern business world as well.
The historical importance of the spice and incense route cannot be overstated. The global trade it initiated supported civilizations, started wars, created huge wealth, and sustained nations. It was also a catalyst for cultural exchange between globally distant societies. As previously described, the European reliance on the spice trade prompted the great age of discovery and exploration by sea, as it was motivated by a commercially induced need to find a faster, more direct, and intermediary-free route to the East. The ocean voyages beginning with Christopher Columbus in 1492, followed by Vasco da Gama in 1498, and finally by Fernando Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe in 1582 were fueled by the desire to cut out the Middle Eastern middlemen and secure at wholesale prices the riches of the spice islands. The ventures of these explorers are best summed up in the chorus of their seafaring crew as they came ashore: “For Christ and spices!”7 Out of the numerous commercial ventures undertaken by the merchants of the day as they traded spices and incense came the invention of many business principles and structures as noted in the earlier chapter on ancient trade. The legacy of these historic expeditions is found in today’s conceptual practices and approaches.
Today the world trade in oil closely resembles the Arab spice monopoly in ancient times: It is dominated by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC, or the source) and the major multinational corporations (middleman), which refines and distributes the product. In respect to geographical branding perceptions take the example of Häagen-Dazs, a premium ice cream made in New York. It was originally introduced with a lid containing a label depicting a map of Scandinavia with a bright red star in the middle, presumably giving the product an imported identity to differentiate it from domestic brands while adding a subliminal picture to the brand name. Arizona ice tea is produced in a suburb of New York and not the southwestern state. According to a rumor that has circulated in the wine industry, during a sluggish grape harvest in some of the vaunted French wine areas, the local wineries supposedly imported barrels from Sonoma, California, as substitutes for estate-grown vintages and used the word “bottled” on their labels as opposed to “produced.” Such a rumor was probably based on the fact that in 1976 a British wine merchant hosted a Parisian blind wine tasting pitting France’s renowned wines against the finest made in California. The American chardonnays and cabernet sauvignons were pronounced not simply equal but superior to the traditional French wines, with the judges easily confusing the two different varieties with each other. Many vintage brands that are historically identified by the consuming public with their historic home manufacturing source and thereby containing an inherent quality pedigree are in fact produced in countries around the world. The American-based IBM Corporation, one of the most respected names in the computer industry, for years had their central processing units made in the Far East but still relied on their respected U.S. affiliation. In fact one of their prime manufacturers even bought the IBM laptop name rather than take the extended time and cost to build a trademark to rival this famed consumer line.
One of the keys to the aforementioned Arab monopoly on the spices trade in the Mediterranean was a secret, tantamount to a modern-day patent, about the monsoon winds across the Indian Ocean. The captains of early small boat crossings, moving both East and West, required a precise piloting of the shoreline with constant navigational stops. However, catching the seasonal and therefore predictable movement of strong winds, which in midyear reverse their direction, allowed vessels to sail more efficiently directly across the waters from the Indian coast to Egypt’s Red Sea and the Arabian Peninsula. This made larger boats with wider sails, which could carry bigger cargoes, crisscross the ocean faster while also allowing for more scheduled trips. The Romans who used spices in every imaginable combination in their foods, wine, fragrance, and medicines, even anointing soldiers with perfumes before going into battle, were deeply resentful of the Arab stranglehold on the spice trade. With such pent-up demand and the fact that on average spices enjoyed a 100 times markup by the time they reached the Roman marketplace provided the motivation for an ill-fated invasion of Arabia in 24 BCE. This was not the first time in history that an economic provocation caused war and it would not be the last. Even after the Europeans discovered the monsoon secret via the discovery by the Greek merchant Hippalus in 40 CE, it took them some time before they could also uncover the real sources of the spices they valued so much and mount alternative routes to break the Muslim monopoly.
The rise of the Muslim world was propelled by their intermediary monopoly of the East-West spice trade into the European zone. By the ninth century they began to make inroads into Asia and a massive trading relationship, the largest of the period, ensued. Such extensive commercial dealings allowed Islamic religious teachings to be introduced into the region, a condition that to this day still remains strong. The strength of the trading exercise allowed for magnificent cities along with centers of learning to be constructed in Muslim lands at a time when Europe began to sink into the Dark Ages. Notwithstanding the great eras of the previous Egyptian pharaohs and monarchs in the Middle East it was a golden prosperous time for Arab communities and they reached the zenith of their cultural leadership in the world. The Venetians finally broke the trade curtain when they made a deal with the Arab merchants and received preferred, if not exclusive, distribution rights in Europe, a principle that global companies still use today to enter new markets. But it was not until the time of Chingiss Khaan, more commonly referred to as Genghis Khan, and his Mongol armies sweeping across Asia that the Muslim hold on the lucrative East-West trade began to evaporate. In their path westward, they destroyed the Islamic caliphate and caused the fall of Baghdad. As described in previous chapters on government influence the unification under Genghis Khan, and his successors, of the continental landmass separating east and west reopened a more secure trade route, rejuvenating the old Silk Road, thereby joining the merchants of Europe directly with China and the territories in between. It was under a document of merchant protection offered by the Mongolian Empire that the literary tale of Marco Polo, traveling with his father and uncle from Venice, was based.
The economic and political grandeur of the Arab world, which produced some of mankind’s greatest innovations in mathematics, astronomy, and chemistry that moved civilization forward, was based on their intermediary position in the spice trade. Perhaps not until the fast-growing demand for oil energy after World War II did the Muslim region begin to recover their prominence and respect in the global community—a process that still continues to haunt what once was the world’s greatest intercontinental trading culture. The spice trade changed the world, moving previous long distance regional trade to the next level and paving the way for the modern era of globalization.
Silk
The emergence of silk, the mysterious fabric from the Orient marketed the beginning of the spread of the luxury market on a global plane and furthered the exchange process between the East and the West first begun with incense and spices. Silk is a natural fiber that can be woven into textiles. It is originally obtained from the cocoons of the larvae produced by the mulberry silkworm. The soft texture of the fabric on the body coupled with a high-absorbency characteristic makes it comfortable to wear in warm climates while its low conductivity enables warm air to lie close to the skin during cold weather. Such characteristics gave garments made from silk a unique and prized versatility, as silk could be woven into heavy brocade or light, delicate fabric providing comfort for all seasons and was therefore climate adaptable anywhere in the world. Its shimmering, almost glowing appearance attracted the eye of wealthy patrons in the ancient world although its use was first reserved for the emperors of China. Being one of the stronger fibers, silk is extremely durable. It was even used by the Chinese as undergarments in battle as its ability to reduce wounds from arrows was well documented.
The eye-pleasing beauty of silk is enhanced by the radiant shimmering glow due to light refraction off the triangular prism like cellular structure of the fabric coupled with the soft feeling on one’s body made the textile the most valuable desired product. Evidence of the initial weaving of the silkworm cocoon has been found to appear between 5000 and 3000 BCE in China. The earliest evidence that this rare fabric moved across continents is the finding of silk on the mummified remains in Egyptian burial ground dated in the 21st dynasty of the pharaohs around 1070 BCE.8 The early Greeks used the term Seres, or “people of the silk,” when referring to the Eastern empire while even the Old Testament makes note of the garment, indicating that it was known in the Middle East as well. The intercontinental merchandising of this unique fabric is best traced to the first century CE, when commodity trade was established between China and the Roman Empire via the hands of commercial middlemen, the Parthians or Persians. The Romans initially encountered the magic fabric during their Eastern campaigns in the area of Syria where the legions fought Parthia, whose own army carried banners made of the brilliant material.
The cost of silk in China during the Han dynasty in the second century was priced at 100 times its original value once it reached Rome. During this period it may have been the rarest commodity on Earth. So important was the silk trade to China that the monopoly was defended by royal decree with the penalty of death for those attempting to export silkworms or their eggs. Silk, itself, was such a prized universal article that it also became a monetary intermediary standard for estimating the value of other goods, just as gold and silver pieces were used in some parts of the ancient world. The Silk Road was initially opened by the Chinese in the second century CE but reached its zenith 2 centuries later. The road out of Xi’an, the ancient capital of China and home at that time to a million people, took traders to Turfan, a thriving oasis city on the outskirts of the barren Taklimakan Desert in the northwest. Turfan’s own marketplace offering sumptuous fruits and vegetables as well as other exotic products, and invigorated by the East-West commercial caravans whose drivers took refuge from their arduous journey across the desert became an important center in Asia. From there merchants ventured across the Pamir Mountains to Samarkand, an old trading station referred to as the city of merchants. The route then linked up with Antioch and the eastern Mediterranean coastline before moving on to Baghdad, a journey of over 4,600 miles (over 7,400 km and the equivalent of traveling across the United States and then halfway back again). Caravans of camels for the arid regions and yaks (the more sure-footed animals) would be used in mountains areas; each loaded with 140 kg (over 300 lbs.) of merchandise. The groups that composed the caravan included trading partners, their guides and caretakers for the beasts of burden. Consisting of from 100 to 500 men, they banded together for protection from land pirates as well as for negotiating strength when encountering both royal tribute payments and demands of local tribal chieftains for a fee for crossing regions under their control. Such actions on the part of the civil authorities they came across created the principle still in practice today—the tariff or customs duty, the internationally recognized right of sovereign nations to tax goods transiting their territories. A similar practice had also evolved in the Middle East centuries before as again clans of warlords demanded a tool for safe passage through their desert domains. As Americans in the 1800s pushed west the same principle was used by the native Indians of the plains region. Often seen in movies, the act of settlers circling their wagon trains was not so much a protection device as a signal for the local tribe to approach and negotiate a settlement fee for crossing their lands.
In antiquity, the movement of silk as well as other early commodities like spices needed to travel great distances, across numerous territories while passing through countless intermediaries, each time at higher and higher values. The task was risky and difficult but extremely rewarding. The traders moving across alien territories not only exchanged goods but also music, language, numerals, medicines, religion, and philosophy from their own culture.
As noted earlier Baghdad during the silk and spice trade periods was considered the Xi’an of the West and described by historians of the day as an elegant metropolis. Due to the wealth that accumulated in the city walls due to the merchandise transiting the Silk Road, the capital from such enterprises funded educational institutions that in turn contributed to the study and development in a variety of scientific fields, which not only advanced the knowledge of civilization but also produced the cornerstones of modern research in these areas. Baghdad at this time in history epitomized the Islamic golden age of discovery and invention, much like Florence during the Renaissance, which was further strengthened by the financial and trading activities of the Medici family. From this Syrian city goods made their way first to Petra and then onto the southern Mediterranean ports and across the sea to Europe. Out of the merchant wealth rose a new religion, Islam, as the founder, Mohammed, was himself a trader (see Chapter 8). Centuries later, a southern seafaring collateral route in the Persian Gulf at Muscat in Yemen would take merchant vessels across the Gulf of Oman to Karachi, then through the Arabian Sea, and onto the western coastline of India. More intrepid traders began to move down the Malabar Coast around the tip of India, to the island of Sri Lanka, and from there traverse the Indian Ocean to Malaysia and the spice islands. BusinessWeek magazine, in a 2009 article titled “Children of the Web,” refers to today’s global technology as equivalent to “the digital Silk Road,” heralding back a reference to a transcontinental trade route tying East and West.
The modern market drivers of globalization can be simply expressed as the output imperative to exchange goods and services as determined by consumer needs and desires, a principle inherent in the histories of the aforementioned products. It is based on the simple principle to utilize one’s locally available environmental resources and resident skill levels in order to acquire the harvested fruits of another area that inherently possess different bounties of the earth or has learned an ability that one does not have. In ancient times, not only was the market-trading motivator instrumental in enabling civilizations to grow and prosper, but the lack of something to sell, or offer in trade, held societies back and in some cases caused them to end.
Learning From the Marketing of Ancient Products
In the modern era the ability of companies to expand into new territories has been helped and accelerated by the simple fact that world consumers have become, and are continuing to be, more homogenous as to their material needs, a process first addressed in ancient times. Today more than ever before firms can now approach new customers around the world on an equal strategic plane because they possess enlarged, universally shared desires. This translates into products and services that are uniform—that is, designed, engineered, manufactured, marketed, and sold through similar channels of distribution. While the external design, size, shape, and color may need to be altered for local tastes so that the fundamental delivery of satisfaction remains intact. The world market is shrinking into a more and more harmonious unit. Such underlying basic motivational purchasing similarities not only makes it easier to produce at vastly improved economies of scale but also enables firms to market—advertise and promote—using related stimuli around the world.
The basis for product universality, the marketing driver of globalization, originated with the first commercial commodities in ancient times. Even in ancient times the movement of goods across vast stretches of land was practiced with some of the universal marketing themes used today. To reach and induce both domestic and cross territorial customers to patronize their goods, the use of basic marketing principles via universal promotional themes that appeal across cultures and are rooted in ancient commercial activities.
Personal emotional attachments—like the need to protect and nurture the family or the desire for romance, which leads to procreation—are emotional nets that we are all caught in and respond to in a positive and universal manner. Olive oil and salt were initially marketed to insure the nutritional safety of the family as well as to promote health benefits. The use of olive oil in burial rituals, the anointing of the dead as they passed onto the underworld, showed respect for deceased family members. The mixing of olive oil with flower scents, an early perfume, was to attract the opposite sex into romantic activities.
Materialism is a timeless universal appeal as we all want to show that we have achieved some marginal measurement of success in life. It is symbolic of social status, whether it is evidenced in modern terms by the new sports car in the driveway, the expensive watch, a platinum credit card, or designer-labeled clothing. In ancient times the same consumer desires laid the basis for the sale of precious metals like gold, silver, and bronze objects to adorn the body. The importation of exotic incenses and spices from foreign lands began with frankincense and myrrh, as well as pepper, which were found in the homes of wealthy patrons. Silk garments and porcelain-decorated serving pieces were material signs of prosperity.
Leisure time—simply being at rest, or enjoying some type of recreational or entertainment therapy in our daily work lives—permeates all cultures and societies. The creation of shopping outlets in ancient times (see Chapter 6) was as much a pleasant distraction from the labors of life as a stroll through the mega shopping centers in today’s environment. The remnants of spectator events, as practiced in ancient societies from gladiator to other games of skill like the Greek Olympics, have been passed down to today’s generation with a built-in commercial purpose. The Colosseum in Rome was next to the Trajan’s Market (see Chapter 6), which featured six stories of merchant wares from around the world complementing the circus of imported actors and creatures from around the world. The Olympics was a gathering place for wealthy patrons to discuss associations and commercial partnerships, whereas today it, like the FIFA World Cup, is a beacon for advertising beamed around the world. Festivals in ancient times had a commercial driven agenda as they do today.
Heroism—the placement of special status on others and the idea to emulate their achievements in one’s rather mundane life—is found around the world. In ancient Greece the divine gift of olive oil was promoted and people were advised to place it on their bodies to emulate the bodies of the Gods. Wine was promoted as the magic elixir of the Gods and as such enticed many area wineries to place the names of Gods and Goddesses on drinking cups. Heroism, as a marketing ploy, reached its universal zenith in 1992 when the makers of Gatorade, a nutritional athletic drink, advised the consuming public in their television commercials to “be like Mike,” a reference to the basketball superstar Michael Jordon. The first use of this well-known personality to sell products began in 1986 with the launch of a new athletic shoe called the Air Jordan by the Nike company, which garnered the company a global consumer success. Many years ago, Coca-Cola, perhaps the world’s best recognized trade name for a beverage, ran a television advertisement featuring a predominant American football player (Mean Joe Green, a lineman for the Pittsburgh Steelers) and his encounter with a young fan. The theme of hero worship and Coke being the magic elixir that brought them together was successfully replayed around the globe featuring the national sports stars of numerous countries replacing the U.S. player. The marketing principle, to copy prominent or famous people and the material objects they surrounded themselves with, provided the impetus for the wider commercialization of products in the ancient world. A purple dye to alter the color of bland garments in antiquity was first introduced to royalty and worn only by the nobility. Common citizens then begin to buy such colored cloth in order to show their wealth and status. Later the wearing of silk clothing was promoted on the basis that these were initially only intended or reserved for emperors or kings and queens; hence adorning oneself in them allowed one to feel admired by others and show off their own material well-being.