Stories about merchants or cunning merchant Chapter 21

Merchants had an interest in convenient and hidden caravan routes . They examined them and made new maps . These cards are highly appreciated! For them they paid not so much gold, how many new opportunities and the powerful people of the world shared their insider information . It was possible to smuggle along secret routes, carry out secret military operations .

The merchants also made maps showing water sources, rivers, lakes, hot springs, mines and mining sites for gold, copper, lead, iron, salt, diamonds, turquoise, garnets, amethysts, rock crystal, sapphires, rubies, emeralds, topaz, onyx, jade .

AdvertisementThere were maps and places of nomads with their borders of the nomads, who was their chief and from what clans .

There were maps of the distribution of fur animals with their habits and methods of trapping .

The first maps on which merchants applied information that have come down to our days are the 2nd century BC, the Chinese ambassador Zhang Jiang . He traveled from China to Davan . In the first - second centuries it is a map of the Greeks, the Persians .

In the 10th century, there were already Arab maps, where the orientation of the map was not along the north as in modern maps but along the south . Then the Italians took over this style from them and, until the 17th and 18th centuries, the maps sometimes had a south orientation .

At the very beginning, merchants collected data on new territories, through conversations with merchants, fishermen, brigands, warriors, wandering monks . These cards helped to determine the value of a new uncharted territory for trade .

Than the earth is rich, are there new methods of metal processing? In those days, those who had swords were stronger, he won, like other military ammunition . Also to find out what nations live, what they produce, what they eat, what their culture, traditions, language features are . Who is the main clan or kind, what they need, what are their enemies . All this was a good opportunity to start negotiations .

What are the mountain passes, from where and where, how much customs duties are taken, what taxes, how strong is the army, is there any secret police, etc . And already on the basis of this information, decisions were made to trade or go to war .

Starting from the 10th century, the merchants began to indicate the location of cities and villages on the maps, what characteristics they possess, the history of settlements, provided reference points for linking information to the map . The data were transmitted both orally and in the form of chronicles, according to stories of wandering singers, monks, travelers .

After five centuries, the first information about rivers, mountains of their directions, descriptions of climate, soil, vegetation, wildlife, agriculture, and the number of people in countries and cities began to appear on maps . The cards were already wearing a more modern look — a view of the drawings .

Starting from the 18th century, the maps received their spatial reference - the degree network, the refinement of the terrain, rivers, lakes, wells, water sources, the replenishment of maps with information . Large countries are intensively engaged in the mapping of their neighbors as well as new lands . At that time there was such a proverb, if a large state began to make a map of your principality, then your principality did not have long to be independent .

The 19th century is characterized by the refinement of maps of nature, the binding of maps on a network of astronomical sites, the systematization of diverse information in a cartographic form . The main goal of nature research in this period, it seems to me, was the reclamation of transboundary lands in order to identify mineral deposits and the possibility of developing agricultural lands, and the effects of snow cover in the mountains on soil fertility of the nearby lands were studied .

Chapter end