trading

Some of the things that they traded in Chaldea were Grain, Oils, and textiles, and return, they got timber, wine, and precious metals and stones. Some merchants worked locally and just strapped their goods on their back or carried them in a sack, they wood often trade small amounts of grain, meat, fish, and precious stones. They also had different means of transport for different types of goods. For example, they would carry precious stones on foot or by donkey, and they shipped larger loads of items such as grain by ship. ** **Some of their sea-ways of transport were rafts, coracles and river boats. Rafts were just wooden platforms with inflated animal skins below them. They were meant to travel downstream. Coracles were little boats made of animals skins covered in Bitumen, a natural tar-like substance. This made these round boats waterproof. River boats also carried goods downstream. They were made of reeds lashed together with rope and covered with Bitumen. They mostly carried Grain, logs, bricks, wool, beer, wine, and reeds. These boats were stronger and tougher than river boats. They carried barley, stone, wood, pearls, carnelian, copper, ivory, textiles, and reeds.
 * Chaldea was low on natural resources and they needed to trade for many of their day-to-day items.** **Trade was an extremely important part of daily life for Chaldeans. Transportation was obviously a necessity to Chaldeans and was vital to traders of all kinds, except traders that moved on by foot, of course.** ** Therefore, the people who lived there needed to trade with neighbouring countries in order to acquire the resources they needed to live.

By land, there were only a few possibilities: On foot, by donkey, or by Cart. On foot, you could transport small amounts of just about anything if it was in small quantities. By donkey was the most common form of transportation. You could trade goods such as textiles, precious metals ****, wine, grain, Lapiz Lazuli, and other valuable stones. Finally, Cart is the last method I am going to write about. They were made of local timber and held together by bronze or maybe copper nails. They carried metal, fish, textiles, oils, bricks, and grain.** **Money wasn't used to trade goods and services. The Chaldeans used the barter system instead. They developed a writing system to keep track of buying and selling. Scribes kept accurate records of business transactions by writing on clay tablets. Business contracts were sealed with a cylinder wheel.**

**The Tigris and Euphrates rivers made transport of goods easy and economical for everyone in Mesopotamia. Riverboats were used to transport goods for trade. Strong currents moved the boats downstream, but because of the current they could travel in one direction only. The boats had to be dismantled after the trip downstream. The invention of the wheel also made trading easier. Wagons could be used to carry heavy loads.** ** ** **The economy that sustained the people of Chaldea relied on trade. Trade was an important element of the economy, occurred through the transportation of textiles and crops, where these goods were exchanged for stone, metals, and timber.**
 * Trade and commerce developed in Mesopotamia because the farmers learned how to irrigate their land. They could grow more food and they could eat. They used the surplus to trade for goods and services. Temples were the chief employer and location for commercial activity.
 * The system of trade developed from people's need. In Chaldea flax was grown in the river valley and then woven into cloth. Linen garments were worn by priests and holy men. Wool and wool cloth was also important for trade. Wood was used for ships and furniture.