37
votes
Accepted
Approximately how much travel time was saved by the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869?
That would have depended on the ship and your destination.
To get a sense of the savings (the travel times are from today), consider the presentation that's referenced on the Suez Canal wiki page.
...
- 23.2k
34
votes
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Why were so many of the earliest banks founded by cloth merchants?
If you get rich in a business you soon find that you have no reasonable 'line of work' for your money, or in other word: capital. So you get essentially too rich for meaningful expansion in your core ...
- 80.8k
33
votes
Accepted
What's the rationale for shipping coins back to Spain from its colonies?
According to Manuel Moreyra Paz Soldán, El Virreinato de Perú, 1980, p. 79, the coinage embarked on ships corresponded to:
Taxes obtained from the provinces and citizens in America: "recaudación para ...
- 1,900
30
votes
Accepted
What would have been the price of a loaf of bread in 1645 Amsterdam?
According to this database (specifically the spreadsheet file, column D) a 100kg of rye bread cost 8.22 guilder in the western Netherlands in 1645, which should at least give you a rough idea to ...
- 18.9k
26
votes
What's the rationale for shipping coins back to Spain from its colonies?
I'm hoping that this answer will resonate with your "theory of colonial economy", although it is not based on historical sources.
Coins shouldn't be viewed as end products manufactured from a raw ...
- 363
26
votes
Accepted
Had there been instances of national states banning harmful imports before the mid-19th C Opium Wars?
"Banning harmful imports" was often done.
Prime example being the satanic brew.
Coffee was banned in Mecca, Italy, Contantinople/Ottoman Empire, Prussia.
Similarly: tea was banned in East Frisia, ...
- 80.8k
21
votes
Approximately how much travel time was saved by the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869?
Three steam ships of the Blue Funnel Line used both routes (round the Cape of Good Hope and via the Suez Canal) between Europe and Asia from 1866 to 1870. Upon switching from round the Cape to through ...
- 108k
19
votes
What would have been the price of a loaf of bread in 1645 Amsterdam?
I don't think you're going to find anything close to the precision you are asking for here. And as DevSolar has commented I think you are way off the mark by specifying prices in gold.
I do have one ...
- 3,183
18
votes
Accepted
What did parchment and papyrus cost in the Roman Empire?
TL;DR: There is no good answer to this question, because (1) we are missing reliable sources, (2) because there was no market price for any certain commodity, not for one and the same time and ...
- 2,706
18
votes
Were there any well-established land trade routes in the US colonies around 1700? What did they look like?
In 1700, the population of the British North American colonies was concentrated mainly along the coast. Roads were terrible and dangerous, and most people would have used the natural highways, the ...
- 5,275
17
votes
Accepted
What goods did Germany trade during World War II, and with whom?
Germany lacked raw resources, mostly oil, rubber, manganese, nickel, iron, chrome &c, as well as food.
This is what they tried to get from wherever they could.
I believe the most important ...
- 26.9k
17
votes
What's the rationale for shipping coins back to Spain from its colonies?
Many of the coins shipped to Europe were quickly and crudely minted. These were called cobs. According to a page at Notre Dame University,
The intention in minting these crude but accurately ...
- 269
17
votes
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Where did the Roman money involved in the spice and luxury trade end up?
The evidence available suggests that much of the gold and silver coinage which came to India from Rome was (1) melted down to produce local coins and jewelry, (2) defaced by local rulers and used ...
- 108k
15
votes
Why did Japan fail to interfere with shipping from America to Vladivostok from 1941-1945?
In addition to the points already raised by @TomAu and @DevSolar...
The Pacific lend-lease route skirted the problem by officially being handled by the Soviets. Supervision and routing was handled by ...
- 54.9k
15
votes
Accepted
Did the Axis engage in trade with other countries during the war?
Germany
Germany's international trade was largely restricted to overland routes due to the allied blockade. In 1942, Germany's main exports consisted of engineering products, metals and fuels. In ...
- 108k
14
votes
Accepted
How were taxes collected for traveling merchants in the middle ages?
I will try to answer this question beginning beyond its set time scope by including trade practices that were instituted in the late Roman/early Byzantine period and the Muslim world. In their work &...
- 2,287
13
votes
What's the rationale for shipping coins back to Spain from its colonies?
Gold and Silver are worth so much that their "bulk" is very rarely a problem.
Coins make it easier to count them. Their bulk is increased slightly; say by a factor of 2.
This makes gold 10 g/cm^3 ...
- 360
13
votes
Had there been instances of national states banning harmful imports before the mid-19th C Opium Wars?
Assuming you accept books as an answer (and your comment suggests that you do) there are at least two wiki pages that list books that have been banned by governments:
List of books banned by ...
- 23.2k
12
votes
Accepted
Did the food economy of the late Roman republic rely on foreign imports, or was it more localized?
Before the Romans took over Egypt, Sicily and Africa were the primary sources of grain. ("Africa" in the Roman context means just the Northwest portion of the continent.) These areas continued to be ...
- 8,276
12
votes
In the 18th c., did/would China accept gold from Europe as trade payment? Why / why not?
This article (emphasis mine) discusses the Canton System and its silver requirement:
But it wasn’t just any kind of trade: China deliberately (and
exclusively) exported value-added, refined ...
- 38.7k
12
votes
What are the three major differences between the first and second silk road?
Short Answer
There is support among some historians for identifying three periods of major activity along the Silk Road. Some list only two, others four (by dividing one of the three into two halves)...
- 6,187
11
votes
Before WW2, how did Japan pay for imported US oil?
Before 1930, Japan had a "considerable (see quote below if link is broken)" trade surplus with the US, much of this stemming from exports of silk. Japan also had a substantial trade surplus ...
- 108k
11
votes
Accepted
Was Rome exporting its trash to Egypt as an early example of recycling?
It was definitely ballast as @pluckedkiwi suggested. Many ships provisioning Rome had to carry ballast on their return trips for want of a more profitable cargo. It was usually sand - Rome had a guild ...
- 97.5k
11
votes
Accepted
Was merchant Hugh McCulloch the first Scotsman to set foot in California?
No.
In 1814 a Scotsman by the name of John Cameron jumped ship. He later changed his name to Gilroy. Here's some info from the city of Gilroy California web page.
John Cameron was born in a southern ...
- 38.7k
11
votes
Accepted
How was coffee brewed in Philadelphia (or surrounding area) in 1904?
A copy of the 1902 Sears and Roebuck catalog #112 found at archive.org gives an idea of what type of items might have been commonly used for coffee consumption at the time.
We can see from the first ...
- 38.7k
11
votes
What was Portugal and Spain's primary export which sparked their trade with Africa in the early 15th century?
This answer may need expanding on, but Vogt (1975) is a good article for Portuguese trade presence in Africa in 1480-1540 and it says:
Portuguese ships hauled cargoes of copper, textiles, cowries, ...
- 18.9k
10
votes
Why did Japan fail to interfere with shipping from America to Vladivostok from 1941-1945?
Why should they?
Destroying those supplies would require the commitment of forces Japan did not have to spare, with little to show for it.
If a country Japan was at war with -- the USA -- insists on ...
- 13.4k
10
votes
Accepted
Did the HEIC operate in the West Indies as well as the East Indies?
This is a tricky question to answer definitively given the complexity of the 250+ years of history of the East India Company in its various forms (referred to here, for simplicity, as the HEIC). While ...
- 19.3k
10
votes
Accepted
How did the US abolition of slavery affect the cotton exports?
A pdf file THE GROWTH OF THE COTTON INDUSTRY IN AMERICA seems to have some relevant information to the first half of your question. A table, on publication page 73, (pdf pg 3) has some production,...
- 38.7k
9
votes
Why was the spice trade so profitable in the 15th century?
Spices were what we would nowadays call mass luxuries. These are luxury goods that the masses can afford in small quantities. They are desired because they are out of the ordinary, and offer a "change ...
- 104k
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