Specialization, barter and the first coins, the Silk Road and sea routes (with a reading passage and goods table), and how trade led to both cooperation and conflict.
Arizona Academic Standards learning standard: 6.E5.1; 6.H1.2 · the Silk Road and other trade routes, and how trade spread people and ideas
How we explain it
Children can open this short lesson before they practice.
Specialization: people make what they do best and trade for the rest.
In barter, find the trade rate and scale it up. Coins (first in Lydia, about 600 BCE) made trade easier.
The Silk Road moved goods, ideas, religions and diseases. Trade brought cooperation, but also fights over routes.
Example: At a market, 2 baskets of grain trade for 5 fish. How many fish do 6 baskets get? 6 baskets is 3 groups of 2. 3 × 5 fish = 15 fish. Answer: 15
Trade Networks in Arizona
In the Arizona Academic Standards, this is unit 8 of 12 in 6th grade Social Studies, after World Beliefs and before Medieval Europe.
Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
Did trade lead to cooperation or conflict? Sort each example.
Sort into: 🤝 cooperation · 🛡️ conflict
🏪merchants from many lands sharing a market
⚓a kingdom blocking rivals from its ports
🗺️rival cities going to war over a trade route
💰disputes over high tolls and taxes on goods
🚢Rome and Carthage competing for Mediterranean trade
📜kingdoms agreeing on trade rules
🪙using shared coins and weights
🌱learning new crops and inventions from neighbors
🤝 cooperation: merchants from many lands sharing a market, kingdoms agreeing on trade rules, using shared coins and weights, learning new crops and inventions from neighbors · 🛡️ conflict: a kingdom blocking rivals from its ports, rival cities going to war over a trade route, disputes over high tolls and taxes on goods, Rome and Carthage competing for Mediterranean trade
Hint: Cooperation is when societies work together and both gain. Conflict is when they compete or fight over routes, resources or profits.
Question 2
In a barter market, 5 sacks of barley trade for 1 copper pot. How many sacks of barley are needed for 3 pots?
5 sacks of barley = 1 copper pot
answer box
15
Hint: Each pot costs 5 sacks, so multiply 3 × 5.
Question 3
Use the table. A merchant wants to buy silk. Which region should they trade with?
Goods traded along the Silk Road and connected sea routes
Region
Famous goods
India
pepper and other spices, cotton cloth, gems
the Roman Empire
glassware, gold coins, wool
Central Asia
strong, fast horses
China
silk, bronze mirrors, lacquerware
the Roman Empire
Central Asia
China
India
China
Hint: Find the good in the 'Famous goods' column, then read across to the region.
Question 4
Which statement best describes the Silk Road, according to the passage?
The Silk Road
The Silk Road was not one road. It was a network of land and sea routes linking China with Central Asia, India, Persia, Arabia and the Mediterranean world. It grew busy after China's Han dynasty sent envoys west in the 100s BCE.
Few merchants traveled the whole way. Instead, goods passed from trader to trader and city to city, and each trader added to the price. Camel caravans crossed deserts and stopped to rest and get water at oasis towns such as Samarkand and Dunhuang.
The routes carried more than silk, spices and horses. Ideas traveled too: Buddhism spread from India into China, and art styles and inventions moved in both directions. Unfortunately, diseases also spread along the same routes.
A single river used by silk boats
A wall built to keep traders out
One paved road from Rome to China
A network of many land and sea routes
A network of many land and sea routes
Hint: Look at the first two sentences of the passage.
Question 5
Around 550 CE, monks smuggled silkworm eggs to Constantinople, so its empire could make its own silk. Which empire was it?
Babylon
the Byzantine Empire
Ancient Egypt
the Maya
the Byzantine Empire
Hint: The Byzantine Empire was the eastern part of the Roman world, centered on Constantinople.
Question 6
How can trade lead to conflict between societies?
Societies may compete or fight to control valuable routes and resources
No one wants valuable goods
Traders never disagree about prices
Trade always ends all wars
Societies may compete or fight to control valuable routes and resources
Hint: Control of rich routes, ports and resources meant wealth, so rivals sometimes fought over them.