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Grade 7 · Social Studies · Unit 5 of 6

Trade Networks

Silk Road, barter and coins

What your child practises

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.

BC Curriculum learning standard: Economic specialization and trade networks such as the Silk Road; cooperation and conflict between societies

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    How can trade lead to conflict between societies?

    • Trade always ends all wars
    • No one wants valuable goods
    • Societies may compete or fight to control valuable routes and resources
    • Traders never disagree about prices
    Show answer

    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.

  2. Question 2

    Did trade lead to cooperation or conflict? Sort each example.

    Sort into: 🤝 cooperation · 🛡️ conflict

    • 🪙using shared coins and weights
    • ⚓a kingdom blocking rivals from its ports
    • 🏪merchants from many lands sharing a market
    • 💰disputes over high tolls and taxes on goods
    • 🗺️rival cities going to war over a trade route
    • 🚢Rome and Carthage competing for Mediterranean trade
    • 📜kingdoms agreeing on trade rules
    • 🌱learning new crops and inventions from neighbours
    Show answer

    🤝 cooperation: using shared coins and weights, merchants from many lands sharing a market, kingdoms agreeing on trade rules, learning new crops and inventions from neighbours · 🛡️ conflict: a kingdom blocking rivals from its ports, disputes over high tolls and taxes on goods, rival cities going to war over a trade route, 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.

  3. 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
    RegionFamous goods
    Indiapepper and other spices, cotton cloth, gems
    the Roman Empireglassware, gold coins, wool
    Central Asiastrong, fast horses
    Chinasilk, bronze mirrors, lacquerware
    • China
    • Central Asia
    • India
    • the Roman Empire
    Show answer

    China

    Hint: Find the good in the 'Famous goods' column, then read across to the region.

  4. Question 4

    Around 550 CE, monks smuggled silkworm eggs to Constantinople, so its empire could make its own silk. Which empire was it?

    • the Byzantine Empire
    • Ancient Egypt
    • Babylon
    • the Maya
    Show answer

    the Byzantine Empire

    Hint: The Byzantine Empire was the eastern part of the Roman world, centred on Constantinople.

  5. Question 5

    The name 'Silk Road' was invented in 1877. Why is it a little misleading?

    • Silk was never traded on it
    • It was only used in the 1800s
    • It was a network of many routes, and many goods besides silk were traded
    • It was one straight road
    Show answer

    It was a network of many routes, and many goods besides silk were traded

    Hint: Traders used many land and sea routes and carried spices, horses, glass, ideas and more.

  6. Question 6

    Why were oasis towns like Samarkand and Dunhuang important?

    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 travelled 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 travelled too: Buddhism spread from India into China, and art styles and inventions moved in both directions. Unfortunately, diseases also spread along the same routes.

    • Caravans could rest and get water there
    • They were the only places that made silk
    • They were capital cities of Rome
    • They were built on the ocean floor
    Show answer

    Caravans could rest and get water there

    Hint: Think about what travellers crossing a desert need most.

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