9th grade · Social Studies · Unit 4 of 16
Trade Networks
Silk Road, barter and coins
What your child practices
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.
New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 9.4; 9.4a; 9.4b; 9.4c · how the Silk Road and other Afro-Eurasian trade networks carried goods, people and ideas
How we explain it
Children can open this short lesson before they practice.
- Places trade for what they lack: Mesopotamia had clay and grain but little wood, stone or metal.
- Trade can build cooperation (both sides gain) or conflict (fights over routes).
- Barter uses a ratio: if 3 rolls of cloth trade for 4 jars, doubling one side doubles the other.
Example: 2 sacks of grain trade for 5 jars of oil. How many jars would 6 sacks get? 6 sacks is 3 times 2 sacks. 3 × 5 jars = 15 jars. Answer: 15
Trade Networks in New York
In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 4 of 16 in 9th grade Social Studies, after Greece & Rome and before Rome's Fall & Byzantium.
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.
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
Why did coins make trade easier than barter?
🪙- Coins had an agreed value and were easy to carry and count
- Coins made goods free
- Coins could only be used once
- Coins could be eaten in an emergency
Coins had an agreed value and were easy to carry and count
Hint: With barter, you need someone who wants exactly what you have. Coins solve that problem.
Question 2
Did trade lead to cooperation or conflict? Sort each example.
Sort into: 🤝 cooperation · 🛡️ conflict
- ⚓a kingdom blocking rivals from its ports
- 🚢Rome and Carthage competing for Mediterranean trade
- 📜kingdoms agreeing on trade rules
- 🏪merchants from many lands sharing a market
- 🪙using shared coins and weights
- 🗺️rival cities going to war over a trade route
- 💰disputes over high tolls and taxes on goods
- 🌱learning new crops and inventions from neighbors
🤝 cooperation: kingdoms agreeing on trade rules, merchants from many lands sharing a market, using shared coins and weights, learning new crops and inventions from neighbors · 🛡️ conflict: a kingdom blocking rivals from its ports, Rome and Carthage competing for Mediterranean trade, rival cities going to war over a trade route, disputes over high tolls and taxes on goods
Hint: Cooperation is when societies work together and both gain. Conflict is when they compete or fight over routes, resources or profits.
Question 3
The Phoenicians were famous for…
⛵- the Code of Hammurabi
- building the pyramids
- sea trade across the Mediterranean and a costly purple dye
- inventing paper
sea trade across the Mediterranean and a costly purple dye
Hint: Phoenician cities like Tire traded by ship. Their purple dye, made from sea snails, was worth a fortune.
Question 4
In a barter market, 3 sacks of barley trade for 1 copper pot. How many sacks of barley are needed for 5 pots?
3 sacks of barley = 1 copper pot
answer box
15
Hint: Each pot costs 3 sacks, so multiply 5 × 3.
Question 5
Seasonal monsoon winds helped sailors trade across the Indian Ocean, linking India with…
- Iceland and Greenland
- the Maya and Mexico
- Central Asia's deserts
- Arabia, East Africa and Egypt
Arabia, East Africa and Egypt
Hint: Ships sailed one way with the summer monsoon and returned with the winter winds.
Question 6
A region has rich farmland but no metal. What does specialization and trade let it do?
- Stop growing food completely
- Avoid all contact with neighbors
- Make metal from wheat
- Grow extra food and trade it for metal tools
Grow extra food and trade it for metal tools
Hint: Each region produces what it's good at and trades for what it lacks.