Early Trade - The discovery of nonlocal objects at many archaeological
sites strongly suggests that trade existed in prehistoric times.
Anthropologists and other explorers have found trade institutions
among diverse peoples throughout the world. The ceremonially elaborate
kula trade ring of the Trobriand Islands, the gift-giving potlatch
of W Canada's Kwakiutl , and the desert caravan of N Africa and
the Arabian peninsula are among the more famous examples. In the
Western world a number of peoples, including the Egyptians, Sumerians,
Cretans, Phoenicians, and Greeks, at one time or another dominated
trade. The Crusades did much to widen European trade horizons
and prefaced the passing of trade superiority from Constantinople
to Venice and other cities of N Italy.
The theory of commerce as imposed by the national state has varied
from the mercantilism of the 17th and 18th cents. and the protective
tariff of the 19th and 20th cents. to the free trade that Britain
long upheld. Since World War II a realization of the need for
commercial expansion has led to the creation of regional trade
zones, the prime example being that of the European Union . A
trade agreement among the United States, Canada, and Mexico, called
the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), was signed in
1992, and in 2001 34 nations committed themselves to the development
of a free trade area encompassing the Western Hemisphere.
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