Worksheet

Barter, Coins and a Caravan on the Silk Roads

Grade 6 economics: compare barter and early coins, then follow a described Silk Roads map and a Roman source to trace how goods and ideas moved.

Grade 6Social StudiesInteractive · Printable

Aligned toECO.6.2

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1 C3 Framework standard
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10 questions
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Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 6
Subject: Social Studies
Question types: Multiple choice, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students explain the problems of barter and how stamped coins made trade easier.
Students follow a described map to trace how goods and ideas moved on the Silk Roads.
Students use an adapted Roman source and other evidence to explain long-distance trade.

How to use

Have students trace the map description with a finger or sketch it before the route questions. Read the source note together before the last three questions.

Curriculum

C3 Framework standard covered

ECO.6.2

Explain barter, the invention of coins and money, and how ancient trade routes moved goods and ideas.

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Barter, Coins and a Caravan on the Silk Roads

Follow a described map and a bolt of silk to see how barter, coins and trade routes moved goods and ideas.

From barter to coins

Read the passage. Then answer the questions.

Silk, Silver and Ideas

1Long before money, people traded by barter, exchanging one good directly for another. A herder might trade a goat for a farmer's grain. Barter works well when each side wants what the other has. But a potter who wants fish must find a fisher who happens to want pots, and a cow cannot be split to pay for something small.

2Over time, many peoples used goods such as grain, cattle, cowrie shells or weighed lumps of metal to measure value. About 600 BCE, rulers of Lydia, a kingdom in what is now western Turkey, began stamping small lumps of electrum, a mix of gold and silver, with a royal lion's head. The stamp showed that each coin had a set weight, so traders did not have to weigh metal at every sale. Greek cities soon made coins of their own. In China, people used bronze coins shaped like small tools, and after China was united in 221 BCE, round bronze coins with a square hole became standard.

3About 125 BCE, a Chinese envoy named Zhang Qian returned from a long journey to Central Asia and told the Han emperor about the kingdoms and goods to the west. Trade along the routes grew. Historians call these routes the Silk Roads, though they were not one road, and silk was only one of many goods.

4Around 100 CE, a merchant in Chang'an might buy bolts of silk and bronze mirrors with bronze coins. His camels carried them to Dunhuang, where he sold them to a Sogdian merchant from Samarkand for silver coins and two Central Asian horses, which were prized in China. At Kashgar, the Sogdian traded a bolt of silk for food and water for his camels. In Samarkand he sold the rest to Parthian merchants from Persia, who carried it west to Antioch. There a Roman trader paid in gold coins. Each merchant charged more than he had paid, and cities collected taxes along the way, so silk in Rome cost many times its price in Chang'an.

5The routes carried ideas as well as goods. Roman glassware and coins moved east, and Buddhist monks from India carried their teachings north through Kashgar and Dunhuang into China, where Buddhism had taken root by the first century CE. Archaeologists have found Roman coins in southern India and pieces of Chinese silk in tombs at Palmyra, in Syria.

A melon farmer in Kashgar wants silk, but the silk trader wants horses, not melons. Which problem of barter from paragraph 1 does this show?

A. Some goods cannot be split to pay for something small.
B. Each side must want what the other side has to offer.
C. Melons and silk were used to measure value in Kashgar.
D. Coins with a royal stamp had to be weighed at every sale.

Why did the royal stamp make Lydian coins easier to trade with than lumps of metal?

A. It turned the electrum into pure gold that was worth more.
B. It showed a set weight, so people did not have to weigh the metal.
C. It meant Greek cities had to accept the coins as payment.
D. It let traders split each coin into smaller pieces for small sales.

Follow the map

Read the map description. Use it and paragraphs 4 and 5 to answer.

Map of the Silk Roads, about 100 CE
• Chang'an, the capital of Han China, is at the eastern end of the routes.
• Dunhuang, an oasis town, lies far to the west of Chang'an, at the edge of the Taklamakan Desert. Caravans go around the desert along chains of oases to its north or south. Both routes lead west to Kashgar.
• Kashgar is an oasis city at the western edge of the desert. From Kashgar, one route crosses the high Pamir Mountains west to Samarkand. Another route climbs south over mountain passes to Taxila.
• Taxila is a city in the northwest of ancient India (in present-day Pakistan), south of Kashgar.
• Samarkand is a trading city of the Sogdian people, west of Kashgar.
• Antioch is a Roman city near the Mediterranean Sea, far to the west of Samarkand across Persia.

A caravan leaves Dunhuang for Samarkand. Which description of its route fits the map?

A. It goes south over the mountain passes to Taxila, then north to Samarkand.
B. It goes straight across the middle of the Taklamakan Desert to Antioch.
C. It goes east to Chang'an, then crosses the Pamir Mountains to Samarkand.
D. It goes west around the desert to Kashgar, then crosses the Pamir Mountains.

A Buddhist monk travels from Taxila to Chang'an to teach. Which places would he most likely pass, in order?

A. Kashgar, then the desert oases, then Dunhuang
B. Antioch, then Samarkand, then Kashgar
C. Dunhuang, then Samarkand, then Kashgar
D. Samarkand, then Antioch, then Dunhuang

Sort each good or idea by the way it mostly moved, according to paragraphs 4 and 5.

Bolts of silkBronze mirrors from Chang'anCentral Asian horsesRoman glasswareBuddhist teachings

Moved west, away from China	Moved east, toward China

Based on paragraph 4, which statement best describes how silk from Chang'an reached Antioch?

A. It passed through the hands of several merchants from different peoples.
B. It was carried by Buddhist monks who traded it at each oasis town.
C. Roman traders traveled to Chang'an to buy it directly from weavers.
D. One Chinese merchant carried it the whole way and sold it in Rome.

Which trade in paragraph 4 was a barter, with no money used?

A. Silk for gold coins in Antioch
B. Silk for silver coins and horses in Dunhuang
C. Silk for food and water in Kashgar
D. Silk and mirrors for bronze coins in Chang'an

A Roman complaint

Read the note and the excerpt. Then answer the questions.

About the source: Pliny the Elder (about 23–79 CE) was a Roman official and writer. About 77 CE he finished Natural History, a huge book about nature, places and trade. In it, he often criticized wealthy Romans for spending on luxuries from faraway lands.

Adapted from a translation of Pliny's Natural History, Book 12

By the lowest estimate, India, China and the Arabian peninsula take 100 million sesterces from our empire every year. That is what our luxuries cost us.

What was Pliny's main purpose in writing this passage?

A. To teach traders the best route from Rome to China
B. To praise the merchants who brought silk to Rome
C. To explain how Lydian coins were stamped and weighed
D. To criticize how much Romans spent on foreign luxuries

Which detail from paragraph 5 best corroborates Pliny's claim that Roman money went east?

A. Central Asian horses were prized by people in China.
B. Pieces of Chinese silk were found in tombs at Palmyra.
C. Roman coins have been found in southern India.
D. Buddhist teachings reached China by the first century CE.

10.

Claim: coins made long-distance trade on the Silk Roads easier, but barter did not disappear. Do you agree? Use at least two details from the passage, the map or Pliny's words as evidence, and explain your reasoning.