Page 94 - All About History - Issue 52-17

HiStory anSwerS

Send your questions to questions@historyanswers.co.uk

What was
silent

bartering?
Michael H. Mikus
It was a way of negotiating a commercial
exchange without the participants directly
interacting. It was most commonly used
between 500 and 1500 in west Africa
when trading salt. Salt was a very valuable
commodity and the salt merchants were
very secretive about their sources. They
would arrive at a market or town at
sundown and place the salt blocks on mats
on the ground. Then they would retire to
their camp.
Anyone wanting to buy the salt would
leave an amount of gold on the mat and
when the traders returned the next day, if
they considered the price fair, they would
take the gold and leave. Otherwise the gold
was left there and they retired again to
await a better offer. This system obviously
involved trust on both sides, but merchants
Many Roman roads are still that had been ripped off wouldn’t return
in acceptable condition after again and salt trade was so vital that no one
1,600 years wanted to ruin their reputation.

How long did it take to build

roman roads?

Justin Whalin where a road passed through woodland, the trees
roman roads came in many different grades of size would be cleared to at least 30 metres on either side –
and quality, but the most impressive were the viae that again to prevent ambushes. the road itself consisted
connected cities to each other or to the coast. roman of several layers of gravel and rocks, held together
Britain had between 3-4,000 kilometres of these roads with mortar and topped with gravel or closely fitted
and British roads were unique because they were flagstones. each kilometre of road probably required
constructed on a raised bank or agger, which could be a workforce of 70 men working for a month. roman
1.8 metres high and 15 metres wide. this is why roads records show that entire roads of 100-200 kilometres
are known as highways, and it was probably a defensive were usually constructed within two years, which means
tactic. a raised road improves visibility and allows several thousand labourers must have been working Tuareg traders, like this one in
fighting from a height advantage in the case of ambush independently at points along the route, joining together Timbuktu, Mali, once brought salt by
camel caravan over the Sahara desert
by belligerent local tribes. at high points, where the road changed direction.
This day in history 25 May

240 BCE 1521 1659 1895

l Halley’s Comet spotted l Diet of Worms ends l Richard Cromwell resigns l Oscar Wilde convicted
The first recorded sighting The assembly (Diet) of the Holy Roman Empire Oliver Cromwell’s son Richard, After rashly (and unsuccessfully)
of Halley’s Comet appears in at the city of Worms (in Germany) concludes resigns as Lord Protector of suing the Marquess of Queensbury
the Chinese chronicle Records with protestant reformer England after eight months, since for libel, for calling him a “posing
Of The Grand Historian. Martin Luther being he doesn’t have the support of the somdomite” [sic], Wilde leaves
It describes a long-tailed declared a heretic and army. The country briefly reverts himself open to prosecution for
star that moved across the an outlaw. Martin Luther to a Commonwealth, before homosexuality. He is sentenced to
heavens from east to north. flees to Wartburg castle. restoring the monarchy in 1660. two years hard labour.

94