Civ 6 trade route bug: A guide to understanding and resolving the trade route problems

A trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. The term can also be used to refer to trade over bodies of water. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a single trade route contains long-distance arteries, which may further be connected to smaller networks of commercial and noncommercial transportation routes. Among notable trade routes was the Amber Road, which served as a dependable network for long-distance trade.[1] Maritime trade along the Spice Route became prominent during the Middle Ages, when nations resorted to military means for control of this influential route.[2] During the Middle Ages, organizations such as the Hanseatic League, aimed at protecting interests of the merchants and trade became increasingly prominent.[3]

In modern times, commercial activity shifted from the major trade routes of the Old World to newer routes between modern nation-states. This activity was sometimes carried out without traditional protection of trade and under international free-trade agreements, which allowed commercial goods to cross borders with relaxed restrictions.[4] Innovative transportation of modern times includes pipeline transport and the relatively well-known trade involving rail routes, automobiles, and cargo airlines.

Civ 6 Trade Route Bug

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Long-distance trade routes were developed in the Chalcolithic period. The period from the middle of the 2nd millennium BCE to the beginning of the Common Era saw societies in Southeast Asia, Western Asia, the Mediterranean, China, and the Indian subcontinent develop major transportation networks for trade.[5]

Navigation was known in Sumer between the 4th and the 3rd millennium BCE.[7] The Egyptians had trade routes through the Red Sea, importing spices from the "Land of Punt" (East Africa) and from Arabia.[11]

In Asia, the earliest evidence of maritime trade was the Neolithic trade networks of the Austronesian peoples among which is the lingling-o jade industry of the Philippines, Taiwan, southern Vietnam and peninsular Thailand. It also included the long-distance routes of Austronesian traders from Indonesia and Malaysia connecting China with South Asia and the Middle East since approximately 500 BCE. It facilitated the spread of Southeast Asian spices and Chinese goods to the west, as well as the spread of Hinduism and Buddhism to the east. This route would later become known as the Maritime Silk Road, although that is a misnomer, since spices, rather than silk, were traded along this route. Many Austronesian technologies like the outrigger and catamaran, as well as Austronesian ship terminologies, still persist in many of the coastal cultures in the Indian Ocean.[12][13][14]

Maritime trade began with safer coastal trade and evolved with the manipulation of the monsoon winds, soon resulting in trade crossing boundaries such as the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal.[15] South Asia had multiple maritime trade routes which connected it to Southeast Asia, thereby making the control of one route resulting in maritime monopoly difficult.[15] Indian connections to various Southeast Asian states buffered it from blockages on other routes.[15] By making use of the maritime trade routes, bulk commodity trade became possible for the Romans in the 2nd century BCE.[16] A Roman trading vessel could span the Mediterranean in a month at one-sixtieth the cost of over-land routes.[17]

The peninsula of Anatolia lay on the commercial land routes to Europe from Asia as well as the sea route from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea.[18] Records from the 19th century BCE attest to the existence of an Assyrian merchant colony at Kanesh in Cappadocia (now in modern Turkey).[18] Trading networks of the Old World included the Grand Trunk Road of India and the Incense Road of Arabia.[5] A transportation network consisting of hard-surfaced highways, using concrete made from volcanic ash and lime, was built by the Romans as early as 312 BCE, during the times of the Censor Appius Claudius Caecus.[19] Parts of the Mediterranean world, Roman Britain, Tigris-Euphrates river system and North Africa fell under the reach of this network at some point of their history.[19]

The Incense Route served as a channel for trading of Indian, Arabian and East Asian goods.[23] The incense trade flourished from South Arabia to the Mediterranean between roughly the 3rd century BCE to the 2nd century CE.[24] This trade was crucial to the economy of Yemen and the frankincense and myrrh trees were seen as a source of wealth by its rulers.[25]

Ptolemy II Philadelphus, emperor of Ptolemaic Egypt, may have forged an alliance with the Lihyanites in order to secure the incense route at Dedan, thereby rerouting the incense trade from Dedan to the coast along the Red Sea to Egypt.[26] I. E. S. Edwards connects the Syro-Ephraimite War to the desire of the Israelites and the Aramaeans to control the northern end of the Incense route, which ran up from Southern Arabia and could be tapped by commanding Transjordan.[27]

The replacement of Greece by the Roman empire as the administrator of the Mediterranean basin led to the resumption of direct trade with the East and the elimination of the taxes extracted previously by the middlemen of the south.[30] According to Milo Kearney (2003) "The South Arabs in protest took to pirate attacks over the Roman ships in the Gulf of Aden. In response, the Romans destroyed Aden and favored the Western Abyssinian coast of the Red Sea."[31] Indian ships sailed to Egypt as the maritime routes of Southern Asia were not under the control of a single power.[30]

This highway has been associated with emperors Chandragupta Maurya and Sher Shah Suri, the latter became synonymous with this route due to his role in ensuring the safety of the travelers and the upkeep of the road.[39] Emperor Sher Shah widened and realigned the road to other routes, and provided approximately 1700 roadside inns through his empire.[39] These inns provided free food and lodgings to the travelers regardless of their status.[39]

The British occupation of this road was of special significance for the British Raj in India.[40] Bridges, pathways and newer inns were constructed by the British for the first thirty-seven years of their reign since the occupation of Punjab in 1849.[40] The British followed roughly the same alignment as the old routes, and at some places the newer routes ran parallel to the older routes.[40]

The Amber Road was a European trade route associated with the trade and transport of amber.[1] Amber satisfied the criteria for long-distance trade as it was light in weight and was in high demand for ornamental purposes around the Mediterranean.[1] Before the establishment of Roman control over areas such as Pannonia, the Amber Road was virtually the only route available for long-distance trade.[1]

The 3rd century saw the Danube river become the principal artery of trade, eclipsing the Amber Road and other commercial routes.[1] The redirection of investment to the Danubian forts saw the towns along the Amber Road growing slowly, though yet retaining their prosperity.[44] The prolonged struggle between the Romans and the barbarians further left its mark on the towns along the Amber Road.[45]

Via Maris, literally Latin for "the way of the sea",[46] was an ancient highway used by the Romans and the Crusaders.[47] The states controlling the Via Maris were in a position to grant access for trade to their own citizens and collect tolls from the outsiders to maintain the trade route.[48] The name Via Maris is a Latin translation of a Hebrew phrase related to Isaiah.[47] Due to the biblical significance of this ancient route, many attempts to find its present-day location have been made by Christian pilgrims.[47] 13th-century traveler and pilgrim Burchard of Mount Zion refers to the Via Maris route as a way leading along the shore of the Sea of Galilee.[47]

Early Muslim writings confirm that the people of West Africa operated a sophisticated network of trade, usually under the authority of a monarch who levied taxes and provided bureaucratic and military support to his kingdom.[50] Sophisticated mechanisms for the economic and political development of the involved African areas were in place before Islam further strengthened trade, towns and government in western Africa.[50] The capital, court and trade of the region find mention in the works of scholar Abū 'Ubayd 'Abd Allāh al-Bakrī; the mainstay of the trans Saharan trade was gold and salt.[50]

The powerful Saharan tribes, Berber in origin and later adapting to Muslim and Arab cultures, controlled the channels to western Africa by making efficient use of horse-drawn vehicles and pack animals.[50] The Songhai engaged in a struggle against the Sa'di dynasty of Morocco over the control of the trans Saharan trade, resulting in damage on both sides and a weak Moroccan victory, further strengthening the uninvolved Saharan tribes.[50] Struggles and disturbances continued till the 14th century, by which the Mandé merchants were trading with the Hausa, between Lake Chad and the Niger.[50] Newer trade routes developed following extension of trade.[50]

Austronesians established trade routes with Southern India and Sri Lanka as early as 500 BCE, ushering an exchange of material culture (like catamarans, outrigger boats, sewn-plank boats, and paan) and cultigens (like coconuts, sandalwood, bananas, and sugarcane); as well as connecting the material cultures of India and China. They constituted the majority of the Indian Ocean component of the spice trade network. Indonesians, in particular were trading in spices (mainly cinnamon and cassia) with East Africa using catamaran and outrigger boats and sailing with the help of the Westerlies in the Indian Ocean. This trade network expanded to reach as far as Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, resulting in the Austronesian colonization of Madagascar by the first half of the first millennium AD. It continued up to historic times, later becoming the Maritime Silk Road.[51][13][14][54][55] This trade network also included smaller trade routes within Island Southeast Asia, including the lingling-o jade network, and the trepanging network.

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