Tag: trade-routes
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The Economics of the Suez Canal
The Suez Canal transformed global trade, bankrupted Egypt, enriched Britain, and triggered a decolonization crisis. Its history shows how infrastructure ownership creates political leverage that outlasts empires.
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How the Panama Canal Transformed Global Trade
The Panama Canal's story runs from French financial catastrophe through American imperial ambition to Chinese infrastructure investment. What it reveals about how geography and capital interact.
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The Economics of the Amber Trade
Examine amber as the luxury commodity that connected the Baltic to the Mediterranean in antiquity — why it was so highly valued, the Amber Road trade routes, how amber trade networks reveal the extent of prehistoric long-distance commerce, and what amber's history teaches about how luxury goods drive the development of long-distance trade infrastructure.
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How Geographic Chokepoints Control Commerce
Examine how control of geographic chokepoints — Malacca, Bosphorus, Gibraltar, Hormuz, Suez — has determined commercial and political power, the economics of toll extraction versus free navigation, and why the pattern persists today.
