A Bronze Age shipwreck recovered from the Aegean contained copper, tin, bronze and glass in bulk. How did suppliers coordinate transportation of this cargo from across Eurasia? In what way did they communicate with distant buyers and sellers? And how did middlemen bridge cultural differences within extensive trade networks?
Throughout history, people have traded across continents and empires. Investigating diverse intercultural scenarios, this book takes the reader back in time through an intensely multilingual landscape. We meet travelling merchants, explorers, envoys, pilgrims and slaves, whose language lives were shaped along the way. We witness their creative drive to connect, to understand and to be understood across distances. We see how for them, knowing languages was a practical necessity, an essential resource. The lessons of their stories are relevant today, showing that an ability to navigate multiple languages is integral to success.
Rich in factual examples, this illustrated bookis intended for educated readers and students in the fields of social history, linguistics, economics, and in business, communication and area studies. An annotated bibliography and open questions are provided to facilitate further consideration of the connections between multilingualism and economics.