05-02-2017, 01:53 AM
Hi Koen Gh,
I understand the theory you're presenting, and as you know I keep my mind open to extra-european possibilities, but to me the problem with this particular idea is the following:
If such a secret trader's guide book existed, wouldn't it's contents become utterly obsolete after a thousand years? You mention updates, but really, over 1000 years, we're not talking updates but massive overhauls.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. technology advanced, and the conditions in the various ports would not have been subject to minor updates over such a period, but to major ones: centers of production changed, desirable resources fell out of favor and new ones were sought out, empires rose and fell, alliances were made and broken, places that were friendly could become hostile and conversely, and even the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (and therefore, the resources that could be grown in various places as well as seafaring conditions, such as prevalence of cyclones) changed considerably from one millenium to the next.
I would think that a guide to trading in the Orient written in 1017 would be utterly useless, and potentially even dangerous to a trader working in 2017, so why would it be different then? (I can only imagine the disasters a European trader would encounter if he relied on medieval facts to try and procure goods in Somalia or Iran today, using only medieval information!)
Why would someone bother to meticulously copy, let alone devise a cipher for a book of obsolete knowledge?
And by the way, those provincial mariner books did survive: see the Michael of Rhodes MS I put in the library for one example.
I understand the theory you're presenting, and as you know I keep my mind open to extra-european possibilities, but to me the problem with this particular idea is the following:
If such a secret trader's guide book existed, wouldn't it's contents become utterly obsolete after a thousand years? You mention updates, but really, over 1000 years, we're not talking updates but massive overhauls.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. technology advanced, and the conditions in the various ports would not have been subject to minor updates over such a period, but to major ones: centers of production changed, desirable resources fell out of favor and new ones were sought out, empires rose and fell, alliances were made and broken, places that were friendly could become hostile and conversely, and even the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (and therefore, the resources that could be grown in various places as well as seafaring conditions, such as prevalence of cyclones) changed considerably from one millenium to the next.
I would think that a guide to trading in the Orient written in 1017 would be utterly useless, and potentially even dangerous to a trader working in 2017, so why would it be different then? (I can only imagine the disasters a European trader would encounter if he relied on medieval facts to try and procure goods in Somalia or Iran today, using only medieval information!)
Why would someone bother to meticulously copy, let alone devise a cipher for a book of obsolete knowledge?
And by the way, those provincial mariner books did survive: see the Michael of Rhodes MS I put in the library for one example.