DBQ Essay

In the post-classical period, trade both conflicted and did not conflict with religion and philosophical systems; it depended on the region, and point of view. Over half of the articles fit under the category of conflict meaning that the people who wrote these articles had a problem with trade and believed it interfered with religion or philosophy. The other articles were just the opposite meaning that there wasn't believed to be a problem between the relationship between trade and religion or philosophy. This also implicates that most articles have a negative point of view towards this relationship.
There were many articles that described the conflicts between religion and trade. Articles 2, 4 & 5 stated that trade affected religion and the way people acted while trading. Ibn Khaldun was a Muslim who gave his opinion about the characteristics of traders. He said that even though trade was a means of livelihood, it led to trickery and gambling (document 2). Pope Innocent III went so far against trading that he threatened excommunication to anyone who consorted, directly or indirectly, with the Saracens (document 4). Humbert of Romans was a man who gave his opinion on Medieval European fairs and markets. Trade, in his mind, that occured at fairs and markets was considered morally wrong because men missed feast days meaning they also missed the sermon and disobeyed the precept of hearing Mass (document 5). In all of these cases, the articles showed how trade had a negative impact on religion in the eyes of the narrator.
Articles 1 and 3 were of the opposite opinion. The people of those articles believed that trade and religion did not conflict with each other. For example, article one was from the Hadith which is an Islamic legal code. Allah said that trading was okay as long as both parties remained truthful. Blessings would be given in that situation. However, if one party was not truthful, blessings would not be given (document 1). In another article by Saint Godric, a British merchant, it said that boys learned how to become successful merchants at young ages because it allowed them to get much experience (document 3). In both of these articles, which were both written by people of a religious stand-point, said that trade didn't affect religion in a negative way and was mostly just there. Each had a more of a neutral, if not positive, point of view of religion's relationship with trade.
The final article also states that there is a conflict but not with religion. In this case, the conflict is with philosophy. Zhang Han, from China, wrote that merchants think a lot of themselves but he believes that their wisdom is not as important as merchants think: "Great understanding is broad and unhurried; little understanding is cramped and busy" (document 6). His view of merchants was made clear and is definitely negative.
Overall, the common patterns in this set of articles was whether or not there was a conflict between religion, philosophy and trade and how they interacted with each other. 4 out of 6 articles had negative points of views towards trade interacting with religion and philosophy. They each stated the same basic thing in different ways: trade was hurting the behavior of men. As an additional document, a view of a Hindu merchant would have been beneficial for two reasons. One: it would have showed what an actual merchant thought about his religion practices. Two: Being from a Hindu community it would have given a view from another region in the world.