Dbq 2002 Ap World

Over many years, trade has spread throughout the world influencing cultures, governments and people. Religion has also influenced trade and the impact of trade. Two religions in particular, Christianity and Islam, although they had their different aspects of trade, share a parallel basis of their belief in its evil of corruption or its goodness of sharing.
In the Christian Bible, it states that a rich man will rarely enter into the kingdom of heaven. In the book of Matthew, it is written that it is much easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man, like a merchant or a trader, to enter into the kingdom of God (Doc 1). This would make sense considering that this message was mainly aimed at, the majority of the people, which is the poor. That is just one example of the attitudes of Christianity towards merchants. Reginald, who was a monk of Durham, said in the book, The Life of St. Godric, that tells the story of a man who lives the life of a merchant. He would buy merchandise for a low price and then sell it for a larger price elsewhere. Then, after sixteen years being a merchant, he decides to follow the peddler’s way of life and sell all his possessions and give to the poor. This shows that a life without wealth is a better choice for the man, instead of a lifetime being a merchant (Doc 3). Thomas Aquinas, a leading Scholastic theologian, said that he judges trade because trade is all about deceiving and lying to the seller to make them buy things for a greater amount of money than the actual price or for how much it is worth (Doc 4)...