Trade Routes...

[Pixie]

The two (actually three) resources that I'm posting here aren't actually about cartography. But since 99% of the maps here at the guild are of imaginary lands, they concern everyone who is doing that kind of stuff...

So you draw your landshape, and you carefuly or not place your climate zones (your first map will surely have a desert at the bottom, a snowy region upwards, a spine of mountains that is almost impossible to cross and a few large rivers, likely violating a couple of laws of the natural world... then you get better at it, eventually)

Once you do this, you'll have to place cities, villages, castles, roads, whatnot! Your first map will have them evenly distributed... then you get better at it.

Here's an important thought about getting better at it:
- cities are about trade - they flourish where trade routes concentrate - and trade routes aren't random - that's because traders are "people" who "think" before they act - so trade routes will have some logic...

When I fist saw this webpage I went, "duh! obviously! well, that makes me reconsider all my maps, but hurray anyway!" and that's why I want to share it with your guys:
Archatlas: Trade
Archatlas: Portages
If you understand these "visual essays" then you're good to have 100% credible routes in you imaginary map.

But still, you can get a better understanding a how trade/transport works by playing about in a simulation for the roman era:
Orbis: traveling in the Roman Empire

And that's that, in a nutshell: don't draw roads and cities at random... there's better ways to do it.

[waldronate]

https://arstechnica.com/science/2017...ent-silk-road/ has an interesting discussion on how some trade routes might emerge. It presents the idea that some of the silk roads trade routes arose not because they were the shortest total distance, but because they were an aggregate of the shortest paths between places where the food was.

I didn't see this mentioned in your links, but a critical insight into sustainable trade routes has to do with energy required to travel the route vs. value of goods. Critters (of which humans are one) tend to use the lowest-energy route available to get to their destination. It's why sometimes you get routes that go around a mountain as opposed to other times you get routes that go up and over the mountain: it may cost more to go around than to go over for certain types of transport.

A bit of research on "Central Place Theory" can be useful when looking at trade routes. It relates value of goods with how far those goods are likely to move. It also seeks to explain relative amounts of small communities to large ones. It's an overly simplistic theory, but it's a good first approximation in many cases.

[Pixie]

You are right in everything you wrote, waldronate. I think the links I shared have more to do with cost of transport and how that interacts with the terrain constraints to create points where trade is more prevalent, hence where trading emporiums are likely to be based.

What I found most interesting is how those points change over time, with
1. the development of new trade routes, either as a result of exploration or technological innovation
2. the appearance of new resources, either previously untapped or unvalued
3. the development of industries in locations that use to be peripheric (which links directly to "central place"...)

[Vandalicus]

Thanks for this insight, this is really useful.

As someone who studied trade routes in history during my university degree, I am always bothered when I see obviously non-sensical trade routes on maps sometimes (long straight paths across desolate plains and so). While I am not telling that fantasy map must be super realistic, I always find it nice when it is following some inner logic.
For creating pseudo-historical maps I have my personal rule of thumb when placing major trade routes (and roads generally):
1) if possible, follow the rivers (in ancient/medieval period transport by boat is nearly in all cases easier and faster then on dirt roads)
2) easiest, not shortest path between centers (around the desert, not through it)
3) think about the logic behind the road/route/path and what is the economy behind (trade route will go through one urban center to another, because they want to sell stuff, on other hand modern-era road for quickly moving armies could be quite straight and actually be passing around inhabited point to avoid being clogged by civilians/refugees)

[tatteredglyph]

As someone who is new to this - and trying to improve each day little by little, this resource is priceless. I've been trying to logically think of placements for cities, towns, ports, etc. So knowing how trade routes evolve and flow are perfect to get a sense of where things will go. I'd say this is very important to know for anyone who is starting out, so I'm glad I stumbled upon this!

[czaczaja]

The interactive Roman travel map is simply invaluable, especially for a geek like me who loved Roman Empire all his life.