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Replaces the URL-based PDF downloads in tg-load-sample-documents with seven curated, locally bundled documents covering diverse topics (recipes, Belgian beer, trade routes, corporate scandals, pets, fortifications, Bronze Age collapse). Documents are packaged as data files within trustgraph-cli and loaded from metadata.json, removing the dependency on external URLs and the doc-cache mechanism.
63 lines
4.3 KiB
Markdown
63 lines
4.3 KiB
Markdown
# Traditional Trade Routes of Pre-Modern Europe
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## Section 1: The Arteries (The Core Networks)
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### Network A: The Hanseatic Baltic Route
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- **Alternative Names:** The Hansa Network, The Northern Guild Rim.
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- **Geographical Span:** Spans from the North Sea across the Baltic Sea, linking London, Bruges, Lübeck, Danzig, and Novgorod.
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- **Primary Commodities:** Timber, Fur, Flax, Stockfish, Amber.
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- **Downstream Dependencies:** Provides raw materials for Western European shipbuilding and winter clothing markets.
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### Network B: The Venetian Maritime Route
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- **Alternative Names:** The Levantine Silk Spoke, The Adriatic Lifeline.
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- **Geographical Span:** Connects Venice through the Adriatic Sea, around Greece, to Constantinople and Alexandria.
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- **Primary Commodities:** Silk, Pepper, Cinnamon, Alum, Glassware.
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- **Downstream Dependencies:** Feeds the luxury markets of the Holy Roman Empire via alpine passes.
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## Section 2: Hub Cities & Commodity Crossings
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### Hub 1: Bruges (The Low Countries)
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- **Alternative Names:** Brugge, The Flanders Staple.
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- **Geographical Intersection:** The primary terminus where The Hanseatic Baltic Route meets Western European land routes.
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**The Staple Right Dispute (Critical Logic Test):**
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- **The Guild Law:** By ducal decree, all foreign merchants traveling through Flanders must unload their ships at Bruges and offer their goods for sale for a mandatory 15 days before they can proceed.
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- **The English Subversion:** English wool merchants, seeking to bypass the Bruges tax, began smuggling raw wool directly to Antwerp, sparking an economic blockade by the Hanseatic League against English shipping.
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### Hub 2: Lübeck (The Baltic Capital)
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- **Alternative Names:** Lubeca, The Queen of the Hansa.
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- **Geographical Intersection:** Located in Northern Germany, acting as the administrative node connecting the North Sea (via the Kiel land-bridge) to the wider Baltic Sea.
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- **Resource Matrix:** Completely dependent on the Lüneburg Salt Works for its primary processing industry (herring preservation).
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### Hub 3: Constantinople (The Gateway)
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- **Alternative Names:** Byzantium, Istanbul, Miklagard.
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- **Geographical Intersection:** The western terminus of the Silk Road land routes and the northern terminus of The Venetian Maritime Route.
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- **Controlling Entity:** Transferred from Byzantine control to Ottoman control in 1453, altering the tariff structures for all Christian merchants.
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## Section 3: Specialized Commodities & Processing Nodes
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### Item 1: Lüneburg Salt
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- **Alternative Names:** White Gold, Northern Brine.
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- **Origin:** Extracted from the brine springs of Lüneburg, Germany.
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- **Process:** Boiled in massive lead pans using timber sourced from local forests.
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- **Critical Dependency Link:** This salt is shipped directly to Bergen (Norway) via Lübeck to pack and preserve Scania Herring. Without this specific salt supply, Baltic fish rots before reaching Western markets.
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### Item 2: Phocaean Alum
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- **Alternative Names:** The Weaver's Fixative, Anatolian Alum.
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- **Origin:** Mined in the hills of Phocaea (Asia Minor) under the jurisdiction of the Genoese Republic, later seized by regional powers.
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- **Process:** Shipped via Mediterranean maritime routes to Flanders and Florence.
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- **Chemical Function:** A mandatory chemical mordant required to fix dyes to wool and textiles. Without Alum, the famous Flemish textile industry cannot produce colored cloth.
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## Section 4: Geopolitical Disruptions & Chokepoints
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- **The Sound Toll Bottleneck:** The King of Denmark levies a mandatory tax on all ships entering or leaving the Baltic Sea through the Øresund strait. A diplomatic dispute or military blockade of the Sound by Denmark instantly halts the flow of Russian timber to the English Royal Dockyards.
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- **The Sound-to-Salt Ripple Effect:** If the forests around Lüneburg are depleted, salt production drops. This directly causes a collapse in the Bergen fish trade, which in turn causes a protein shortage and subsequent famine in the labor forces of the Flemish textile hubs.
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- **The Alum Monopolization:** Following conflicts in the East, the discovery of a domestic alum mine in Tolfa (Papal States) in 1461 caused a massive geopolitical shift, as the Pope banned the import of "infidel alum" from the East, forcing Venetian merchants to pivot their supply lines inward.
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