Introduction From 1200 AD to the present, there have been many changes in the world economy. The most important change is how integrated the world economy has become. When countries have a demand for something, the first question is where the supply will come from. Ultimately, the way all nations and places were able to get their demands met was by going international and getting it that way. The entire world found a way by sea and land to get the items they needed, and in the process, connected the entire world through trade. First question The first types of societies were agricultural and pastoral. Pastoral societies have less productive economies because they were nomadic and needed large grazing areas and supported smaller populations. They usually organized themselves by family and common ancestry (Strayer 334). The main pastoral group was the Mongols who conquered from the Pacific coast of Asia to Eastern Europe (Strayer 342). Part of their great success was their extensive business network. In the 13th and 14th centuries, a large and interconnected trading system was established. (Mark 33) The Mongols did not so much participate in trade as tax it. They provided merchants with a safe route to undertake the long journey through Central Asia between Europe and China (Strayer 354). This trade route relied mostly on middlemen, as it was a series of circuits all connected. An item can travel from Asia to Europe and pass through many hands with the price increasing each time. This trade gave way to the Indian Ocean trade and the Silk Roads in the 15th century. The Silk Roads connected China, Siberia, Central Asia, India, the Middle East and the Mediterranean. The French and English created slave-based sugar plantations on the Caribbean islands (Mark 83). Slaves also became a central part of colonial America's economies as it continued to keep plantation agriculture active (Class Notes 6/12/10). The Mongols were the first pastoral group to essentially become an empire. Then, as China and Europe began to rebuild and move out into the open, trade became a global idea. China began using silver as currency, which meant it needed most of the world's silver in Asia. The rest of the world benefited from exchanging their silver with Asia. Silver was the first thing that really connected the entire world and specifically incorporated the Americas into their trading network. Then there was the fur and slave trade, which further united the world economy as a whole.