Golden age of Byzantium.

Abstract This chapter discusses the reign of the Eastern Roman Empire as well as the state of the international trade during its golden era. It consists of thirteen subchapters which are about the Shift of Roman Power, the rule of Constantine, the drastic transition of world trade after the fall of the West Roman Empire, the exotic luxuries of Byzantium, the golden age of the Eastern Roman Empire under Justinian, Byzantine attitudes about trade. Trade in the Byzantine world was highly regulated by the state, the empire was essentially a huge trading organization. It continues with the subchapters, The Dollar of the Middle Ages, Trading with the Enemy, Aksum and Byzantium's Indian Ocean Connections, Christians Surrounded by Muslims, The Secret of Silk Escapes, which is about the mid-sixth century when most silk found its way to Europe through the Silk Routes across China and the northern steppes of Central Asia, the Justinian's Plague that spread along the great trade routes, emerging first in China and north-east India, travelling to Ethiopia, moving up the Nile to Alexandria and then east to Palestine and across the entire Mediterranean region, and lastly, The End of the Red Sea Portal. Some 1000 years of Greek and Roman rule over Egypt had ended and with it the Red Sea link of Europe with the Asian spice trade.