With the advancement of commerce and culture there were many great things that came about and yet there was also certain consequences of this growth. A consequence that I found particularly interesting is strayers example of "Phesant s in the Yangzi River delta of souther China sometinmes gave up the cultivation of food crops, choosing to focus instead on producing silk, paper, porcelain, lacquer-ware, or iron tools, much of which was destined for the markets of the silk roads." (Strayer,321) while these decisions helped the trade routs it tricked down and hurt the farmers and drove the gap between class systems and poverty levels.  It also raises cause for concern because we can lose precious forms of cultivating and agriculture.  Food is essential to survival of any society and not knowing how to do tis or teach our children can drastically alter our state of being and our survival rate.  I believe we are beginning to see this in todays society with obesity on the rise and a lack of knowledge and education of the general public of not only where their food is coming form but how it is grown. event though technology and commerce is important for economic growth, it is also important to remember the commerce and culture of our resources needed for survival.  not just resources for wealth and power.
 It is also very interesting to compare the  transit of silk goods thousands of years ago to now, although  some of the  materials have changed the methods of who the workers  and the poverty gap seems to be alarmingly similar. "Although the silk trade itself was largely in the hands of men, women figured hugely in the process both in terms of supply and demand. for many centuries, Chinese women, mostly in rural areas, were responsible for every step of the ingenious and laborious enterprise of silk production" (Strayer  320)  There are so many similarities when I compare  my current job to this past history. Many workers other contires come form rural parts of the contry to work and  a high percentage of them are women. This really makes me thingk about the evolution and change if thre really is any going on or are we still stuck in old cylcels of how things used to be? How can we change and progress forward and not oppress people? how can we become equal, workin to gether to survive, live on and better our envoirnmet without depleting resources and lives.