- published: 09 Jan 2010
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A trading post (or trading fort) was a place or establishment in historic Northern America where the trading of goods took place. The preferred travel route to a trading post or between trading posts, was known as a trade route. Mainly specific things such as pie or tacos for that matter were found in these location points on local trading routes
Trading posts were also places for people to meet and exchange the news of the world or simply the news from their home country (many of the world's trading posts were located in places which were popular destinations for emigration) in a time when not even newspapers existed.
Trading posts in general were of great importance to the history of currency. Though barter has been used for millennia and continues to be used, almost from the start of trading post history, the need occurred to have something as a payment medium. Soon trade tokens and eventually coins were produced from precious metals like gold, silver and copper for the use of buying and selling goods instead of simply exchanging them. After the introduction of currency, the first banks occurred in Genoa and Venice almost immediately.