The ancient Indus and ancient Chinese civilizations each brought their own huge contributions to the human species, yet we only know so much about them. Despite being roughly 2000 miles apart from each other, the two civilizations had somewhat similar characteristics such as their specialization of labor, large trading markets, huge advances in the sciences and arts and their forms of monumental architecture. But still differed in many ways in the same characteristics.
For instance, the Indus and the Chinese were very similar in their specializations in labor. As a result of cultivating plants and the domestication of animals, both civilizations allowed their people to spend time doing other things that weren't related to farming. Similarly, the civilizations had many military members, noblemen, merchants, blacksmiths, artistic members, architects and farmers. There were two differences, the Indus had many more priests because they worshipped multiple major gods, the Chinese didn't. Instead they didn't really have an organized religion and there were no gods who intervened in human affairs. However, the Chinese had a job that the Indus did not which was silk weaving. At the time, silk weaving was a new Chinese discovery and because China and the Indus were separated by the Himalayas and the vast deserts, these two civilizations didn't have a lot of trade between them. .
Yet this didn't affect how they traded with civilizations other than themselves. The Indus had an extensive trade history with the Deccan Plateau, Persia and Mesopotamia. Merchants from these areas would trade gold and silver (Persia), large stones for building (Deccan Plateau) and cheap yet necessitative goods with Mesopotamia such as animals, cotton and wheat. China, similarly had the same trading systems with cities west of them. However, merchants traveling to china had to carry the most expensive things with them since the traveling in caravans through the desert was so long and they need to make a profit.
