Transcontinental Trade of the Old World

 As I mentioned in my post on Rome’s economy, trade is a vital aspect of a healthy society. As civilizations developed and advanced, so did the trading routes, becoming more complex and farther reaching. Today, we will talk about one of the first transcontinental trade networks on the planet, the Silk Road, connecting the far east of Asia to Europe. 

Everything started during the days of the Han dynasty, when Emperor Wu was searching for ways to end the threat of the Nomadic nation of Xiongnu in modern day Mongolia. As such, he sent an emissary, named Zhang Qian, to central Asia for potential allies. Zhang, despite traversing the territories of his enemies, made it to his destination and successfully made contact with the local Yuezhi and Dayuan people, but was quickly attracted by something else: horses. Now, the Hans were no strangers to these animals, as they themselves fielded cavalry and chariot units in significant quantity. However, the Han emissary quickly realizes that the horses bread by the Dayuan were plainly better than the ones from his homeland. Excited by his discovery, he brought some back to Emperor Wu, who, impressed by these beasts, ordered more to be imported for his army. This proved itself to be a wise move, as Wu’s improved cavalry units were now capable of effectively keeping in check the Xiongnu, ending their threat for the time being. Wu, emboldened by this, set up a vast and complex network of trade routes linking his lands to the empires of Central Asia, Anatolia and the Mediterranean. 

See what I mean when I say trade is crucial for a nation? The Hans struggled with an enemy until they went to another nation, acquired a new resource, which allowed them to win. 

Now Wu didn’t create the entire network alone, instead linking his nations to the existing network by passing through the Plains north of the Himalayan plateau. Then, the Silk Road connected with a much more ancient system of trade routes called the Royal Roads, a legacy of the Achaemenid Empire (Persia), before crossing into the growing Roman Republic. Now, the name Silk Road wouldn’t come to be until centuries after the downfall of the system, and in fact, it didn’t really have one when it was active. The reason we named it like this today is that the network was at first mainly used to export Silk out of China, the only manufacturer of this specific product in the world. The Romans in particular would become the prime consumers of silk, so much so that centuries later, Eastern Emperor Justinian sent spies to steal the technology. Talk about corporate espionage. In return, the Chinese got glass work of a quality they couldn’t replicate, leading to their own avidity for a foreign product. This also led to a very interesting dynamic between the two sides of the road. On one hand, you had the Han and its successor kingdoms, which saw the Roman Republic and then Empire as the ‘Empire of Glass’ and equal to their splendour. Meanwhile, the Romans viewed the Chinese the same way they viewed anyone non-Roman, inferior and destined to be conquered. It is funny how egalitarian they are when it comes to being racist. 

Now, one thing to keep in mind is that traders rarely traverse the roads from one end to the other. Caravans are slow, so most of the time they would go to one major trade center to sell their products before returning home. Goods would be carried over the entire system by multiple auxiliaries, passing them on until they reached their destination. This fueled many smaller businesses, like inns, resting stations and trade outposts existing for the sole purpose of supporting the travelling merchants. 

Material goods weren’t the only things exchanged through the Silk Road, but religion and technology, and not always stolen as mentioned earlier. For example, knowledge of gunpowder was brought to Europe from China by the roads, while the eastern nations gained better mapping techniques. Not everything was sun and rainbows, as increased contacts also meant diseases were easier to pass to new lands, like all infamous Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death, which would go on and slay a third of Europe. 

Sadly for the Silk Road, its importance as a trading network would come to a slow end with the rise of the Ottoman Empire. Emboldened by their new monopoly on the roads, they made the European merchants pay premium prices for goods passing through their lands. As such, the Christian Kingdoms would seek out new alternatives to reach the riches of the eastern civilizations, and their solution was the sea. This meant the Age of Discovery, and subsequent Colonial Era, was indirectly caused by the Silk Road. The knowledge of trade goods that could only be found in far lands pushed people to explore the seas to reach them more easily. And in one of history’s greatest ironies, this would become one of the factors of the Ottomans’ downfall, as being trapped in the Mediterranean meant they couldn’t take advantage of the oceans. 

Guess that was the price of their greed. 

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