Along with my main focus question I also have many broken down questions:
- What items were most popular?
- What items were considered as luxuries?
- What items were considered as necessities?
- What items were least popular?
When people think of the Silk Road, people will think of trade, but not many people know about the things that were traded. Different countries have different things that they need, and also different countries have resources that others might want. In Ancient China Silk was one of the things that all the other countries wanted. So I wanted to research about the popular goods and necessities that were traded in Dunhuang, China. I found three "goods" that were really important, and I thought affected the world then. The three "goods" were Silk, Horses, and Silver.
Gansu Is Province Located Northwest Of China. It's Neighbors Are Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, And Qinghai. The Yellow River Flows Through The South Part Of The Province.
The Silk Road Was Not Started In Gansu, But Merchants Would Stop At Dunhuang To Get Camels Before They Enter The Taklamakan Desert. Hexi Corridor Is One Of The Most Important Routes For Merchants And Traders. This Route Was Really Useful When People Needed To Get To Central Asia. Hexi Corridor Is Part Of The Northern Silk Road And Is Located Inside Of Gansu.
(left) this is a picture of Dunhuang, which was a town that was part of the Silk road route. (middle) This is a map showing parts of the silk road, the hexi corridor and also the Taklamakan Desert.
Silk was one of the most important and popular items, it is the reason the route is called "Silk Road". Other countries in Asia and Europe really wanted silk because they think it is a sign of wealth. The Romans were the ones who wa...
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...ny people trusted paper currency, so the Chinese had to get a new economy system. Silver was one of the best choice.
This picture shows silver that were traded. Silver played a big role because many countries used it as a primary economic system. Also people used it to trade for goods.
Many of other goods were traded, or sold but I think these were the most important for China, especially in Gansu. Silk was what started the "Silk Road" and it became one of the most wanted item. Horses were really helpful when people needed to transport to somewhere or when they were escaping or attacking people. Horses were really important when people needed to get through the Taklamakan desert. Silver was another important trade because without silver China would have not developed their economic system, and they won't be able to trade with other countries or learn from others.
The Silk Road made sure if you didn’t trade items you can hold, then you can trade items you can cherish. Finally, in the western civilizations (Rome), it was accessed by boat. Boats could carry a ton more items and it was less of a walk for the merchants/traders. However, the Silk Road did lead a small backup path up north of Parthia. Around 27 B.C.E., the Roman Empire had only begun, but the silk road had been a thing for a very long time before that.
Francesco Pegolotti was a Florentine merchant and politician. He wrote the The Practice of Commerce in which he expressed the personal qualities he believed that merchants were most needed to survive, which were compliancy and the skill to work with others, and have understanding. Pegolotti’s history was based on the sensitivity to local rules and customs was the key to survival. In this paper it will argue that the personal qualities that was needed to succeed in the Silk Road trade.
During the period 1550-1800, the colonization of the Americas by European civilizations led to massive shifts in economic power from the West to East and vice-versa. An increase in global competition among western civilizations and against their asian counterparts drove Europeans to search for wealth elsewhere, and thus colonizing the Americas. One of the easiest ways to generate a profit, increase a civilizations wealth, and ultimately their military power was through the silver trade. In monopolizing said trade, Europe was able to establish a somewhat steady economic connection to the very wealthy Asian civilizations. However, european nations were struggling to keep control of the silver trade out of Asian hands, which caused major shifts
Before the emergence of silver, Chinese society isolated themselves from the global economy. Due to Confucian teachings and heavy voyage expenditures, Chinese officials restricted foreign interaction and trade. Also, being
world began to use this item as a means of currency. Leading in the production of this element
The geography of these areas not only helped with traveling, but it also helped create the natural resources that many civilizations crave for, thus making trading very popular.
The Silk Road got its name from the amount of silk used for trade during the Han dynasty. This route was used to travel from West to East on land they traveled to India, Persia, Arabia, and Europe, while traveling by sea they traveled through Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. These paths were used by merchants, pilgrims, monks, soldiers, nomads, and urban dwellers.... ... middle of paper ...
Some of the items included porcelain and silk, which is more of a want than a need. Charles D’Avenant also mentions that along with receiving luxury good, Europeans were only sending silver and gold back to Asia, which would become buried and never returned. The global flow of silver’s influence on trade between European nations can be seen in D’Avenant’s account of the English being “supplanted in the spice- trade by the Dutch”, in his reference to importing from the East Indies commodities that can then be sold elsewhere across Europe, in his disappointment that gold and silver gets buried permanently in Asia. To the people of Europe, Asian silks and dyed cloth is pleasing to everyone and useful to wear at home. That meant that it should not be recommended to quit the trade between Europe and China because it benefited both countries. In his essay, Xu Dunqiu Ming wrote about how before, buyers would give vegetables and animals in order to purchase a product from a merchant (Doc. 4). But, silver allowed trading and bartering to be simpler because instead of having to trade item for other goods and services, a person can just give a certain amount of silver coins. The historical context of this essay
As told by the roman historian Cassius Dio, Silk was used in Caesar’s celebration. (doc. 1). When Dio talks about the silk he calls it a “device of barbarian luxury.” This proves that a well educated roman was oblivious to the advancements that the Chinese had made, including The Great Wall and Grand Canal. Not to mention that the Chinese have existed thousands of years prior to the Roman civilization. Secondly Sima Qian who wrote The Records Of the Grand Historian clearly hints that Zhang Qian may have started the Silk Road. According to the document, Zhang Qian travels several thousand li (1 Li is equivalent to a bit more than one third of a mile.) Zhang brings back crops such as wheat and rice, and even find out about wine and grapes. Zhang was the first person to bring a clear account of present day Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, claiming it was people settled on the
Baghdad was a city flourishing with culture and was the capital of the Islamic Empire during its Golden Age under the Abbasid Dynasty. Unlike the preceding militaristic Umayyad rulers, the Abbasids had focused on maintaining the empire. The capital was changed from Damascus to Baghdad, which was accessible by the Tigris and Euphrates River as well as the Mediterranean Sea, and the Indian Ocean. Its location made it ideal for trade along the Silk Roads and maritime trade. Caravans traveled along the roads with goods that were traded with places as far as China where they imported silk and porcelain (Stearns). Islam expanded the Silk Roads helping to promote trade and a stable economy. The trade routes not only helped to spread goods but along with it came the Islamic culture and knowledge into different parts of the world. These empires benefited each other as new ideas lead to innovations and progression.
The Mongols influenced the world in many great ways, one of them was their vast trade system. They relied quite heavily on trade, not only to gain resources, but also to get their inventions and objects to the Europeans and then hopefully spread from there. The Mongols enhanced the trading system by composing the “Silk Road”. The Silk Road was a path/road that the Mongols had control of and it was a trade route that many travelers and traders took. Along the Silk Road, the main resource that was traded was silk, hence the name “Silk Road.” The
With deserts and the Himalayas running along most of the border, it was extremely difficult to cross over one of the most dangerous mountain ranges in the world and a few other scorching deserts with the little transport they had during that time. The only way merchants could come into the country was the southeastern coast of China, where most of the prosperous cities resided. What led China to become conceited was because they had an abundance of goods that most of the world wanted. In the 1760-1830s, China was famous for its porcelain (rich Europeans loved it), silk, and of course, tea. Since this Eastern Powerhouse’s goods were so popular, therefore, there were only a few things that interested them to trade with.
Two significant aspects of China encompass the Great Wall of China and the Silk Road. According to Lin Donn on the website Ancient China for Kids it states “Qin wanted a wall 3 feet wide 50 feet high...it took 1,700 years and was 3,700 miles long.” The Great Wall of China is such a significant part of China because every emperor showed dedication by putting people to work to build a wall for protection. Without it, many invasions of China would have succeeded, ending the empire much sooner. Next, the article Ancient China for Kids: The Silk Road by Lin Donn states “Rome traded gold and gems for China’s silk and spices… ideas travelled along the Silk Road as well.” Trading along the Silk Road was important for
The term Silk Road does not refer to a single, clearly defined road or highway, but rather denotes a network of trails and trading posts, oasis and markets scattered all across Central Asia. All along the way, branch routes led to destinations off to the side of the main route, with one especially important branch leading to northwestern India, and thus to other routes throughout the subcontinent. The Silk Road network is generally thought of as stretching from an eastern station at the old Chinese capital city of Chang'an to westward stations at Byzantium (Constantinople), Antioch, Damascus, and other Middle Eastern cities. But beyond those end points, other trade networks distributed Silk Road goods throughout the Mediterranean world and Europe, on one end, and throughout eastern Asia on the other end.
The Silk Road is trade route that connected east and west. Inaccurately named by Ferdinand von Richthofen in the 19th century, it is actually a collection of roads. Traders didn’t usually traverse the whole length of the route, however. Goods were usually traded multiple times before they reached the final destination. Items leaving from Asia and China were goods such as: silk, spices, textiles, ivory, jade, bronze objects, ceramics, lacquarware, flowers, furs, paper, jewelry, minerals, horses, and exotic plants and animals. Goods from the west were: wool, linen, coins, bullion, ambergris, gold, ivory, amber, coral, other precious stones, beads, and glass (a commodity that China has not been able to produce at this point). Goods originating from India were:...