The Essence of Silk Road During the Pre-Mongolian Era - Article Example

Insert Names of Author(s)] [Insert Course Identification information here] [Insert Professors name here] [Insert Submission date here] Trade along the Silk Road during the Pre-Mongol Era The ‘Silk Road’ is the term used for the overland trade routes in Eurasia specifically China, Central Asia, India, and Europe. The person who coined the term Silk Road was a German geographer named Ferdinand von Richthofen(Thorton). The Silk Road is not only a single route but instead composed of a string of tracks that connects the countries in central Asia to each other and to the countries in Europe. The two ends of the Silk Road are China in central Asia that is the Eastern end and Rome in Europe which is the Western end(Hansen). The geographical range of Silk Road from the East to West includes the following civilizations and oasis cities Changan (Xi’an, China), Lanzhou, DunHuang, Kashgar, Samarkand,Tashkent, Merv, Hamadan, Baghdad, Palmyra, Tyre, and Antioch. The route from the East starts in Changan, China then proceeds to Gansu corridor and then goes by the edge of the Talikmakan in Dunhuang. Yumen Guan (Jade Gate Pass), neck of Gobi desert, Hami (Kumul) Tianshan Mountains, and northern fringes of Taklimakan are the areas passed by Silk Road in the northern route. Turfan and Kuqa is the major oasis passed by the northern route before it reaches the foot of Pamir at Kashgar. The southern route on the other hand branched off at DunHuan to Yang Guan, Miran, hetian, Shache, and then turns north meeting the other route at Kashgar. There are also other trail branches of Silk Road like the branch of the southern route that proceeds to the city of Loulan through the eastern end of Taklimakan before the intersection with the northern route at Korla. Then from Kashgar which is the new crossroad of Asia, the trails are again divided and these are: the trail that proceeds to the south of Caspian Sea through the Pamirs and Samarkand; the trail journeying to the south to India through Karakorum; and the further route which is subdivided from the northern route after Kuqa before traversing the Tianshan range that ends up in the Caspian Sea shores through Tashkent(Wild). The journey of merchants with their people and the travelers in Silk Road is not lucrative. The geographical attributes of inner Asia consisted of enormous tracks of inhospitable lands. There is usually meager supply of water and huge distances separate human settlements. The driest deserts of the world are located in between the Mediterranean and China hence the travelling merchants experience extreme heat. The mountain ranges in these areas are high in altitude and have extreme weather conditions. These attributes of the trails of Silk Road make the journey of merchants tremendously difficult. The necessity of trade though enables the various members of Eurasian civilizations to traverse Silk Road and experience difficulties(Foltz). In the travels of merchants and travelers of the trails of Silk Road it was not uncommon to encounter robbers due to the huge distance between settlements. The dry and vast deserts also serve as shelters for these robbers. The merchants in order to protect themselves and their caravan from the robbers usually have weapons for protection or travel with guards. The risks that the robbers pose are endured by the merchants but they travel with especially in long- distance trade equipped for the worst circumstances. The extreme difficulties that were experienced by the merchants in their travel were counted in the calculation of profit in the merchant’s goods thus it was still logical to endure those difficulties because it comes with a price. Silk Road as a trading route started when the Western Han Dynasty of China pacified the Mongolian Xiongnu nomads through bribing them with goods and then these nomads traded those goods to people on the west of their geographic location. Transferring of the good occurred further to the west through trade. The peak of this trading route was during China’s Tang Dynasty(Thorton). The development of trade in the various parts of Silk Road did not start at the same time but rather the Western end was developed first than the Eastern end. This was due to the earlier progress of the Western empires specifically Persia and Syria. There was prior activity of trade in vast region of the Middle East which was controlled by the Iranian Empire of Persia and extends up to the Indian Kingdoms in the East(Wild). Silk though was not the sole commodity of trade that was available during the establishment of the Silk Road. The road was named silk road not that silk was the only commodity but rather because many of the traders which journey into that route were Chinese that sells silk which is China’s most famous export during those times(Hansen). The demand for silk increased in the Western part of the Silk Road because Westerners consider this product as the most remarkable among the precious goods that were sold by the Eastern people. The Romans upon their first encounter with silk thought that the Parthians were the ones capable of making the exquisite product. Later on the Romans learned that the Parthians whom were relatively unsophisticated population are not capable of making silk and that the remarkable product came from a mysterious tribe in the East. The infiltration of Eastern products like silk to Europe did not occur in bulk numbers at first instead very small quantities were traded at a time. The popularity of silk in Rome was rapidly developed due to its attractiveness and soft texture which was the preference of the elite society of the Eastern empires especially Rome. The increased demand for silk in Rome lead to the trade expeditions which were undertaken by the Romans in competition for lower prices of the product with the Parthians(Wild). Other than silk the commodities that traders carry were: gold and other valuable metals; textiles made of wool and linen; glass; ivory; amber; and precious stones. These goods were from other countries in central Asia that were bound to China. Products of the traders from China on the other hand were: ceramics; lacquer; furs; and weapons, mirrors, and belt buckles which were made of bronze(Hansen). Exotic animals and plants were also included as products of trade in the Silk Road market. The goods from both ends of Silk Road reached the opposite end from where they were manufactured through continuous trading thus the goods were transferred from one middleman to another until it reached their consumers. The participation of middlemen in the trade activities of Silk Road was intensively significant in the progress of routes trading industry. There were records of the appreciation of the products of the opposite ends by the population of both ends of the trading routes but there were no records available which states that the Chinese merchants were seen in Rome or the Roman businessmen doing their trade in Changan(Wild). Chinese, Indians, Romans, Parthians, Bukharans, Kushans, Persians and other Europeans empires were the traders in Silk Road. It is not only the people of the big civilizations like the Chinese dynasty and the Roman Empire which were involved in the trade at Silk Road. The emergence of oasis cities proves that people in the areas in between the major civilizations participate in the trade activities. Merchants and middlemen from the oasis cities and trade center areas along the trail of Silk Road, aside from buying and selling goods from the major civilizations to different parts of Eurasia also trade their own goods. This resulted to the vast kinds of goods which are from the exotic ones to those considered staple goods being traded. The trade in the various trails of Silk Road led to the establishment of various oasis cities in Central Asia. Among the oasis cities which flourished in the trails of Silk Road was Bukhara in the 16th century. The merchants of this oasis were significant in the trade of Inner Eurasia specifically between Siberia, Muscovy, and China(Ferguson). The oasis cities serve as stop over locations for the traders and the travelers. In these cities, the people traversing the Silk Road replenish their supplies for their travel period; interact with each other through social gatherings and business transactions; and, find shelter during exhaustion and extreme climatic conditions. The intensive interaction of people of different races in the oasis cities and trade centers thus facilitated the observance and understanding of other cultures and religions. The Silk Road traders travel in the trails of this trading route through caravans. These caravans carry good and personal belongings of the travelers through the use of donkeys, mules, and horses. Other means of transportation are camels in the dessert region and yak or hainag in the extreme cold parts of the route. The carts loaded with goods are carried by camels, oxen, and horses. The mules and donkeys on the other hand carried packs on their backs. Transportation in Silk Road is not easy because of the different climatic conditions of the areas included in the route. The traders experience the heat of the dessert and the extreme cold of winter in some areas. Snowstorms and sandstorms are common hindrances of the trader’s journey, and risks of starvation, dehydration, and exhaustion were also existent(Foltz). The trading payment of goods was not only through money in the form of coins but also through exchange of goods such as grains and textiles which is termed as barter. Taxes were also implemented during those times but it is not only limited to money because the local procedure of paying taxes includes animals, grains, textiles, and carpets. In Eastern Central Asia, Chinese coins were used to a limited extent and the people who have these coins were usually outsiders of the settlements in these areas. Exchange of goods instead of paying coins for the goods purchased is common in those times. Loans, tax collection, rents, and workers fee were also paid in the form of goods instead of coins. Depending on the weight of the worth of the payables, the goods which serve as payments in these regions were animals, grain, textiles, and carpets. Acceptable and important form of payment in purchasing camels was exchange with grains. The fees for buying slaves usually were camels. Lands were purchased through exchange with corn, carpets, wine, horses, and camels. The fines and penalties which were imposed by the empires can also be paid with carpets, textiles, cows, and horses(Wang). In Turfan and Khotan, well established form of payment for goods was carpets. During the middle of the sixth century the people of Turfan though elicited a major change in their system of payment by utilizing coins as payment for their loans, land rents, and labor fees. The coin payment is according to the superiority of the quality of transactions received by the payee. In the colonization of Chinese in Gaochang another shift of the exchange of goods happened wherein the silver coins were still the primary form of money but grains were already the secondary form instead of silk. Silver coins were utilized to pay for labor, loans, and purchased goods. But silk could also be exchanged for purchased goods and loans. The silver coins which were used during those times were imitations of the Sasanian coins while the copper coins were from the Chinese. There were evidences recovered that there were a presence of gold coins but no records show that these coins were used in the transactions of the Turfanians(Wang). The economic benefits of trade were evident during those times of activity of Silk Road. The religious benefit from the trade was the transmittance of the different religions to the various parts of Eurasia. Buddism and Taoism reached the European regions while Christianity and Islam were also competing in penetrating the various parts of Inner Asia. Religious pilgrimage was established across Asia through the spread of religious beliefs and traditions. The pilgrimage of the Chinese people who embraced Buddhism to the origin of this religion which is in India is a great example of the establishment of pilgrimage during those times. The monks of China traversed the Silk Road to pay homage to Buddhism origins in Indonesia. The Christian Turks from Mongolia also pilgrimage to the west of Palestine(Foltz). The influence of Silk Road does not limit to the economic aspects but rather it touched the lives of the different civilizations through the evangelization of the various religions of Eurasia. The dominance of the Chinese empires in the trade of Silk Road during the pre-Mongol Era is evident. The trade route itself is coined Silk Road due to the evident primary commodity from China which is its finest silk. This commodity is the primary one that reached the European end of the Silk Road and was highly appreciated by the people of Rome and Constantinople(Thorton).The dynasty’s of China thus during the peak of the Silk Road trade market highly benefited from the trade. The Chinese not only profited from their trade in the Silk Road but also gained various things from it like knowledge of other cultures, their religion transmitted to the European countries, and the people recognized the high quality products of China. The silk production technology of China was also transmitted to the other parts of Eurasia through the merchants and travelers of Silk Road. The replication of silk occurred because the demand of this product increased rapidly due to the likings of the Europeans to the quality and softness of the silk. As the trade of Silk Road progressed the Eurasian population considered the silk as the highest for of luxury especially among the royal and elite members of the civilizations. The various empires that were participants of the trade in Silk Road contributed and have varied influences in the development of the trade in the route. The demand of goods which were not produced in each empire was sustained by trading with other empires. The trade did not only include the finished products but the methodologies on how to make these products were traded as well. An example is the production of silk in other parts of Asia and Europe when the manufacture of this product was originally in a certain tribe of China. All the empires of Eurasia which participated in the Silk Road trade were significant components of the development of the trade route market but these empires were also contributors to the downfall of the route after its peak. The colonization by predominant empires of the other parts of Eurasia affected the trading in Silk Road. Continuity of the exchange of goods were impeded thus the trade ceased. Thus, the empires of Eurasia were the factors that established and promoted the trade in Silk Road in the earlier times but during the downfall of the Mongolian Empire all of the empires of Eurasia were also factors of the decline of trading in Silk Road. Along the downfall of the Mongolian Empire, there are other reasons for the decline of Silk Road and these are: Ming Dynasty of China’s isolationist trade policies, the spread of Islam, and the development of sea trading routes which were faster, safer, and less expensive(Thorton). The essence of Silk Road during the Pre-Mongolian Era was not only focused on the trade of goods between the civilizations of the East and the West. It was also a medium for the exchange of knowledge on various aspects like religion, science, and arts; transmittance of culture to other civilizations; establishment of new economic institutions and technologies; progress of travel; and interactions of civilizations. Like any developments there are disadvantages that were associated with the emergence of Silk Road. These negative effects include the transmittance of disease and the prevalence of bandits who robs the caravans of merchants which travel through the Silk Road. The weight of the positive effects of the existence of Silk Road though is more than that of its disadvantages. In general, the development of Silk Road enriched the civilizations of Eurasia through exchange of cultures, religion, science, art, and technology. Works Cited Read More