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Central Asia - A SHORT HISTORY OF THE SILK
ROAD World Trade
Ann Saccomano Jan 2002
Two thousand years ago the two halves of the world met
each other. The person who introduced them was personified
in Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, a 14th century Florentine
man who had the most prized of talents: he could get it
for you wholesale.
Pegolotti was a merchant on the Silk Road, one of the
great trade routes of the world. The legendary caravan
trail brought the East to the West through a nest of pathways
that began in China, snaked through central Asia and ended
in Rome. It transformed exotic luxury goods into household
necessities for the avid consumers of the Roman Empire.
In doing so it created the first mass market.
The route wasn't a continuous line between cities. It
forked into different passages spreading from central
Asia to the Middle East. It wasn't the sole route between
east and west but it was the most expansive one, and so
became the definitive link between the two.
In the East, the Silk Road billowed out from China's Kansu
province at Sian, flowed near Inner Mongolia between the
Nan Shan Mountains and Gobi Desert. It made its way through
central Asia to India, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan,
Syria, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon and Turkey. Parts of it
branched into those areas that become part of the discarded
Soviet empire: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan
and Tajikistan.
From the ancient city of Constantinople (now Istanbul)
the goods went by the Mediterranean Sea to the route's
other end point, Rome.
Marco Polo became its most famous explorer when he traveled
from Europe to Asia in the late 13th century to become
a confidante of Ghengis Khan. But it was people like Pegolotti-the
merchants-who connected one end of the world to the other.
A trader for a powerful Florentine banking family, Pegolotti
left behind one of the few written records of commercial
trading in this remote outpost. His book, "Market
Practices," was a guidebook for the Silk Road entrepreneur.
Here can be found information about rates of exchange,
what kind of translator to hire (avoid the cheap ones)
how to bribe Customs officials (generously) and how to
price goods (silk by the pound, animal tails 20 to a bundle).
The Road's power as a trading force was waning by the
time Pegolotti wrote his book around 1340, having reached
its peak in the late 13th century. But it remained a channel
for societies to trade not just their goods but their
ideas, religious beliefs and political systems.
Today central Asia, in the heart of the Silk Road, is
torn in a tremendous military and ideological conflict.
Yet this region has a rich history of societies that managed
to create a link between East and West without the benefit
of modern transport and communication.
The Road Begins
The earliest known history of the Silk Road dates to China's
Han Dynasty and its emperor, Wu-ti (approximately 140-87
B.C.). Seeking to expand his empire, and in need of fast
horses to do so, the emperor sent his army into modern--
day Uzbekistan to spirit away 30 powerful horses belonging
to another tribe.
With a stock of these fine horses, the emperor and his
empire were in business. Silk-making flourished and its
popularity eventually gave the route its name.
Western eyes first saw silk in significant amounts-and
under the least inviting of circumstances-in 57 B.C. According
to Robert Collins, in his book, "East to Cathay,"
that was the year the Roman army chased the Parthinians
(or Persians) into Iran, who then handed the Romans one
of the worst defeats of the Empire, killing 20,000 soldiers
and taking another 10,000 prisoner.
While the Romans probably didn't pay much attention to
it at the time, the battle flags of the enemy were made
of silk. The Parthinians got it from an even more distant
people, whom the Romans eventually christened the "Seres,"
but were in fact the Chinese.
The Parthinians triumphed on the battlefield and in the
marketplace. They became the earliest middlemen between
the Chinese manufacturers and the Roman consumers. Parthinians
traded gold, silver and glass for silk. Since neither
party spoke the other's language, negotiations were conducted
through hand signs, the universal language of the open
air market.
The structure became the foundation for all trading along
the Silk Road. Goods weren't the only imports that traveled
the route. The earliest travelers brought their own languages
and cultures. They built temples along the route, which
in turn inspired religious pilgrimages. Buddhism spread
by way of India. The Arabs' military successes in the
eighth century fostered the spread of Islam. Nestorian
Christianity appeared in the fifth century.
Doing Business on the Silk Road
It would take a caravan up to a year to make the 4,000
mile trip (or 6,000 to 7,000 miles if one included the
backroads and side trips). Silk was the main commodity
moving from east to west. From the opposite direction
came wool, ivory, glass and precious metals. Over time
all manner of goods trailed the road, from the most expensive
cloth to the most mundane ox hide.
Few, if any, individuals made the entire trip. Instead,
goods were passed along through an intricate network of
middlemen. The modern distributorship can claim no braver
ancestor. These businessmen had to contend not only with
the usual concerns of supply and demand but sandstorms,
ice storms, bloodthirsty Huns and feudal warlords.
It's likely none of these was an acceptable excuse for
late delivery
Dan Waugh is an associate professor of history and international
studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. He
teaches a course on the Silk Road and has traveled extensively
in the region.
According to Waugh, most trade on the Silk Road was done
in progressive stages along the route, with local merchants
passing goods along without traveling for great stretches
of distance. He bases his analysis on documentation dating
to the 17th century.
"Within such a framework, you could have merchants
who might remain within the boundaries of a territory
which had a common currency, common commercial practices,
etc.," Waugh says. "What Pegolotti or Marco
Polo would seem to suggest to us was probably exceptional-knowing
the road all the way from the Mediterranean to China was
not terribly relevant for most who would trade on the
Silk Road."
The evidence points to transactions conducted in many
local markets, and that cash didn't play a big role. Although
coins from the Han Dynasty era (206 B.C. to A.D. 220)
have been found across Central Asia, it's more likely
that bolts of silk were the preferred medium of exchange.
Purchase orders didn't exist, but there were clusters
of merchants in various time periods who maintained correspondence
and provided credit. The banking system flourished through
a network of local business people, often of the same
kin or religious group as the traveler.
This form of banking survives today but it's difficult
for an outsider to trace the money trail. For this reason,
investigators of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack say it
may have been the conduit for funneling money through
al-Qaeda cells.
The Silk Road reached its high point during the Mongol
Empire. Under Ghenghis Khan and his successors, the Mongols
spread their power into Iran, the Caucasus, southern Russia,
Persia, Iraq and Eastern Europe.
"The period when the Mongol Empire was flourishing
was the apex because there was a political entity controlling
it," Waugh says. "Whether it actually had more
volume of goods moving is hard to say. But by the 1260s
even the Mongol Empire started to squabble, and Marco
Polo speaks of political discord. So, the second half
of the 13th century was peak."
Today central Asia, in the heart of the Silk Road, is
torn in a tremendous military and ideological conflict.
Yet this region has a rich history of societies that managed
to create a link between East and West without the benefit
of modern transportation or communication.
Ann Saccomano is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C
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