The Silk Road

GPS• SS7E9 The student will explain how voluntary

trade benefits buyers and sellers in Southern and Eastern Asia.

• a. Explain how specialization encourages trade between countries.

• b. Compare and contrast different types of trade barriers, such as tariffs, quotas, and embargos, as well as those created by geography.

• SS7E10d. Describe the role of entrepreneurship.

Silk Road

Who?• It was an important transmission line

for cultural and technological ideas that linked traders, merchants, pilgrims, monks, missionaries, soldiers, nomads, and city dwellers from China to the Mediterranean.

• Some people think it was just a route for trading goods, but it also carried people, diseases, and ideas, as well as goods.

The “Must Haves” The northern Silk Road brought to

China many goods such as dates, saffron powder, and pistachio nuts from Persia; frankincense, aloes and myrrh from Somalia; sandalwood from India; glass bottles from Egypt; and other expensive and desirable goods from other parts of the world. In exchange, the caravans transported from China bolts of silk brocade, lacquer ware and porcelain.

Cultural Transmission• The Silk Road exposed the concepts of

Buddhism, originating during the 1st century in northern India, through Central Asia and China until it reached Korea in the 4th century and Japan in the 6th century.

• During the Middle Ages, movable type printing, gunpowder, fireworks, the astrolabe, the compass, wood block printing, and paper.

• Chess – 6th century India, as well as cotton and the use of sugar for sweetening.

What?• The Silk Road extended from Southern

Europe through Arabia, Somalia, Egypt, Persia, India, and Java, until it reached China

• Silk Road, or Silk Routes, was not a single paved route, but a network of interconnected trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world, including North Africa and Europe.

When?

• It was in operation for about 1600 years – from approximately 100 BC until the 16th Century.

• There were different periods when it fell out of favor – usually because of extreme danger from tribal attackers.

Where? Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, Africa

Few people traveled the entire 5,000 mile length; traders often covered parts that stretched between trading stations.

Why? People Want Stuff!!

• Northwestern Indians who lived near the Ganges River played prominent roles as middlemen in the China-Mediterranean silk trade because as early as the third century AD, they understood that silk was a lucrative ($$$) product of the Chinese Empire.

• The trading relationship between the Chinese and the Indians grew stronger with increased Han expansion into Central Asia. The Chinese would trade their silk with the Indians for precious stones and metals such as jade, gold, and silver, and the Indians would trade the silk with the Roman Empire. Silk proved to be an expensive import for the Roman Empire since its trade across Indian and Central Asia was heavily controlled by the Persian (now Iran) Empire. These are excellent examples of voluntary free trade.

Trade Barriers

• Trade along the Silk Road had its ups and downs. By 760 AD, during the T'ang Dynasty, trade along the Silk Road had declined. It revived tremendously under the Sung Dynasty in the eleventh and twelfth centuries when China became largely dependent on its silk trade.

• The Chinese traded silk for medicines, perfumes, and slaves in addition to precious stones. As overland trade became increasingly dangerous, and overseas trade became more popular, trade along the Silk Road declined. While the Chinese did maintain a silk-fur trade with the Russians north of the original Silk Route, by the end of the fourteenth century, trade and travel along the road had decreased with the invention of the big sailing vessels and the Age of Exploration in Europe.

The World of the Silk Road

Quick Quiz1. What types of people used the Silk Road?2. What types of items were carried along the Silk

Road?3. Besides people and products, what was

transmitted along this route?4. About how many years was the Silk Road in

operation?5. What parts of the world were connected by this

route?6. What types of trade barriers were present along

the Silk Road?7. Explain the role of entrepreneurship in the

development of this route. Now, to the DABBAWALLAS of India, modern

entrepreneurs of the Samosa Rail Trail!