5 - Trans-Asian trade, or the Silk Road deconstructed (antiquity, middle ages)

Summary

This chapter provides first a central Asian perspective on the trans-Asian trade. It then focuses on the silk trade, although comparisons are provided with the more regional trades, from which comparisons are drawn to evaluate the economic importance of these various trades. The concept of ortaq is extremely important to link the tributary and commercial aspects of the Silk Road. More often than not, in the long run, China had to buy peace from its northern nomadic neighbors by paying heavy tributes to them, generally in silk rolls. Additionally, the payment for the maintenance of Chinese armies in Central Asia was made by transferring rolls of silk. The sending of silk to the West by the Chinese army or the Chinese diplomacy at a cost paid by the state could only destroy the trading networks between inner China and central Asia. Conversely, it created opportunities for traders operating further west, from Chinese-controlled central Asia to the Middle and Near East.