The Silk Route
International trade
During the height of the Silk Route, great caravans, formed of up to 1,000 double-humped Bactrian camels, travelled at a snail's pace over the vast Taklamakan desert, some of the least hospitable territory on the face of the earth.
Scorching heat and freezing cold
In high summer, they travelled at night, less afraid of legendary desert demons than of the scorching heat – the daytime temperature could be 40°C (104°F) and more, and in the Turpan basin, the lowest point on earth after the Dead Sea, it frequently reached higher than 50°C (122°F). But in winter, it would dip to below –20°C (–4°F). Blinding sandstorms forced the caravans to cling to the ground for days on end. Their route would also take them over snowbound mountain passes, where altitude sickness and snow-blindness would affect both humans and beasts.
The land surrounding the Taklamakan was equally hostile. To the north-east lay the Gobi desert, almost as harsh as the Taklamakan. On the remaining three sides were some of the highest mountains in the world. To the south were the Himalaya, Karakorum and Kunlun ranges, which effectively separated central Asia from the Indian subcontinent. To the north and west lay the Tianshan and Pamir mountains. Approaching the Silk Route from the east, the least difficult entry was along the `Gansu Corridor', a relatively fertile strip running along the base of the Qilian mountains, separating the great Mongolian plateau and the Gobi from the Tibetan high plateau.
North and south branches
As it left the commercial centres of northern China, the Silk Route diverged into north and south branches. The north route passed through the Bulgar-Kypchak zone to eastern Europe and the Crimea, and from there across the Black Sea, Marmara Sea and Balkans to Venice. The south route passed through Turkestan and Iran into Mesopotamia and Anatolia, and then through Antioch in southern Anatolia to the Mediterranean or through the Levant into Egypt and north Africa.
Caravans heading towards China carried gold and other precious metals, ivory, precious stones, glass (not manufactured in China until the 5th century AD) and foods such as pomegranates, safflowers and carrots. In the opposite direction came furs, ceramics, jade, bronze objects, lacquer work and iron, as well as the all-important silk.
A maritime trade between East and West also developed between Alexandria in Egypt and Guangzhou in China, fostered by the expansion of Roman trading posts in India. As a result, historians also talk of a ‘Porcelain Route’ or ‘Silk Route’ across the Indian Ocean.
Cosmopolitan
The Silk Route was an early example of political and cultural integration due to inter-regional trade. In its heyday, it sustained an international culture that brought together groups as diverse as the Magyars, Armenians and Chinese and encouraged them to integrate, and helped spread new products and, even more importantly, new ideas. It has been compared to the railway system that opened the United States to trade in the 1860s.
The remains of imported goods, found in recent years along the Silk Route at the Han dynasty sites of Changan (Xian), Loulan, demonstrate how cosmopolitan and important these cities were. Further evidence has come from a cemetery at Loulan, dated to the 1st century AD, which contained burials of individuals from Siberia, India, Afghanistan and the lands around the Mediterranean.
During the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), many settlements were set up along the Silk Route, mostly in oasis areas. The settlers profited from the passing trade, and also absorbed much of the local culture as well as the alien cultures they encountered through commerce. Local people undoubtedly acted as guides for the caravans over the most dangerous sections of the route.
Bandits
Very few merchants traversed the full length of the Silk Route. Most simply travelled part of the journey, selling their wares a little way from home and then returning with the proceeds. Goods were often bartered along the way, changing hands many times as they moved slowly across Asia, each transaction increasing the cost of the product.
The settlements reflected the nature of the trade passing through them. Silk, on its way to the west, often got no further than central Asia. On the northern edge of the Silk Route, excavation of the Astana tombs – where, in the 3rd to 9th centuries, some 500 nobles of Gaochang in the Turpan basin, were buried – has turned up examples of silk cloth from eastern China as well as objects from as far away as Persia and India.
Nomads and tribal societies previously living in isolation along the Silk Route were drawn to the riches carried by travellers from the civilisations at either end. Many became bandits, and caravans had to supply their own defence forces – an added cost for the merchants making the trip. Policing the route became a big problem for the Han. This was partially overcome by building forts and defensive walls along part of it, including sections of the Great Wall. However, these fortifications were not all as effective as intended, as the Chinese lost control of parts of the route at regular intervals.
Barbarians
The Silk Route reached its greatest importance during the Tang dynasty (AD 618-907), with relative internal stability in China after a period of division following the Han.
Changan, the starting point of the route as well as the capital of the dynasty, developed into one of the largest and most multicultural cities of the time. By AD 742, its population was almost two million, and a census 12 years later showed that 5,000 foreigners were living there: Turks, Iranians, Indians and others from along the Silk Route, as well as Japanese, Koreans and Malays from the East. Many were merchants, missionaries or pilgrims, but virtually every other occupation was also represented. Rare plants, medicines, spices and other goods from the West were to be found in Changan’s bazaars. It is quite clear, however, that despite the exotic imports the Chinese continued to regard all foreigners as barbarians.
After the Tang, traffic along the trade route declined. Internal stability was not maintained during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, and neighbouring states began to plunder the caravans. China was partially unified again in the Song dynasty (960-1279), but the Silk Route did not have the same significance that it once had.
Few inklings
To those in the far West, China was still unknown and silk production was not understood. Since the days of Alexander the Great, there had been an increased familiarity with India, but except for a few inklings during the Roman empire, there was no real knowledge of or contact with the `Seres' until about the 7th century. Then with the rise of Islam in the 7th and 8th centuries, a curtain briefly came down between the East and West. When trade relations resumed, the Muslims of the Middle East and central Asia played an active role as intermediaries.
Trade along the route was adversely affected by the Crusades, the first of which was in 1095-9 and the ninth and last in 1271-2. These wars brought Christians a little nearer to central Asia, but Muslim armies drove them back. However, it was not the Christians who would split the Muslim world, but the Mongols from the East.
