The Silk Road

Then, in 114 BC, Zhang Quiang traveled to the Indian empires.  The information that he brought back about the empires caused China to expand the Silk Road to reach places as far as Rome and the Fertile Crescent.  This long trade route ultimately stretched 2800 miles across the land to facilitate trade between China and Europe.  The trade route was actually composed of a number of northern and southern routes that facilitated trade, usually through multiple merchants along the way. (Hyper history)  The Silk Road, named so because of one of the major goods traded along it, was not known as the Silk Road until a German scholar living in the 19th century coined that phrase.

Many goods came out of China such as Silk, Ceramics, and Porcelain. The most exported good of the ancient times and the good that gave the Silk Road its name was Silk.  The Chinese knew how to make Silk long before they traded it.  This was because China was waiting for the right moment to sell there highly priced commodity.  The silk was a hit everywhere it was traded to.  Some civilizations thought that this material came directly from the gods.  In Rome, silk became such an obsession that the government outlawed.  The Chinese also exported ceramics and porcelain, which came to be known as china.  The Ceramics exported were the fanciest you could buy at the time.   The Chinese colored the ceramics with most of the colors of the rainbow making the ceramic very expensive.  In addition China exported paper, which was a huge technological advance; rice and tea. 

The Ancient Chinese economy couldn’t have only relied on their exports to make their empire a thriving one.  China also depended on many goods that were shipped from the other side of the Silk Road.  China imported goods such as precious metals, gold, and ivory.   China also imported grapes, figs, walnuts, pomegranates, safflowers and carrots.

Gold was the most important of these since it was universally recognized as valuable.  China also imported fur from Central Asia and Roman glass.   China used the ivory to make beautiful carvings, which they then traded back to the rest of the world.  In addition, it is thought that China imported donkeys, camels, and horses, from trade along the Silk Road because the Egyptians first domesticated these animals.

All these goods were important because it allowed the communication with China to the outside world.  This allowed the different cultures and technologies to advance through the mixing of different cultures. Much of their trade was positive for the development of Chinese culture.   For example the introduction of new foods and domesticated animals changed China.  However, not all trading was positive, there were significant clashes of culture with the exchange of goods, ideas, and Technologies.  For example, the Chinese believed that the traders stole the technology for making silk.  Because of these and other clashes in ideology.  China eventually began to close their doors to the open exchange along the Silk Road.