What is this about?
Causes and effects of the revival in long distance trade routes such as the Silk Roads
- Demand for luxury goods increased in Europe and Africa
- Caravans made travel safer and more practical
- Chinese developed paper money to scale increasing trade
Cause of the Growth of Exchange Networks
- China wanted Europe’s gold and silver, and Europe wanted silk and tea
- Crusades played a big part in bringing about interest in foreign trade as after the Crusades knights and lords would bring back fabrics and spices and they would continue to want them
Rise of New Empires
- Empire that had the biggest effect on the expansion of trade was the Mongol Empire
- Conquered Abbasid Caliphate in 1258
- In 1300s they also took China
- For the first time one empire controlled a vast majority of the Silk Roads
- Mongols improved roads and punished bandits, increasing safety of traveling on the Silk Road
- This new safety and the Mongol’s openness to trading allowed long distance trade to become popular again
- Those who survived from the ruthless Mongol conquests could greatly benefit from the new long distance trade routes that came about thanks to the Mongols
Improvements in Transportation Technologies
- Improvements in transportation technologies also encouraged long distance trade
- Caravans = a group of travelers
- Travelers figured out that traveling together in a caravan was safer than going alone
- Magnetic compass helped aid navigation along the seas
- Chinese junk was a boat that had multiple sails and was 3x the size of a Western European ship
- Designed saddles for camels that could greatly increase the weight the camels could carry
Effects of the Growth of Exchange Network
Cities and Oases
- A lot of the Silk Road passed through land which was hot, dry, and had little to no water
- As such cities that were near a source of water became thriving centers of trade
- Ex: City of Kashgar is a city on the western edge of China where the north and south ends of the Silk Road meet, and it has a water source: the Kashgar River
- Travelers depended on its food (like wheat, rice, fruits) and water
- Became a bustling trade city where merchants would trade all sorts of goods
- Not just food/water exchanged: the city is traditionally Buddhist but it also became a center of Islamic scholarship
- Ex 2: Samarkand was in between China and the Mediterranean
- Like Kashgar it was not only was a bustling trade center but also was a center of cultural exchange
Caravanserai
- Were inns located along major trade routes
- A traveler could expect to see a caravanserai every 100 miles
- That’s the distance a camel can travel before it needs water
- Travelers at these inns could rest, securely store their goods, and even trade their animals for new ones
- Were also centers of cross-cultural interactions
Commercial Innovations
China
- China invented new financial systems to cope with increasing trade
- Already used money instead of trading commodities, but their system used copper coins which was clunky to transport, so they started using paper money
Europe
- Hanseatic League was a commercial alliance between cities in Northern Germany and Scandinavia which sought to protect merchants engaged in long-distance trade
- Drove out pirates and other adversaries threatening the protection of their stuff
- Was also able to monopolize trade in certain goods such as timber, grain, leather, fish
- As a result it was very powerful as they could determine the prices of certain goods
- Lasted until 1600s as after that national governments were strong enough to protect merchants, so there was no need of such a league
Increase in Demand
- With an increase in demand for luxury goods from places such as China, India, Persia, Afro-Eurasia, these places responded by ramping up production to keep up with demand