China also produced spices , but the variety was very limited due to geographical limitations. Its main spices — cloves and musk — were sold to the West along with silks and porcelain. Glassware was one of the main commodities imported into China from the West.
Glassware was novel. It was considered a luxury good in those days. First the Romans and then Samarkand SE Uzbekistan made glassware that was especially valued due to its high quality and transparency. The glorious Silk Road also hosted a dark and tragic slave trade. Slaves were treated as commodities. Many slaves traveled long distances by land and sea to foreign markets far away.
To get slaves across borders, money and animals were paid for a pass. Not only the sellers, but also the local ports, markets, and officials benefited. In the area of religion and philosophy, the Chinese were net importers. None of the religions and philosophies of China, such as Taoism and Confucianism gained much of a following in Western countries, but the religions of Buddhism and to a lesser extent Islam and Christianity all gained followings in the eastern empires. Many grottoes along the Silk Road, e.
The technology for silk fabric making , stained glass , paper , books , gunpowder , and gun production spread to the West. Papermaking techniques reached Samarkand in the 8th century. By the 13th century, the very important technology for making paper reached Europe through Baghdad and enabled the Renaissance of European science and culture. Diseases also traveled along the Silk Road. The Black Death , which broke out in , was a terrible disaster spreading along the trade routes.
Some research suggests that the Black Death was transmitted largely by the Silk Road. Infected rats followed caravans along the Silk Road to the Mediterranean, where they spread north and south to Africa and Europe. Europe imported rice, cotton, woolen, porcelains, and silk fabrics from Asia and exported glassware, skins, furs, bark for skin processing, cattle, and slaves.
China exported tea, silk, porcelain, ornate bronze mirrors, lacquerware, medicines, and paper. In return, China received many kinds of products ranging from precious metals to horses, weapons, woolen goods, glassware, gold and silver, and precious stones and jewels. Goods were often traded through bartering. Camels were the means of transport on the overland Silk Road. Merchants traded their goods in intermediate cities , such as Rey in modern-day Tehran in Persia the old name of Iran , Petra in Israel, and Herat in Afghanistan.
From the Tang and Song — dynasties, maritime Silk Road trade began to prosper. Porcelains and spices were the main goods shipped. Today, the Silk Road still tells many stories of ancient times and the exchange of cultures. Take a tour to discover the history and culture of the Silk Road.
See our Silk Road tour designs for inspiration all tours can be customized :. But modern scholars recognize that the Silk Road or Silk Roads continued to enable cross-continental trade until large-scale maritime trade replaced overland caravans in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Here are eight of the most important trade goods that fueled centuries of Silk Road cultural exchange:. Silk, first produced in China as early as 3, B.
The Roman elite prized Chinese silk as a luxuriously thin textile, and later, when silk-making technology was brought to the Mediterranean, artisans in Damascus created the reversible woven silk textile known as damask. But silk was more than clothing, says Wen. In Buddhist cultures it was made into ritual banners or used as a canvas for paintings. Terra cotta statues of a Qin Dynasty Horseman, on display in France Horses were first domesticated in the steppes of Central Asia around B.
Once the horse was introduced into agrarian societies, it became a sought-after tool for transport, cultivation and cavalry, writes historian James Millward in Silk Road: A Very Short Introduction. The silk-for-horse trade was one of the most important and long-lasting exchanges on the Silk Road.
Chinese merchants and officials traded bolts of silk for well-bred horses from the Mongolian steppes and Tibetan plateau. In turn, nomad elites prized the silk for the status it conferred or the additional goods it could buy. Paper, invented in China in the second century A. In , paper was introduced to the Islamic world when Arab forces clashed with the Tang Dynasty at the Battle of Talas.
The Caliph Harun al-Rashid built a paper mill in Baghdad that introduced paper-making to Egypt, North Africa and Spain, where paper finally reached Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries, writes Millward. Merchants also carried tea and rice, woolen and flax fabrics, corals, amber and asbestos.
The sacks of merchants were filled with ivory, rhino horns, turtle shells, spices, ceramic and iron items, glaze and cinnamon, ginger, bronze weapons and mirrors. India was famous for its fabrics, spices and semi-precious stones, dyes, and ivory. Iran — for its silver products. Rome received spices, fragrances, jewels, ivory, and sugar and sent European pictures and luxury goods. Eastern Europe imported rice, cotton, woolen and silk fabrics from Central Asia and exported considerable volumes of skins, furs, fur animals, bark for skin processing, cattle and slaves to Khoresm.
Northern Europe was the source of furs, skins, honey and slaves. About Us Contact Us. Silk Road Countries. Georgia and North Caucasus. Arabian Period. Cultural Exchange. Decline of the Silk Road. Development of the Silk Road. History of beginning. Mongolian Period.
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