The Silk Roads
The term “Silk Road” suggests a single route along which silk travelled from China to Europe. In reality, the Silk Roads were a shifting network of overland and sea routes that connected East Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe for more than a thousand years.
Few merchants travelled the entire distance. Goods usually passed through many hands, moving from one trading city to the next. Oasis towns in Central Asia became wealthy by providing water, food, animals and places to rest, and by taxing the caravans that passed through. As a result, prices rose sharply the further goods travelled from their origin.
Silk was only one of many products exchanged. Horses, spices, glass, paper, precious metals and textiles all moved along the routes. Equally important was the exchange of ideas: religions such as Buddhism spread from India into China, while techniques such as papermaking gradually moved westward.
The routes also carried less welcome passengers. Historians believe that diseases, including forms of plague, travelled with traders and their animals, sometimes with devastating effects. The same connections that brought prosperity could therefore also bring catastrophe.