Impacts of the Silk Road

At any one moment, an individual is surrounded by multitudes of objects that were not made, raised, or grown in his or her town, state, or even the same country. The global economy that everyone lives and participates in depends on extensive trading between distant nations. This type of cross-cultural trade has always been a part of every human civilization, but it was not until the development of the Silk Road did an organized system of trade appear which could directly link places thousands of miles apart.

This massive trade network is the precursor to modern, worldwide trade that impacts everyone from farmers in Africa to engineers in Detroit to European CEO's. The Silk Road connected the entire Eurasian continent and allowed goods to travel from one end of the known world to the other, traveling over land and sea, much like the modern shipping lanes and truck routes of the present day.

Also, just like the world today, Chinese products flooded the markets. Precious items like silk and porcelain could be traded for Roman gold and Italian wine. This is comparable to the traffic of raw materials, toys, electronics, oil, and money that constantly circulate the world. The goods themselves traveled the length of the Silk Road, while the merchants rarely moved outside their circuits. The process of how goods moved from one end of the ancient trade network to the other is long and twisted. Goods exchanged hands from merchant to merchant along the road, slowly moving either east or west over land and sea until they reach their final destination. It was unheard of for a merchant to travel from Rome to China or vice versa in an effort to sell goods without the numerous middle men involved in the process.

While modern trade is even more extensive than the Silk Road, the reach of the Silk Road was enormous for its era. New Empires like the Romans and the Han Dynasty could provide upkeep and protection for the Silk Road, making it easier and safer for traders to move about. Again, this is reminiscent of trade networks in the modern era, as nations strive to provide safe, cheap, and fast access for traveling goods and in some cases, such as oversea transport, protection from bandits and pirates.

With all these similarities, it is easy to say that the Silk Road had a great impact in its time period. The Silk Road had all the things that are integral to modern trade today, from the ability to reach distant nations to allowing the movement of goods through thousands of miles, making it a model for trade networks in every era since then.

For more information, check out http://www.ess.uci.edu/~oliver/silk.html