The Prax road

From: Lemens, Chris <CLemens_at_exchange.webmd.net>
Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2000 10:33:01 -0400

Andreas M:
> As far as I recall the goods going to
> China over the Silk Road were gold, silver, jade, medicine, incense and
> spices, with the Indians taking a major role as intermediary between
> europe and china.

Alex F:
Not the Indians, the Central Asians.

The Indians traded with China and the Arabs. The Arabs sailed from the east coast of Africa to India. You are, of course, correct that the Silk Road was primarily central Asians, not Indians. A couple of the reasons for the overland route was that the Indian sea route required the goods to get from China to India by coastal routes and that the Indian sea trade only permitted one round trip per year, since it used seasonal trade winds that reversed themselves regularly twice per year. The stuff in the oceans work in progress book is great stuff if you wanted to replicate this type of trade pattern.

Chris Lemens

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