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Caravan Traffic across Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

W. C. Brice
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Extract

The main routes of commerce into Asia beyond the frontiers of the Roman Empire are now well charted, thanks to many vindications of the reliability of Ptolemy, and to the archaeological work of Sir Aurel Stein in the deserts of Central Asia and North Arabia. However, little is still known about the administration of this commerce. The classical geographers give very few hints on such questions as who organized and who travelled with the caravans; where were the stages on the route, and how the goods were handed over at each stage; whether currency or barter was used; and what arrangements were made for the security of the traffic.

What follows is an attempt to collect the scanty information on these questions in classical sources, and to compare it with what is known about the organization of caravan trade in Asia in medieval and later times. Commerce along three main routes will be considered, the overland trade route from the Aegean to India, outlined by Strabo (after Arternidorus) and Isidore of Charax, the Arabian spice road, and the silk road to China.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 28 , Issue 110 , June 1954, pp. 78 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 154

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References

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2 On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks, London, 1933. ‘The ancient trade-route past Hatra and its Roman posts’, Journ. Roy. Asiatic Soc., 1941, p. 299.

3 XIV, 11, 29.

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7 W. M. Ramsay : Hist. Geogr. of Asia Minor, London, 1890, pp. 409-11.

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9 H. A. R. Gibb and H. Bowen : Islamic Society and the West, 1, Oxf., 1950, pp. 281-95.

10 Les Six Voyages de J-B. Tavernier . . ., Paris, 1681 ; Bk. 1, Chap. 10, ‘Des caravanserais et de la police des caravanes’.

11 Tavernier, op. cit., Bk. 1, Chap. VII.

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22 op. cit., p. 530.

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24 op. cit., pp. 122-3.

25 op. cit., p. 10.

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27 XXIII, 6, 68.

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33 VI, 20.

34 XXIII, 6, 68.

35 Bk. 11, Chap. XXII.

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39 Marco Polo, Bk. 1, Chap, XXXIX.

40 On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks, p. 189.

41 The Journal of Friar Odoric (1330) (in R. Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations, etc., London, 1598-1600), Chap. XIII.

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43 Markham’s Clavijo, op. cit., p. 90.

44 op. cit., Chaps, XXI-XXII.

45 The Journal of Friar William de Rubruquis (1253) (in Hakluyt, op. cit.), Chap. 1.

46 The History of the World-Conqueror, by ‘Ala ad-Din ‘Ata Malik Juvayni, translated from the text of Mirza Muhammad Qazvini by Dr J. A. Boyle, typescript p. 35. Compare Marco Polo’s account (Bk. II, Chap, XXVI) of the upkeep of the imperial post-roads of China.

47 Hdt. III, 102-5.

48 Marco Polo, Bk. III, Chap. XIX.

49 III, 106.