What improved commercial practices and technology led to an increased volume of trade on the Silk Road?

Luxury goods were at this time, items of which the state could not or did not produce or manufacture. This uneven distribution of goods in different areas motivated exchange. This brought about the silk road, a trading route in which people traveled while bartering goods from their country with merchants and port cities. Its most famous item was silk. Silk for a long time could only be made in China through their techniques of harvesting silk from silk worms. Since it could only be made in that region, silk became high in demand along the silk route because it was seen as luxurious and a symbol of wealth for only the wealthy could afford its high price due to high costs in transportation.This caused The Silk Road to be more inclined to trade luxury items rather than ordinary goods that were not rare like silk and spices. However, due to its demand and ability to make a profit, other countries began manufacturing it as well. As the supplies increased, Central Asia used it as currency while in China and the Byzantine Empire, silk was revered as a symbol of great wealth. It further revealed the gap between the wealthy and the poor for only the well-off could afford it and wear it. Also, due its popularity and symbolism of wealth, silk became the name of the Silk Road. Other luxury items as mentioned in the graph beside, had the same affect. This need for luxury items also caused Europe to seek a way to travel to China as a way of cutting out the "middle man" or the Middle East in the trade route. By going directly to the source, Europe could decrease the costs for foreign goods.

Here is a graph showing where and how the letters of credit or "checks" were used in the trading system

During the Silk Road, China turned to paper money and letters of credit as a way to buy and sell goods and paying taxes instead of bartering. This changed the way merchants across the Silk Road made exchanges with each other and citizens along the trade route. It was much safer in terms of traveling for merchants who could carry letters of credit instead of large sacks coins. With goods having a monetary value instead of a equilibrium value, people could buy goods without reducing their own supply which increased the wealth that not only flowed through China but through the Silk Road as well.Exchanges between Asia and Europe provided a mutual benefit and progress. When China's four main inventions (paper-making, compass, gunpowder, and printing) along with silk were transported along the Silk Road to Europe, it increased the development of the Eurasian Region. However, it also caused the trade route to weaken. This is due to Europe and the Middle East's ability to now replicate and produce many of the luxury items such as silk that were once to these regions. With these areas now producing luxury items, which were once revered as a symbol of wealth, they became common products and there was no longer a desire for the wealthy to spend outrageously for the goods to be transported from China along the Silk Road. The Islamic World also invented many new technologies such as, universities, algebra, chess, surgical instruments, and the mechanical pendulum clock. However, keep in mind that some were created from the inspiration of Chinese technologies like gunpowder which was then traded along the Silk Road, there the Middle East created guns and cannons as a tool to use the gunpowder of effective means of military. Technological exchanges between China and the Middle East usually brought about this pattern, where one would improve the others innovation.

Here is a picture of a Chinese printing press

Here is a picture of a ancient Islamic pendulum clock

With China controlling much of the Silk Road, they input governmental practices that allowed the trading route to flourish. Mostly during the Mongolian Empire, China promoted international commerce. The Great Khan Ogodei would often pay well over asking price on items. This attracted many merchants to his capital of Karakorum. The empire also provided financial backing for caravans as well as introducing a standardized weight system. They also gave merchants tax breaks in hopes it would encourage trade. The Mongols created a safe environment for merchants making the journey also heightened the Silk Road.
Due to its central location, the Middle East more or less became the middle man between Europe and China. Merchants from the area marked up or taxed products going either way to turn a profit. What allowed this to occur was the prominent expansion of Islam within the Middle East. Islamic teachings valued commerce positively and the pilgrimage to Mecca also encouraged trade. The rapid urbanization within the Middle east that followed the expansion of trade. This is due to the yearning urban elites had for luxury products.
Europe (Byzantine Empire), which was more primeval than the fast growing Middle East and China, resumed to using the gold coin or dezant which was used widely in the Mediterranean area. This practiced allowed the region to flourish among many of the other decrepit European areas.

Here is a map to demonstrate how much of the Silk Road was under Mongolian control

The second unit in AP WORLD HISTORY: MODERN is all about the inter-connectivity of the 1200-1450. The world was about to become a true global network as different regions in the NEXT period (1450-1750) began to interact. However, in THIS period the AFRO-EURASIAN world was already pretty well connected by the Silk Roads, Trans-Saharan Trade Routes, and Indian Ocean Trade Routes. This unit focuses on the effects of these Networks of Exchange…

A deepening and widening of networks of human interaction within and across regions contributed to cultural, technological, and biological diffusion within and between various societies.

Improved commercial practices led to an increased volume of trade and expanded the geographical range of existing trade routes—including the Silk Roads, trans-Saharan trade network, and Indian Ocean—promoting the growth of powerful new trading cities.

The Indian Ocean trading network fostered the growth of states.
The growth of inter-regional trade in luxury goods was encouraged by innovations in previously existing transportation and commercial technologies, including the caravanserai, forms of credit, and the development of money economies as well as the use of the compass, the astrolabe and larger ship designs.
The economy of Song China flourished as a result of increased productive capacity, expanding trade networks, and innovations in agriculture and manufacturing.
The expansion of empires—including the Mongols—facilitated Afro-Eurasian trade and communication as new people were drawn into their conquerors’ economies and trade networks.
The expansion of empires—including Mali in West Africa—facilitated Afro-Eurasian trade and communication as new people were drawn into the economies and trade networks.
The expansion and intensification of long distance trade routes often depended on environmental knowledge, including advanced knowledge of the monsoon winds. The growth of inter-regional trade was encouraged by innovations in existing transportation technologies.
Muslim rule continued to expand to many parts of Afro-Eurasia due to military expansion, and Islam subsequently expanded through the activities of merchants, missionaries, and Sufis.
In key places along important trade routes, merchants set up diasporic communities where they introduced their own cultural traditions into the indigenous cultures and, in turn, indigenous cultures influenced merchant cultures.
As exchange networks intensified, an increasing number of travelers within Afro–Eurasia wrote about their travels. .
Increased cross-cultural interactions resulted in the diffusion of literary, artistic, and cultural traditions, as well as scientific and technological innovation.
- Chinese cultural traditions continued, and they influenced neighboring regions.
- Buddhism and its core beliefs continued to shape societies in Asia and included a variety of branches, schools, and practices.
- Islam, Judaism, Christianity, and the core beliefs and practices of these religions continued to shape societies in Africa and Asia.
- Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism, and their core beliefs and practices, continued to shape societies in South and Southeast Asia.
- Christianity, Judaism, Islam and the core beliefs and practices of these religions continued to shape societies in Europe.
There was continued diffusion of crops and pathogens, with epidemic diseases, including the Bubonic plague, along trade routes.

State formation and development demonstrated continuity, innovation, and diversity in various regions.

Abbasid Caliphate fragmented, new Islamic political entities emerged, most of which were dominated by Turkic peoples. These states demonstrated continuity, innovation, and diversity.

Empires and states in Afro-Eurasia and the Americas demonstrated continuity, innovation, and diversity in the 13th century. This included the Song Dynasty of China, which utilized traditional methods of Confucianism and an imperial bureaucracy to maintain and justify its rule.
State formation and development demonstrated continuity, innovation, and diversity, including the new Hindu and Buddhist states that emerged in South and Southeast Asia.
Europe was politically fragmented and characterized by decentralized monarchies, feudalism, and the manorial system.
Empires collapsed in different regions of the world and in some areas were replaced by new imperial states, including the Mongol khanates.
In the Americas and in Africa, as in Eurasia, state systems demonstrated continuity, innovation, and diversity, and expanded in scope and reach.
Muslim states and empires encouraged significant intellectual innovations and transfers.
Interregional contacts and conflicts between states and empires, including the Mongols, encouraged significant technological and cultural transfers, including during Chinese maritime activity led by Ming Admiral Zheng He.

Changes in trade networks resulted from and stimulated increasing productive capacity, with important implications for social and gender structures and environmental processes.

Demand for luxury goods increased in Afro–Eurasia. Chinese, Persian, and Indian artisans and merchants expanded their production of textiles and porcelains for export; manufacture of iron and steel expanded in China.
The fate of cities varied greatly, with periods of significant decline and periods of increased urbanization buoyed by rising productivity and expanding trade networks.
The economy of Song China became increasingly commercialized while continuing to depend on free peasant and artisanal labor.
Europe was largely an agricultural society dependent on free and coerced labor, including serfdom.