The history of silk on the Silk Road is not limited to the trade of the commodity on the road itself. It was a currency of the day, a way for peasant people to make everyday items affordably, and was only one of the technologies that was shared along the Silk Road.
The use and making of silk began early in China’s history, as far back as 4000BCE. As the technology improved, the production of silk grew into an important product in China and on the Silk Road. The production included an expansion in the growth of mulberry trees for silk worm feeding, silk worm breeding, and the important invention of silk looms. The looms produced pre-programmed patterns.[1]
The vast area that silk was traded in went from the West, into Central China and onto the East. For centuries, silk was moved over land by the silk road trade. Once maritime travel increased, the trading of silk on the road route became less.[2]During the strict regulations of trade on the Silk Road by China, payments were made through coin, barter and especially silk. Silk was used to pay soldiers, merchants and used as royal gifts. One of the earliest documented transactions from Turfan is a contract dated 273 which shows that a coffin was bought with 20 bolts of silk. Silk was used for many items such as rugs, clothing, etc. Many transactions used degummed silk, silk that has had the external coating removed for better absorption of the dyes, to pay for goods, services and other items.[3] One reason silk was used more than coins it because the price of silk was stable compared to the value of coins.[4]
Silk was not only used as currency by merchants, but also the government. The Chinese set values in bolts of silk for animals, grain and other goods. Many of the governments on the Silk Road had to adapt to this method of converting silk bolts into payment for goods in their regions.[5] Hansen describes how travelers used silk to pay for goods, “They spent bolts of silk to buy barley, a camel, and horses; to make payments to a guide; and to give to “forty compatriot merchants”.[6]
Another aspect about the silk itself was the technology and how it spread on the Silk Road. Hansen talks about how technology traveled on the Silk Road and how many things like religion, paper and silk making and other culture influences changed communities on the Silk Road. She says that the “most influential people moving along the Silk Road were refugees. Waves of immigrants brought technologies with them from their homeland and then practiced those skills in their new homes. …..The technologies for manufacturing paper and weaving silk were transported west out of China at the same time that the techniques for making glass enter China”.[7]
The role of silk on the Silk Road communities helped to shape them into what they became. It was used as a strong, stable currency, it became a popular commodity on the silk route and the knowledge of how to make silk was a highly prized asset. It was so important that the actual route was named after it…The Silk Road.
[1] Silk Road in Google Arts and Culture: https://artsandculture.google.com/search?q=silk%20road
[2] Ibid.
[3] Hansen, Valerie. The Silk Road. Oxford University Press, 2017., 150.
[4] Ibid., 165.
[5] Ibid., 69.
[6] Ibid., 367.
[7]Ibid., 438-439.
-Marcus Hale