Trans-Asian
Contacts:
The Basis of a World System
(900 - 1450)
Guide
to the Sources and Homework Questions
| IThe
sources referred to here are contained in the Electronic Reserves
by Wiesner, pp. 280 - 295 from the Chapter 10 of Discovering
the Global Past |
Guide to the Sources:
To evaluate the nature of these trans-Asian contacts, we would ideally
like to have detailed statistics about trade and travel throughout
the area. Unfortunately the kinds of documents that would provide
such information like caravansary registries, port records, ship manifests,
or merchant contracts have not yet come to light. Given the climate
in much of the area over which these contacts occurred, they probably
never will, since most such materials would long ago have rotted away
even if they had been put aside in some safe place. In their absence,
we have to content ourselves with far more impressionistic -- and
imprecise -- evidence.
Such evidence includes mainly the letters, diaries, and travel accounts
of people who journeyed through the system, brief references in histories
and surveys, and a few artifacts.
Source 1 comes from the Book of Description of
Countries, written by a fourteenth-century Italian businessman,
Francis Balducci Pegolotti, who worked for a major Florentine firm,
the house of Bardi. Intended as a practical survey of commerce of
the day, it tells at a western merchant entering the overland trade
with Asia from the Black Sea would find.
A somewhat earlier travel account from the mid thirteenth century
appears as Source 2; written by a European monk named
William of Rubruck, it records his journey on a diplomatic mission
to the Mongols for a French king across terrain described by Pegolotti.
Source 3 shows the kind of ox-cart both mention as
the usual vehicle for overland travel.
Balancing these Western accounts are entries from a travel diary kept
by a thirteenth-century Chinese, Li Zhichang, who journeyed over the
eastern half of the area from China to Chingis Khan's camp in Samarkand
(Source 4).
The rest of the materials focus on the maritime parts of the system.
Source 5 is a letter sent back to Europe in 1292
by a Franciscan monk from Italy, John of Monte Corvino, who passed
through India on his way to the Mongol court as a papal envoy. John's
letter gives a thorough overview of trade and traffic in the western
part of the Indian Ocean at this time. The kind of ship he mentions
is illustrated in Source 6: the Arab dhow. East Africa,
of course, formed part of this sphere, and Source 7,
taken from the Travels of Marco Polo, details what the famous Venetian
traveler discovered there on his return to Europe at the end of the
thirteenth century. Source 8, from a work by the
fourteenth-century Muslim traveler lbn Battuta, provides a glimpse
of the eastern half of the maritime region. Shipping there depended
on the Chinese junk, depicted in Source 9.
HOMEWORK QUESTIONS
Your task in this assignment is to use the sources above to both MAP
out the Transasian world system and to make some general conclusions
about its nature. Here's how to do both
TASK 1: MAPPING THE SYSTEM
As you read each source, note what it tells you about the transportation
of goods. For the mapping component of this activity, you will need
to indicate on your map from page 274 of the Discovering
the Global Past the following details (using what ever
notational markings makes sense to you):
| A) "What" |
What were the
principal trade routes and what areas did they connect? |
| B) "Which" |
Which goods were transported
on each route |
| C) "Who" |
Who
conducted the trade to such points and how did goods get
exchanged at intermediary emporia
(lay overs)? |
To help you, I've made a list of What, Which,
and Who . NOT EVERY
what, which, and who is
on this list -- only the less obvious ones that you might
easily overlook in the sources. (*) Indicates an item from Source
1 for use during the in-class activity.
You can also use this chart to create a symbol key for your map.
That way, you won't have to write each trade good (the "which")
and each trading group (the "who") on the
map, but rather can use a symbol or notation on your map that refers
to a particular item on the chart.
| What
Places
|
Which
Goods |
Who
Transported |
| Soldai |
Linens from the Venice & Genoa (*) |
Genoese or Venetian Merchants (*) |
| Holy Land (aka, Levant -- present day Palestine, Jordan, Israel,
Leb.) |
Cathay and Damasked Silks (*) |
|
| Ceylon |
furs of ermine & squirrel |
merchants from Turkey |
| Maabar |
cotton or bombax material |
merchants from Russia |
| Turkey |
silk |
Merchants from Constantinople (by sea on barks) |
| Russia |
spices |
Ceylon |
| Constantinople |
dried fish |
Saracens (Arabs) |
| Maldives ("Islands to the South") |
cinnamom |
Merchants from Yemen (Aden) |
| Ormes |
ivory ("Elephants' teeth") |
Merchants from Persia |
| Socotra |
ambergis |
|
| Madagascar |
ginger |
|
| Zanzibar |
pepper |
|
| Yemen (Aden) |
|
|
| Persia (Iran) |
|
|
| Malabar |
|
|
| Kalikut |
|
|
| Malabar |
|
|
| Chuanzhou |
|
|
| |
|
|
Note that, some sources -- such as Source 1 -- are explicit descriptions
of a particular trading route. Accordingly, extracting the above list
of information should be easy for this source. Simply trace the route
described. Other sources will provide evidence in a less direct fashion.
A source might, for example, mention in passing that there are merchants
from a particular area living and working in another area; from such
comments you can surmise What, Which,
and Who even if the source does not explicitly describe
a trade route. Or, the writer on one trade route might cross paths
with merchants on another route. Finally, be aware that a traveler's
route might not correspond exactly with trade routes -- you will have
to read carefully. Notice that for each source I have provided you
with mapping hints.
TASK 2: ASSESSING THE NATURE OF THE SYSTEM
For each source, I have provided you with a short list of questions.
Answer these questions.
QUESTIONS ON INDIVIDUAL SOURCES
Source 1:
Source 1 gives a broad view of the overland silk route in the
early fourteenth century. Its author, Francis Balducci Pegolotti,
did not travel the Silk Road himself but, drawing on information from
other European travelers, hoped to encourage his firm to enter the
Asian trade, which other Italian merchants had found very lucrative.
S
Words Pegolotti uses that you might not know:
Sommi: the plural form of Sommo, which were small
silver ingots used as coins and minted in Venice. (See
image here)
gens d'armes: armed police
Cathay: China
Question A: What trade goods does Pegolotti recommend
acquiring on the journey to sell back in Europe?
(Be careful to distinguish the goods that he himself was carrying
to sell abroad from those he planned to return with to sell in Europe.
The word "provisions" for example refers to needed items
for the trip)
Question B:
Think about the sommi and balishi currencies mentioned
in the text. What can the differences between these two forms of currency
tell us about the differences between Cathay and Europe at the time?
hint: think about what use of paper currency requires
(as opposed to the use of coins struck from an inherently precious
metal such as silver).
MAPPING HINTS:
Pegolotti describes a trade route for European traders; accordingly,
map the path he details. In places, Pegolotti's original document
is now illegible; hence, the reference to the "river_____"
Don't look on the map for such a river -- it's not there.
Source 2:
Source 2 gives another European view of travel across Inner Asia.
Its author, William of Rubruck, though a Fleming from one of Europe's
most commercially advanced areas, was not interested in trade. He
was a Christian monk whom Louis IX of France secretly sent to Asia
in 1253 to negotiate an alliance with the Mongols.
Keep in mind that Sartach is a ruler, not a place.
Question 2/A: Beyond lay open steppe or grassland,
running past Batu's headquarters on the Etilia (Volga) River all the
way to Mongolia. William offers a clear picture of his traveling party:
six ox-carts for goods, five riding horses, two companions, a slave
boy, and Abdullah (his dragoman, or Turkic interpreter and guide),
plus two caravaneers. Compare this party with Pegolotti's ideal merchant
group.
What does the size of such parties suggest about security along
the way?
MAPPING HINTS:
1) Note that William of Rubruck is not himself a merchant, but he
comes across the trade routes of merchants. Be sure to indicate --
to the extent that's possible -- the routes he encounters.
2) Do not confuse William's mentions of gifts or offerings with goods
being traded
(no questions on source 3)
Source 4
Conditions at the eastern end of Inner Asia can be glimpsed in Source
4, a travel diary kept by a Chinese named Li Zhichang. Li accompanied
a famous religious master on a trip in 1221 to meet Chingis Khan, the
founder of the Mongol Empire, who had summoned him to audience. When
their party arrived from Mongolio, however, they discovered that the
khan had already left Karakorum to begin his Inner Asian conquests.
So, equipped with carts, a cavalry escort, and the Mongol guide Chinkai,
they set out along a northern leg of the old Silk Road for Transoxiana
above modern Afghanistan, where they caught up with Chingis Khan near
the city of Samarkand.
note: You do not need to map anything from Li.
Question 4/A: Li refers to cotton as “sheep’s
wool planted in the ground”; what does this tell us about how
common cotton was in China? Think carefully about the choice of words
in the phrase “sheep’s wool planted in the ground”
and what that might tell us about familiarity with cotton.
Question 4/B: Keeping in mind Li’s comment
about the local Turkic farmer’s delight in Chinese, what general
category of things might be being exchanged in these trade routes
besides physical goods?
MAPPING HINTS: no mapping from Li
Source 5:
Because a rebellion by the Mongol ruler of Jagadai closed travel
across Inner Asia, John had to make his way east by the sea route. It
took him years to reach his destination, Cambalec or Khanbaligh, the
new "city of the Khan," built by Kubilai Khan during the 1260s
to replace Karakorum. In another letter sent back to Europe from Khanbaligh
in 1305, John recommends the land route to China over the sea lanes.
It takes only five or six months to cross, he says, and is "safer
and more secure." By contrast, he finds the sea passage "long
and perilous since it involves two sea voyages, the first of which is
about the distance of Acre [in Palestine] from the province of Provence,
but the second is like the distance between Acre and England, and it
may happen that the journey is scarcely completed in two years."
Source 5, John's earlier letter, tells what he found during the
first stage of his trip from the Middle East to India. It gives a general
survey of Upper India-the area along the western shore of India from
the Indus down to the rich commercial cities of the Malabar coast. Southward
lay "Lower India." As John indicates, travelers reached these
lands by sailing across the "Sea of India" from Ormes (Hormuz)
on the Persian Gulf.
Question 5/A: John refers to "Upper India"
in distinction to Lower India; what can this tell us about the idea
of "India" as a single geographical region? Moreover, what
additional evidence can you find in John's writing that India was
divided by many different language and political units? John uses
the word "realm" -- defined here.
Question 5/B: John observes “many saracens” (Arabs)
on the Malabar coast. Thinking back to your textbook readings, what
was their likely profession?
Question 5/C: What kind of goods attract John's
interest and what can we conclude from that information about the
goods that were desired in Europe?
MAPPING HINTS: John mentions an Island near ("hard by")
Maabar. Look closely at your map -- what island might he be referring
to and what good came from there? John refers to Ormes -- you likely
know of this city as Hormuz, as in the Straight of Hormuz between
Iran (Persia) and the Arabian Peninsula. Although John doesn't refer
to ports in Lower India, you can identify on the map, he does give
directions and distances that will provide all the information you
need to map trade routes. Note that the Malabar Coast is on the west
side and the Maabar coast is on the east side
(no questions on source 6)
Source 7
The exotic goods mentioned in question attracted traders to the
Malabar coast not only from Hormuz and western Asia, but from China
and Africa, too. Relations between this area and the East African coast,
which lay due west, were so common that the region around the Horn of
Africa near modern Ethiopia was called Middle India. Fed by goods from
several large empires in the interior as well as Aden on the Red Sea,
coastal East Africa formed an important adjunct to the India trade.
In Source 7 Marco Polo cites its commercial significance, and particularly
that of Madagascar and Zanzibar (Zenzibar, in the selection), on his
return to Europe along the water route in 1293 or 1294. Notice what
goods the area supplied - and absorbed.
Question 7/A: Where do you suppose the "silks"
bartered in Madagascar originally manufactured? Think carefully about
the readings in the textbook so far, as well as Source 1. Once you have
decided the origin of the silks, be sure to indicate on your map the
various points of information you have pulled from the source.
MAPPING HINTS: What goods did the residents of Madagascar trade for
the silks and where did these goods likely go? What goods got traded
through Zanziber (Zenzibar in the selection)
Source 8 (and others)
Question 8/A: What can we conclude from the tone
and nature Ibn Battuta’s description of Chinese shipping about
the relative technological progress between Arab and Chinese ships?
Also consider sources 9 and 6.
Question 8/B: Marco Polo (not in the excerpt given
here) reported that the Chinese ships had crews of three hundred men
and carried “from five to six thousands baskets…of pepper.”
Combining this with what Ibn Battuta reports about Chinese ships and
China, what might we be able to infer about the relative volume volume
and wealth of trade within different parts of the system? That is,
in what part of the system did the largest volume of trade occur?
MAPPING HINTS:
You won't be able to find on the map the towns along the Malabar Coast
that Ibn Battuta mentions, but the coast itself is indicated, and
his general route is marked on p. 5 of our textbook. Yemen is in the
south of the Arabian Peninsula -- Aden is a significant port on Yemen's
southern coast (and the site of the terrorist attack in 2000 on the
U.S.S. Cole). Mark the trade routes the presence of merchants suggest,
even if you are not sure of the goods being traded (although we can
guess the goods Battuta says were there "in abundance" were
brought there by traders). The location of the shipyards in China
can help you identify the ports from which Chinese ships sailed to
India.
(no questions on the other sources)
