1st Century Trade

World trade: from the 1st century AD
The Silk Road links east Asia and western Europe at a time when each has, in its own region, a more sophisticated commercial network than ever before.  The map shows the silk 'road' that links the West to the East.  The silk 'road' connects to many other routes and the silk 'road' becomes the silk 'route' - a large international trading network that uses both land and water to transport goods and ideas. The caravan routes of the Middle East and the coastal shipping lanes of the Mediterranean have provided the world's oldest trading system, transporting goods between civilizations from India to Phoenicia. Now the Roman dominance of the entire Mediterranean, and of Europe as far north as Britain, gives the merchants more opportunities to the west. At the same time a maritime link, of enormous commercial potential, opens up between India and China.
Merchant shipping increases as coastal trading opportunities open up from India to China. Down through the Straits of Malacca and then up through the South China Sea, there are at all times inhabited coasts not far off to either side. It is no accident that Calcutta is now at one end of the journey, Hong Kong at the other, and Singapore in the middle. Indian merchants are trading along this route by the 1st century AD, bringing with them the two religions, Hinduism and Buddhism, which profoundly influence this entire region.  Christianity (3rd Century) and Islam (7th Century) spread through the regions in the following centuries.  The SILK ROAD was not used only for trading silk.  Here are some of the commodities which will bring the merchant a good profit if traded along the Silk Road to and from China: 'Furs of Slavonian squirrels and of martens and fitches, goat skins and ram skins, dates, filberts, walnuts, salted sturgeon tails, round pepper, ginger, barked brazil-wood, lac, zedoary, incense, quicksilver, sal ammoniac, copper, amber big middling and small, striped coral, raw silk, saffron, clove-stalks and nutmegs, spikenard, cardomoms, scammony, pounding pearls, manna, borax, gum Arabic, dragon's blood, sweetmeats, gold wire, dressed silk'... and much else besides. The Treasures and Dynasties of China, Cape 1973 link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn3e37VWc0k Based on the text and the video and your previous learning in units 1-3: Why was the silk road called the silk road?  Why is this name wrong? (2 reasons) Why did the rise of Rome provide more opportunities for trade growth? Why is the maritime link between India and China important? What is the function and what is the importance of 'inhabited coasts'? Why did Calcutta, Hong Kong and Singapore rise as financial and trading cities? Did the silk road only transport commodities (raw materials)? What is meant by "the silk road's success led to its own demise"? Explain this with examples.