104

I DID NOT TELL HALF

OF WHAT I SAW FOR
I KNEW I WOULD NOT
BE BELIEVED
MARCO POLO REACHES SHANGDU ( .1275) c

IN CONTEXT
FOCUS
Rise of international trade
BEFORE
106 bce The first caravan to
travel the full length of the
Silk Road carries Chinese
ambassadors to Parthia.
751 ce Defeat of the Chinese
army at the Talas River
prevents Chinese expansion
west along the Silk Road.
1206 Genghis Khan unites
the Mongol tribes, beginning
Mongol conquest of Central
Asia and China.
AFTER
1340s The Black Death
spreads along the Silk Road,
reaching Europe in 1347.
Long-distance trade
from China to the Middle East
is damaged by the collapse Mongols conquer
of traditional powers. lands through which the Silk
Road runs, improving the
route’s security.
Trade along the route
increases, attracting
European merchants
including Marco Polo.
European powers seek
alternative maritime
trade routes to the east.
The collapse of Mongol
rule and rise of the Ottoman
Empire render the route’s
territory less secure.

1370–1405 Timurlane makes
extensive conquests, briefly
reviving the Mongol empire
and the Silk Road.
1453 The Ottoman conquest
of Constantinople blocks
Europeans’ land route to Asia.
V
enetian merchant Marco
Polo’s arrival at Shangdu,
the capital of the Great
Khan Kublai, in 1275 marked the
end of a four-year journey. He had
traveled from Italy to the Mongol
capital Shangdu along the length of
the Silk Road, an ancient network
of routes that been carrying precious
goods between China and Europe
for centuries. The Silk Road had
first become a conduit for trade
when the Chinese Han Dynasty
pushed into Central Asia in the late
2nd century bce. From then on,
goods such as jade and silk were
carried west, passed from caravan
to caravan by a series of merchants,

See also: Siddartha Gautama preaches Buddhism 40–41 ■ Kublai Khan conquers the Song 102–03 ■
Hongwu founds the Ming dynasty 120–27 ■ The Treaty of Tordesillas 148–51 ■ The construction of the Suez Canal 230–35
to be met by caravans of furs,
gold, and horses traveling in
the opposite direction. Chinese
inventions ranging from gunpowder
and paper to the magnetic compass
were also brought to the west along
the route, arriving at Constantinople
and the Black Sea ports, the
western end of the route where
Genoa and Venice chiefly traded.
Mongol revival of the route
By the 13th century, empires that
had controlled sections of the Silk
Road had fragmented. This left
the route less secure for travelers,
and so deterred merchants from
using it. However, following Mongol
conquest of the area between 1205
and 1269, the area was controlled—
if loosely—by a single authority, the
Great Khan, so a merchant could
travel from Khanbalik (Beijing) to
Baghdad without leaving Mongol
territory. This renewed stability
encouraged a revival of trade.
At around this time, European
merchants’ horizons were also
expanding. In the early Middle
All the rare things that
come from India are brought
to Cambaluc—precious stones
and pearls, and other kinds
of rarities… a thousand
cart-loads of silk enter
Cambaluc daily.
Marco Polo, c.1300
Ages, traders could work only locally,
and transport their goods to points
where they might connect to longer-
distance trade routes. From the
12th century, Italian city States
such as Pisa, Genoa, and Venice,
pioneered maritime trade across
the eastern Mediterranean, which
enabled merchants to connect
directly with sea routes that linked
West Asia and Egypt to China via
the Indian Ocean.
The profits for merchants taking
advantage of the “Pax Mongolica,”
or Mongol peace, could be huge.
In the late 13th century, the costs
of setting up a caravan might
amount to 3,500 florins, but the
cargo, once sold in China, could
yield seven times that sum, and
by 1326 Genoese traders were a
common sight in the principal
Chinese port of Zaitun.
Decline of land trade
The Silk Road flourished for another
century, but the collapse of the
Mongol Ilkhanate of Persia in 1335,
and the overthrow in 1368 of the
Yuan, the Mongol ruling dynasty
in China, once again left the route
divided between politically weak
powers. It was also blocked to
European traders at the western
end by the growth of the Muslim
Ottoman Empire.
A taste of the profits of long-
distance trade in luxury goods
encouraged European powers
to seek alternatives to the now
defunct Silk Road, this time by
sea. In 1514, Portuguese merchants
arrived off the coast of China, near
Guangzhou, eager to take up the
direct trading links with China that
had been pioneered two and a half
centuries earlier by their illustrious
predecessor, Marco Polo. ■
THE MEDIEVAL WORLD 105
Marco Polo
At just 17 years old, Marco
Polo (1254–1324) set off from
Venice to the court of the
Mongol ruler, Kublai Khan.
He traveled with his father
and uncle, who had previously
visited China and been
entrusted by Kublai with a
message for the pope. Polo
was received with great favor
at the Mongol court and
stayed in China for 17 years.
He traveled extensively
throughout the country in the
Khan’s service, leaving for
home at last in around 1291.
During a naval battle in
1298, Polo was captured and
imprisoned by the Genoese.
The stories he told of his
sojourn in the lands of the
Great Khan attracted the
attention of his cell mate,
Rustichello, who wrote them
down, embellishing them as
he went along. The resulting
book was translated into
many languages and includes
much invaluable information
about late-13th-century
China. After his release, Polo
returned to Venice, where he
lived for the rest of his life.