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Maritime Silk Road

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This article is about the historic Maritime Silk Road. For the Chinese sea route infrastructure initiative, see 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. For other uses, see Maritime Silk Road (disambiguation).
Austronesian proto-historic and historic (Maritime Silk Road) maritime trade network in the Indian Ocean[1]

The Maritime Silk Road or Maritime Silk Route[2] is the maritime section of the historic Silk Road that connected Southeast Asia, East Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian Peninsula, eastern Africa, and Europe. It began by the 2nd century BCE and flourished until the 15th century CE.[3] The Maritime Silk Road was primarily established and operated by Austronesian sailors in Southeast Asia,[4]: 11  Tamil merchants in India and Southeast Asia,[4]: 13  and by Persian and Arab traders in the Arabian Sea and beyond.[4]: 13  China also started building their own trade ships much later, during the Song and Yuan dynasties from the 10th to the 14th centuries CE.[5][6]: 17 

The network followed the footsteps of older maritime networks in Southeast Asia,[7][8][9][10] as well as the maritime spice networks of Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, India, and the Indian Ocean, coinciding with these ancient maritime trade roads by the current era.[11][12]

Despite the modern name, the Maritime Silk Road involved exchanges in a wide variety of goods over a very wide region, not just silk or Asian exports.[6]: 17, 20, 149, 168  These goods include ceramics, glass, beads, gems, ivory, fragrant wood, metals (both raw and finished goods), textiles, food (including grain, wine, and spices), aromatics, and animals, among others. The goods carried by trade ships varied by region and port.[6]: 132–133, 186, 216 

History[edit]

Further information: K'un-lun po, Djong, and Junk (ship)

The Maritime Silk Road developed from the earlier maritime trade networks established by Austronesians in Southeast Asia. The Maritime Jade Road, a jade trade network, in Southeast Asia which sprang in Taiwan and the Philippines was an independent trading network in operation thousands of years before the Maritime Silk Road. This independent network was in existence for 3,000 years from 2000 BCE to 1000 CE. The trade was established by links between the indigenous peoples of Taiwan and the Philippines, and later included parts of Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and other areas in Southeast Asia. Lingling-o artifacts are one of the notable archeological finds originating from the Maritime Jade Road.[7][8][9][10] During the operation of the Maritime Jade Road, the Austronesian spice trade networks were also established by Islander Southeast Asians with Sri Lanka and Southern India by around 1000 to 600 BCE.[11][12]

By around the 2nd century BCE, the Neolithic Austronesian jade and spice trade networks in Southeast Asia connected with the maritime trade routes of South Asia, the Middle East, eastern Africa, and the Mediterranean, becoming what is now known as the Maritime Silk Road. Prior to the 10th century, the route was primarily used by Southeast Asian Austronesian traders, although Tamil and Persian traders also sailed them.[4][6] It allowed the exchange of goods from East and Southeast Asia on one end, all the way to Europe and eastern Africa on the other.[6]

One of the Borobudur ships from the 8th century, they were depictions of large Javanese outrigger vessels. Shown with the characteristic tanja sail of Southeast Asian Austronesians.

Austronesian thalassocracies controlled the flow of the eastern regions of the Maritime Silk Road, especially the polities around the straits of Malacca and Bangka, the Malay Peninsula, and the Mekong Delta; although Chinese records misidentified these kingdoms as being "Indian" due to the Indianization of these regions.[4] The route was influential in the early spread of Hinduism and Buddhism to the east.[13] The trade with China also passed through the Tonkin Gulf. Several trading ports thrived in the area, and the region of Jiaozhi (Northern Vietnam), in particular, accumulated enormous wealth.[14] Han and Tang dynasty Chinese records also indicate that the early Chinese Buddhist pilgrims to South Asia booked passage with the Austronesian ships (which they called the k'un-lun po) that traded in Chinese ports. Books written by Chinese monks like Wan Chen and Hui-Lin contain detailed accounts of the large trading vessels from Southeast Asia dating back to at least the 3rd century CE.[15]

By the 7th century CE, Arab dhow traders ventured into the routes, leading to the earliest spread of Islam into Southeast Asian polities.[4]

Tang records indicate that Srivijaya, founded at Palembang in 682 CE, rose to dominate the trade in the region around the straits and the South China Sea emporium by controlling the trade in luxury aromatics and Buddhist artifacts from West Asia to a thriving Tang market.[4]: 12 

By the 10th to 13th centuries, the Song dynasty of China started building its own trading fleets, despite the traditional Chinese Confucian disdain for trade. This was partly due to the loss of access by the Song dynasty to the overland Silk Road. The Chinese fleets started sending trading expeditions to the region they referred to as Nan hai (Chinese: 南海; pinyin: Nánhǎi; lit. 'South Seas') (mostly dominated by the Srivijaya), venturing as far south as the Sulu Sea and the Java Sea. This led to the establishment of Chinese trading colonies in Southeast Asia, a boom in the maritime trade, and the emergence of the ports of "Chinchew" (Quanzhou) and "Canton" (Guangzhou) as regional trade centers in China.[4]

After a brief cessation of Chinese trade in the 14th century due to internal famines and droughts in China, the Ming dynasty reestablished the trade routes with Southeast Asia from the 15th to 17th centuries. They launched the expeditions of Zheng He, with the goal of forcing the "barbarian kings" of Southeast Asia to resume sending "tribute" to the Ming court. This was typical of the Sinocentric views at the time of viewing "trade as tribute", although ultimately Zheng He's expeditions were successful in their goal of establishing trade networks with Malacca, the regional successor of Srivijaya.[4]

Decline[edit]

Global Trade Routes of the Spanish and Portuguese Empire

The Maritime Silk Route was disrupted by the colonial era, essentially being replaced with European trade routes by the 15th century.[6] The formerly dominant Southeast Asian trading ships (jong, the source of the English term "junk") ceased to exist by the 17th century. Although Chinese-built chuan survived until modern times.[16][17]

By the 16th century, the Age of Exploration had begun. The Portuguese Empire's capture of Malacca led to the transfer of the trade centers to the sultanates of Aceh and Johor. The new demand for spices from Southeast Asia and textiles from India and China by the European market led to another economic boom in the Maritime Silk Road. The arrival of the Spanish Empire in the Philippines and establishment of the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade ensured Manila's trade connection with Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, where Manila supplied the Spanish silver minted and mined from the Spanish Americas, and in turn Quanzhou or Zhangzhou supplied the Chinaware and silk to Manila, and spice from the spice trade from the south of the Philippines, as the Spaniards competed with the Portuguese for control of the share of the spice trade in the Spice Islands of Moluccas, also went through Manila and its trade connection, where all were traded over the Pacific to Acapulco in Mexico and throughout the Spanish Americas; and also later traded via the Flota de Indias (Spanish treasure fleet) from Veracruz in Mexico to Seville in Spain and to throughout Europe. The West Indies Spanish treasure fleet was the first permanent transatlantic trade route in history. Similarly, the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade route was the first permanent trade route across the Pacific. The influx of silver from the European colonial powers however, may have eventually undermined China's copper coinage, leading to the collapse of the Ming dynasty,[4] due to not enough currency circulating to the inland northern Chinese provinces, where the Qing dynasty expanded through the Ming dynasty's weakening hold. Eventually, the Spanish silver dollar acquired through Manila from over the Pacific from Mexico, circulated throughout the Far East, becoming the origins of many currencies in the region, such as the Chinese yuan, Japanese yen, Korean won, Philippine peso, Malaysian ringgit, French Indochinese piastre, etc. since it was widely traded across the Far East in the East Indies and East Asia.

Archaeology[edit]

The evidence of naval trade activities were shipwrecks recovered from the Java Sea — the Arabian dhow Belitung wreck dated to c. 826, the 10th century Intan wreck, and the Western-Austronesian vessel Cirebon wreck dated to the end of the 10th century.[4]: 12 

Extent[edit]

Although usually spoken of in modern times in the context of Eurocentric and Sinocentric luxury goods, the goods carried by the trading ships varied by which product was in demand by region and port. They included ceramics, glass, beads, gems, ivory, fragrant wood, metals (both raw and finished goods), textiles (including silk), food (including grain, wine, and spices), aromatics, and animals, among others. Ivory, in particular, was a significant export of east Africa, leading some authors to label the western leg of the trade route as the "Maritime Ivory Route".[6]

The trade route encompassed numbers of seas and ocean; including South China Sea, Strait of Malacca, Indian Ocean, Gulf of Bengal, Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. The maritime route overlaps with historic Southeast Asian maritime trade, spice trade, Indian Ocean trade and after 8th century—the Arabian naval trade network. The network also extend eastward to the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea to connect China with the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago.[citation needed]

World Heritage nomination[edit]

In May 2017, experts from various fields have held a meeting in London to discuss the proposal to nominate "Maritime Silk Route" as a new UNESCO World Heritage Site.[18]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Manguin, Pierre-Yves (2016). "Austronesian Shipping in the Indian Ocean: From Outrigger Boats to Trading Ships". In Campbell, Gwyn (ed.). Early Exchange between Africa and the Wider Indian Ocean World. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 51–76. ISBN 9783319338224.
  2. ^ Wang, Qiang (2020). Legendary Port of the Maritime Silk Routes: Zayton (Quanzhou). Qiang Wang. p. 280. ISBN 978-1-4331-7040-9.
  3. ^ "Maritime Silk Road". SEAArch.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Guan, Kwa Chong (2016). "The Maritime Silk Road: History of an Idea" (PDF). NSC Working Paper (23): 1–30.
  5. ^ Flecker, Michael (August 2015). "Early Voyaging in the South China Sea: Implications on Territorial Claims". Nalanda-Sriwijaya Center Working Paper Series. 19: 1–53.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Franck Billé; Sanjyot Mehendale; James W. Lankton, eds. (2022). The Maritime Silk Road (PDF). Amsterdam University Press. ISBN 978-90-4855-242-9.
  7. ^ a b Tsang, Cheng-hwa (2000). "Recent advances in the Iron Age archaeology of Taiwan". Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association. 20: 153–158. doi:10.7152/bippa.v20i0.11751 (inactive 2024-04-12). ISSN 1835-1794.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of April 2024 (link)
  8. ^ a b Turton, M. (17 May 2021). "Notes from central Taiwan: Our brother to the south". Taipei Times. Retrieved 24 December 2021.
  9. ^ a b Everington, K. (6 September 2017). "Birthplace of Austronesians is Taiwan, capital was Taitung: Scholar". Taiwan News. Retrieved 24 December 2021.
  10. ^ a b Bellwood, Peter; Hung, H.; Lizuka, Yoshiyuki (2011). "Taiwan Jade in the Philippines: 3,000 Years of Trade and Long-distance Interaction". In Benitez-Johannot, P. (ed.). Paths of Origins: The Austronesian Heritage in the Collections of the National Museum of the Philippines, the Museum Nasional Indonesia, and the Netherlands Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde. ArtPostAsia. ISBN 978-971-94292-0-3.
  11. ^ a b Bellina, Bérénice (2014). "Southeast Asia and the Early Maritime Silk Road". In Guy, John (ed.). Lost Kingdoms of Early Southeast Asia: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture 5th to 8th century. Yale University Press. pp. 22–25. ISBN 9781588395245.
  12. ^ a b Mahdi, Waruno (1999). "The Dispersal of Austronesian boat forms in the Indian Ocean". In Blench, Roger; Spriggs, Matthew (eds.). Archaeology and Language III: Artefacts languages, and texts. One World Archaeology. Vol. 34. Routledge. pp. 144–179. ISBN 978-0415100540.
  13. ^ Sen, Tansen (3 February 2014). "Maritime Southeast Asia Between South Asia and China to the Sixteenth Century". TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia. 2 (1): 31–59. doi:10.1017/trn.2013.15. S2CID 140665305.
  14. ^ Li, Tana (2011). "Jiaozhi (Giao Chỉ) in the Han period Tongking Gulf". In Cooke, Nola; Li, Tana; Anderson, James A. (eds.). The Tongking Gulf Through History. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 39–44. ISBN 9780812205022.
  15. ^ McGrail, Seán (2001). Boats of the World: From the Stone Age to the Medieval Times. Oxford University Press. pp. 289–293. ISBN 9780199271863.
  16. ^ Manguin, Pierre-Yves (1993). "The Vanishing Jong: Insular Southeast Asian Fleets in Trade and War (Fifteenth to Seventeenth Centuries)". In Reid, Anthony (ed.). Southeast Asia in the Early Modern Era. Cornell University Press. pp. 197–213. ISBN 978-0-8014-8093-5. JSTOR 10.7591/j.ctv2n7gng.15.
  17. ^ Manguin, Pierre-Yves (September 1980). "The Southeast Asian Ship: An Historical Approach". Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 11 (2): 266–276. doi:10.1017/S002246340000446X.
  18. ^ "UNESCO Expert Meeting for the World Heritage Nomination Process of the Maritime Silk Routes". UNESCO.
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