The Silk Roads
Introduced| English | Meaning |
|---|---|
| caravanserai/ˈkærəvænsəraɪ/ | Roadside inns where caravans could rest and trade. |
| forms of credit/fɔːmz ɒv ˈkredɪt/ | forms of credit |
| money economies/ˈmʌni ɪˈkɒnəmiz/ | Systems in which goods are bought and sold with currency rather than only bartered. |
| Bills of exchange/bɪlz ɒv eksˈtʃeɪndʒ/ | Bills of exchange |
The routes were old; the volume was new
- The Silk Roads existed long before 1200. What changed after 1200 was how much moved along them.
- Improved commercial practices led to an increased volume of trade and expanded the geographical range of existing trade routes.
- So the CED's causal claim is about practices, not about discovery of new lands.
Select all the commercial innovations the CED names here.
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The compass belongs to the Indian Ocean subtopic, 2.3.
Credit is a technology
- Innovations in previously existing transportation and commercial technologies included the caravanserai 商队旅馆, forms of credit 信用工具, and money economies 货币经济.
- Bills of exchange 汇票 let a merchant deposit in one city and withdraw in another; banking houses and paper money did related work.
- None of these moves a single extra camel — they remove the need to carry the value physically, which is what raises volume.
Each enabler removed a named obstacle- that pairing is what turns description into explanation
What changed about the Silk Roads after 1200 was mainly...
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The routes were old; the CED's causal claim is about commercial practices.
Trade builds cities
- The same sentence ends by promoting the growth of powerful new trading cities — the CED names Kashgar and Samarkand.
- A caravan city is not just a stop: it stores, finances, protects and taxes.
- So the growth of a city is evidence of trade volume, and can be used as evidence in an answer.
Cause or effect of network growth?
Sort each item by its place in the CED's causal sentence.
A ____ of exchange let a merchant deposit in one city and withdraw in another.
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It removes the need to carry the value physically, which is what raises volume.
Credit and paper money are causes, not effects. They are the innovations that raised the volume of trade — a bill of exchange removes the need to carry silver across a desert. Listing them among the results of trade reverses the CED's own causal sentence.
The growth of new trading cities can be used as evidence of trade volume.
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A caravan city stores, finances, protects and taxes — it exists because volume exists.
Demand pulled production
- Demand for luxury goods increased in Afro-Eurasia.
- Chinese, Persian and Indian artisans and merchants expanded their production of textiles and porcelains for export; manufacture of iron and steel expanded in China.
- So the route did not only carry goods — it changed what was made, and where.
Select all the goods whose production expanded for export.
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Bananas are a crop diffusion, in subtopic 2.6.
Causes and effects, kept apart
- The objective is causes and effects of the growth of networks of exchange, so an answer must sort its evidence into the two.
- Causes: commercial practices, credit, the caravanserai, transport improvements.
- Effects: greater volume, wider range, new trading cities, expanded manufacturing for export.
A merchant in Kashgar deposits silver and receives a bill of exchange redeemable in Samarkand. He crosses the desert carrying paper. The value that arrives is the same; the risk, the weight and the guards are not — and that difference, repeated thousands of times, is what "increased volume of trade" actually means.
Improved commercial practices increased the volume of trade and expanded the range of existing routes, promoting new trading cities (Kashgar, Samarkand). Innovations included the caravanserai, forms of credit and money economies — bills of exchange, banking houses, paper money. Demand for luxury goods expanded production of textiles, porcelain, iron and steel.
Write from a bill of exchange
- A merchant on the Silk Roads did not want to carry a chest of coins.
- He carried a written promise of payment instead.
What technology was the written promise?
A promise of payment moved value without moving every coin.
What did the bill of exchange replace on the road?
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Credit carried the value. The coins could stay put.