The Silk Road and the Political Economy of the Mongol Empire

163 Pages·2018·2.003 MB·English

by  Prajakti Kalra

The Silk Road and the Political Economy of the Mongol
Empire
The growing importance of Central and Inner Asia and the Silk Road is much discussed at
present. This book compares the nature of present day networks in these regions with the
patterns of similar connections which existed at the time of the Mongol Empire in the thirteenth
century and its successor states. It considers settlement patterns, technology and technology
transfer, trade, political arrangements, the role of religion and the impact of the powerful states
which border the region. Overall, the book demonstrates that the Mongol Empire anticipated
many of the networks and connections which exist in the region at present.
Prajakti Kalra is a Research Fellow at the Central Asia Forum, Jesus College, University of
Cambridge.
Routledge Studies on the Chinese Economy
Series Editor: Peter Nolan
Director, Centre of Development Studies; Chong Hua Professor in Chinese
Development; and Director of the Chinese Executive Leadership Programme (CELP),
University of Cambridge
Founding Series Editors
Peter Nolan
University of Cambridge and Dong Fureng, Beijing University

The aim of this series is to publish original, high-quality, research-level work by both new and
established scholars in the West and the East, on all aspects of the Chinese economy, including
studies of business and economic history.
60 Understanding China
The Silk Road and the Communist Manifesto
Peter Nolan
61 Being Middle Class in China
Identity, Attitudes and Behaviour
Ying Miao
62 Governing the Commons in China
Yan Zhang
63 The Economic Cycle and the Growth of the Chinese Economy
Li Jianwei
64 China’s Rural Areas
Building a Moderately Prosperous Society
China Development Research Foundation
65 The Political Economy of Banking Governance in China
Xuming Yang
66 Reforming China’s Healthcare System
China Development Research Foundation
67 Chinese Private Manufacturing Firms
The Challenges of Global Competition
Xiao Chen
68 The Silk Road and the Political Economy of the Mongol Empire
Prajakti Kalra
The Silk Road and the Political Economy of
the Mongol Empire
Prajakti Kalra
First published 2018
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Prajakti Kalra
The right of Prajakti Kalra to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and
78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kalra, Prajakti, author.
Title: The Silk Road and the political economy of the Mongol empire / Prajakti Kalra.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2018.
Series: Routledge studies on the Chinese economy; 68 | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017056819 | ISBN 9780415786997 (hardback) | ISBN 9781315226453 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Silk Road. | Mongolia–Economic conditions. | Mongolia–Commerce–History. | Mongolia–Foreign relations. |
Mongolia–History.
Classification: LCC HC430.25.K35 2018 | DDC 330.95/02–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017056819
ISBN: 978-0-415-78699-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-22645-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Dedicated to my father, Manu Kalra, with love and gratitude
Contents

Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 Rise of Chinggis Khan
2 Institutional framework of Mongol Eurasia
3 The place of religion in Mongol Eurasia
4 Mongol cities of Eurasia
5 Trade and economic relations in Mongol Eurasia
6 Echoes of the past in present day Eurasia
Epilogue
Appendix 1: keywords
Appendix 2: golden lineage
Appendix 3
Appendix 4
Appendix 5
Appendix 6
Appendix 7
Bibliography
Index
Preface

The Eurasian region and the Silk Road today occupy much of the discourse on globalisation,
international and regional cooperation and world trade. The usage and descriptions of both
terms are manifold and reflect the pluralistic make-up of the region. The modern day
understanding of Eurasia is informed by the particularities of the actors involved, which
invokes a romantic notion of the past on the one hand but, also raises the spectre of suspicion
and threat on the other. The politics of today which engages with the past continues to be
coloured by misunderstandings and misrepresentations driven by modern frameworks and
principles that do not necessarily reflect either the region or the individual actors. This book
attempts to mitigate these distortions and takes a historical approach to inform present-day
discourses on Eurasia as a consequence of Mongol governance.
In order to fully capture the essence of the region, then and now, one must consider the first
moment in history which allowed for it to be connected under one polity. This is the story of
that particular moment and covers the time period of Mongol control over the Silk Road in the
thirteenth century and its legacy in order to shed light on how the mechanisms of trade and
production along with innovations in technology helped make Eurasia the epicentre of the
world. This book narrates the story through the prism of the political economy of the Silk Road
as created and executed by Chinggisid Mongols. It traces the historical underpinnings of a
Mongol worldview steeped in nomadic precedents which drove governance and policy in this
period. The common thread which made for a Mongol Eurasia with its inherent flexibility and
adaptability made political unification possible and in doing so created the conditions
necessary for unprecedented economic and technological progress.
This book challenges the commonly held notions of the Mongols merely as destroyers and
war mongers and instead presents evidence of an interconnected Eurasia. The sea of changes
brought about by the Mongols is testimony to its impact in all the regions of Eurasia (China,
Russia, Iran, Central Asia and beyond). The growth of cities (Muscovy, Beijing and port
cities), the creation of new kinds of arts and crafts (miniature paintings), unprecedented trade
flows, the availability of travel permits (gerege) which allowed travellers and caravans to
travel across the territory, access to caravansarais with fresh horses, safe places to spend the
night and a far reaching postal and communication system (jam) were the cornerstone of the
Mongol political system. These same facilities are still necessary for travel today, whether by
sea or land; the necessity for physical security for people, goods and now pipelines is as
essential today as it was in the thirteenth century. The different aspects of trade and the
processes through which the Eurasian space represented the Silk Road has to be juxtaposed
with the modern understanding of state, economy and economic union in the same geographical
space in the twenty-first century.
It is well known that the historic Silk Road under the Mongols connected Eurasia in ways
that allowed goods and technologies to be transferred and traded all the way back and forth
from China, Central Asia, Russia, Iran, India and Europe. The exchange of commodities can be
compared with the varieties of people and ideas that traversed this space and led to
interactions among societies which hitherto had not been closely connected. The Mongol
attitude to religion also helped create conditions for these kinds of exchanges. The Mongol
period is famous for bringing together cultural contact between different religions (Buddhism,
Islam and Christianity) and protection of smaller sects within more established religions
(Nestorian Christians, Manichaeans). Mongol courts served as meeting points for religious
leaders who were often asked to have discussions and debates in the court (especially Qubilai
Khan’s court in China). This open attitude toward religion helped and guided trade as much as
it created conditions for coexistence. These aspects of Eurasia have continued to be expressed
in varying degrees since the Mongols and form the bulk of historical experiences of the region.
The historical evidence for the interconnectedness in Eurasia, geographically,
economically, socially and culturally, echoes what was most definitively and coherently
organised by the Mongol polity in the thirteenth century. The economic prosperity witnessed
under the Mongols was a combination of the Mongol political system, the military and cultural
habits which represented inclusiveness at their core. This book provides a snapshot of the
historical place of the Mongol Empire in the building and sustaining of commercial activities
across this swathe of territory which is being revived by different actors on the global scene
today.
A look at Eurasian history from this perspective informs a regional understanding different
from one accorded by European colonialism and creates space for Eurasian ideas with
Eurasian precedents. This book showcases the importance of nomadic polities and the
significance of the steppe environment (physical and conceptual) in the making of Eurasia. In
the era of the Eurasian Economic Union and the One Belt One Road project, this approach
provides the historical underpinnings for renewed regional cooperation. A reinterpretation of
history based on the Silk Road in the Mongol period is timely and essential to the future
imagination of the Eurasian region.