Asian Experiences: Marco Polo and the Silk Road

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Asian Experiences: Marco Polo and the Silk Road

Far East. Some Westerners accompanied the Mongols when they traveled to their recently conquered lands in China, thus becoming the first Europeans to visit that Far Eastern land in more than a millenium. When the first of these trips was made is not known. However, by the second half of the thirteenth century, judging from the appearance of Asian products in European markets, most notably in Italy, a trade connection with at least parts of China had been achieved. This development corresponds with the travels of the most famous merchant family to journey to China, the Polos.

Polo Brothers. Between 1262 and 1269 two Venetian brothers, Niccolo and Maffeo Polo, almost by accident made their first trip to China. Cut off from their normal trade route by war, the Polos were forced to travel east with the Mongols whom they had befriended. What they found there was a society certainly different from their own, but one which seemed as equally interested in what trade articles the Europeans had to offer them as the Europeans were to acquire their goods. Of course, only a few could afford these items, and the travel was not only long and tedious but also risky. Still, the Polos, and others like them, seemed to believe that the profit from this trade must have been worth it. (Additionally, there was the adventure of it all, a reason for traveling to the East that should not be discounted.)

Mercantile Family. By the time Niccolo and Maffeo made their first Chinese journey, the Polos were a well-established family of merchants who dealt in luxury goods acquired in far-off locales. One of their other brothers even owned a house in Sudak, a Venetian colony on the Crimean peninsula, which they visited before setting off across Asia. When Niccolo’s son and Maffeo’s nephew, Marco, came of age to learn the merchant’s trade, he also traveled with them to China. Marco also recorded his experiences in the East.

Observations. According to Marco Polo, his father and uncle had returned to the West in 1269 bearing diplomatic messages and a request for Christian missionaries to the Pope from Kublai Khan. But Pope Gregory X was suspicious of these messages and refused to send the large number of men requested to accompany the Polos on a return journey to China. As a result, only Marco Polo accompanied his family members when they returned to the Far East. Traveling from Venice to Armenia by sea in 1271 or 1272, the Polos then made their way across the lands of Asia Minor and Iran into Inner Asia. The journey was not easy. Marco Polo described the water as “brackish and green” and “so bitter that no one could bear to drink it.” Diarrhea became commonplace for the European travelers. Although their exact route is hard to follow from Polo’s descriptions, it was long; they passed over large plains, great deserts, and high mountains. He was struck by the beauty of the landscape, although at other times he was frightened by the nature he encountered. He also found the air pure and fresh. The travelers journeyed past the city of Balkh, left in ruins by Genghis Khan in 1220. Yet, whatever negative spirit such a display of Mongol violence

might have had on the young man was soon changed when he first encountered the Mongols and found them to “live by trade and industry.” They had orchards and vineyards; they grew cotton, flax, and hemp. Many of their products were completely unattainable in the West. For a Venetian merchant, even a young one, the products were exciting

Kublai Khan. After three and one-half years, Niccolo, Maffeo, and Marco Polo arrived in China, at Shangtu, the summer palace of Kublai Khan. For the next sixteen or seventeen years, Marco Polo would live among the Chinese, staying near Kublai Khan either at Shangtu or at the Great Khan’s main imperial palace in Peking. However, exactly what role he played with Kublai Khan in these palaces is uncertain. According to his own writings, he assisted in the governance of the Khan’s empire, including the assistance of successful military adventures against some of Kublai Khan’s enemies. He claimed even to have been the governor of the large city of Yangchow. However, some scholars dispute these claims, asserting instead that without corroborative evidence these were probably nothing more than Marco Polo’s later delusions. (Polo did not dictate these adventures until years after he had returned to Venice.) Other scholars support Marco’s tales, noting a certain Po-Lo who appears in Chinese records and is given governmental offices; this person, they claim, might be Marco Polo.

Deep Admiration. Yet, no matter what the truth of some of the adventures that Marco Polo assigns himself, there can be no doubt that he had a great love for the Chinese culture and people and that this love was reciprocated by the Great Khan and others. His insights into their traditions and practices, in daily life as well as in business, made engrossing reading. He was clearly given a freedom of movement among the Mongols and Chinese that greatly aided his later descriptions.

Return Home. Marco Polo left China in 1290 or 1292. Together with his father and uncle, he escorted a Mongolian princess to Iran to marry the governor there. They traveled by sea, in a convoy of fourteen Chinese junks, making their way by means of Indonesia, Ceylon, and India. Polo would describe each of these lands as well, again increasing the knowledge of the world for his many European readers. The heat in these parts was so intense that some of the travelers died. However, they eventually reached their goal, and after attending to their various duties in Iran, which delayed them for several more months, the Polos all returned to Venice, where they arrived in 1295. Neither he nor his father nor his uncle would ever return to Asia.

Important Route. Marco Polo had traveled along what would become known as the Silk Route. The reason for the name, of course, was simple: silk was one of the most prized commodities that came from the Far East to Europe. Should a merchant be able to deliver a cargo of silk, or of pepper or other spices, the profits made him a wealthy man. Yet, it was a long journey, fraught with risks both to those who financed the travel as well as those who undertook it. Still, because it was so profitable, attempts were continually made to find a way of shortening the trip, as well as making it safer. Marco Polo’s trip was one of these attempts, and it seemed to have provided a new and relatively improved means of acquiring trade goods from the Far East. Before long, he and others in his century began to travel overland, through peaceful-at least to them-Mongols, who also seemed to respect if not to completely understand the politics and economics of long-distance trade. They seem also to have profited from it themselves, acquiring goods and knowledge from these European traders. Before the Silk Road was established, the only method for Europeans to acquire Far Eastern items was from the Egyptian port of Alexandria. These goods had been brought either overland or by sea by Muslim traders, and thus their availability (and cost) depended on the good will of Muslim merchants toward Christians. Understandably, during times of war, and especially during the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when Muslim military successes eventually caused the Christians to abandon the Holy Land, this route of acquiring Eastern Asian goods would be cut off. With the Silk Road, a new route had been discovered, that did not rely on Muslim peace and friendliness to be successful. Once it began to be used, it was profitable to Muslim merchants, as well. Within less than a century after Marco Polo traveled the Silk Road, most of the trade that was being carried on with Asia came via this route; it is also likely that many Eastern innovations adopted by the West in the Late Middle Ages (1300-1500) were also spread by Silk Road travelers.