(陆上丝路贸易) 7 min read   For nearly two thousand years, China was the world’s largest trading nation. This series of articles presents a broad-stroke overview of that history in three parts: Silk Road trade, maritime trade, and the opium trade.   The establishment of the ancient Silk Road (古丝绸之路) is generally dated to around 130 […]

(海上贸易) 6 min read   Ancient China’s maritime trade largely involved an exchange between manufactured goods from China and natural products from Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, and Africa. This network connected the economies of the Eastern Hemisphere for centuries, making China the central manufacturing powerhouse of the premodern world.   While the overland

(鸦片贸易) 5 min read   From the mid-16th to the early 19th century, China was the world’s leading manufacturing power and absorbed much of the global silver supply in payment for its exports. European demand for Chinese tea, silk, and porcelain was immense, but because China accepted only silver, Britain’s reserves steadily declined. To reverse