Serica. India Beyond the Ganges extended from the Bay of Bengal to the
Magnus Sinus (“Great Bay”), which must refer to the region where the
peninsula ends and the islands begin, around the Straits of Malacca. The best
cinnamon came from here, and some places had much gold.
India Beyond the Ganges lay on the Indian Ocean, but past the Magnus
Sinus the land turned and ran south to north along what is now the South
China Sea to Ptolemy’s Sinae with its port of Kattigata. This was the edge of
the world. Ptolemy draws a clear distinction between Sinae and Serica, and
although geographically he has them as neighbors, there does not seem to
have been any contact between them. Coming from the west, a traveler went
to Serica by land and Sinae by sea. Herodotus knew nothing about the Seres,
but Roman authors did: it was the land of the Silk people. According to
both Pliny and thePeriplus, north of the Black and Caspian Seas and the
Himalayan Mountains was an ocean covering what is actually Siberia,
Mongolia, and Manchuria. The Seres could be reached by following its
shoreline beyond a land of raging snowstorms, tribes of cannibals, and
deserts thronging with wild beasts. The Seres, according to Pliny, had red
hair and blue eyes, and“though mild in character, yet resemble wild ani-
mals.”Exactly which term,“Sinae”or“Serica,”equates to the modern China
is a bit muddled. Sinae could refer to eastern peninsular Southeast Asia or
southern China or both whereas Serica could refer to northern China or
Xinjiang and eastern Central Asia or both.
At least some Roman Empire merchants must have visited both India
Beyond the Ganges and Sinae, but the frequency, volume, and value of their
trade were probably slight. By the time they got there, the Southeast Asians
had been engaged in long-distance exchange for many centuries. The earliest
involved highland foragers swapping with lowland farmers in reciprocal sys-
tems or between inland and coastal peoples, using rivers thatflowed from the
interior. Exchange was done by barter between communities, and neither
specialized traders nor profit-driven trade was involved. They appeared with
the arrival of seaborne traders who sought inland and forest products such as
ivory, rhinoceros horn, and bird feathers.
Trade also developed in the interior in places such as central Thailand that
were endowed with natural resources, particularly copper and tin. In the
second millenniumBCEexchange involving raw materials and exotic items
such as marine shells, marble, volcanic stone, and precious stones was being
transacted probably through down-the-line systems. The Iron Age, which
began in Southeast Asia inc. 500BCE, greatly stimulated economic growth.
Villages of specialized craftsmen began producing products that were mar-
keted at fairs and religious festivals, and soon towns developed as centers for
local and long-distance trade. Mortuary goods included precious stones, gold,
and glass beads from outside Southeast Asia, and bulk products such as iron
along with luxury items such as pearls and coral were traded along the coast.
One interesting characteristic of Southeast Asian commerce that likely went
The all-water route 111