once trade contacts with China had been established during
the Roman period.ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
BY KIRK H. BEETZ
Trade helped build nations in ancient Asia and the Pacifi c,
carrying with it ideas and inventions and encouraging people
to learn about distant lands. Among the Pacifi c islands, trade
was carried out using wooden boats. Near the Asian main-
land, manufactured goods from China, Japan, and Korea
went to islands like Sumatra, Java, and Tonga in exchange for
spices, exotic woods, and rare seashells.
On the Asian mainland the economic giants were China
and India. For most of ancient times China tended to look
inward for trade. During the Shang Dynasty (ca. 1500 to 1045
b.c.e.) the Chinese believed that the world did not extend
much beyond their borders in any direction. Th ey focused on
agriculture around the Yellow River. Important factors in the
expansion of the Shang view of the world were attacks from
outside and the discovery and then importation of goods from
areas beyond China’s borders. Th e most signifi cant imported
goods were wood and rice from the south. Instead of striving
just to build good relations with their trading partners, the
Shang adopted a policy that would remain typical of China’s
foreign trading for thousands of years: Th ey tried to conquer
the people who had the goods the Shang desired, making
those goods part of the Shang Dynasty and thus goods at the
command of the Shang king.
Th e Shang Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty that followed
(1045 to 256 b.c.e.) absorbed through warfare the YangtzeRiver region and its rich rice fi elds. During the Zhou Dy-
nasty, transporting the South’s agricultural products to the
north, where the national capitals were to be found, became
a severe problem. Th e great rivers of China were not entirely
satisfactory for shipping food; their winding and occasional
shift ing courses made transportation slow and unreliable.
Th e government started building canals by the 400s b.c.e. to
aid the movement of goods across the nation, but the almost
ceaseless warfare among the provinces of China disrupted
those public works.
Th e western province of Qin gained an advantage when
it built a canal connecting its major rivers. Th is had begun
as a scam: An eloquent civil engineer had been dispatched
by Qin’s rivals to persuade the ruler of Qin to build the ex-
pensive canal, drawing resources from Qin’s military. Even
aft er he learned of the scam, the ruler was so convinced of
the value of the canal that he continued its construction. As
a result, Qin was able to transport goods faster than it could
earlier, thus strengthening its economy so much that it be-
came China’s foremost economic and military power.
Th e Han Dynasty (202 b.c.e. to 220 c.e.) was aggressive
in building up trade within its borders, and it continued the
practice of invading nations that had goods it wanted, such
as horses from the west. More than had previous dynasties,
the Han Dynasty looked outward for trading opportunities.
Most of its eff orts focused on overland trade. At the cost of
the lives of hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers, the
Han pushed nomadic raiders out of the northwest and ex-
tended the Great Wall westward to protect the Silk Road—a
network of routes that led to Persia and through Persia to the
Mediterranean world. China exported silks, ceramics, and
metals to Rome, which paid in gold. Further, the Chinese pio-
neered trade routes into India. Some of the Chinese explorers
left written records of their travels through India. Silk made
its way from China to India in exchange for gems such as dia-
monds as well as fragrant woods.
Not until roughly the 300s c.e. did China began trading
in earnest by sea. Before then it had traded mostly with Japan,
which exported its own high grade of silk and probably animal
skins and ceramics to China in exchange for Chinese metals—
especially copper coins, which became Japan’s medium of ex-
change. Otherwise, Malaysian seafarers had conducted most
of the sea trade between China and other southeastern lands.
Th e Malaysians were heavily infl uenced by the Indians.
Th e fi rst great Indian civilization, the Harappan (2600–
1500 b.c.e.), was a trading empire. Although it was focused
on the rivers of the Indus River valley, it established trading
posts hundreds of miles away in central Asia and Iran to im-
port lapis lazuli, tin, and bronze, sending out copper, gems,
and grain. Th e Sumerians dealt extensively with the Harap-
pans, and archaeologists have found numerous Harappan
artifacts at Mesopotamian sites. How much the trade infl u-
enced Harappans is a matter of much disagreement among
archaeologists, but it is possible that the political organiza-
tion of Harappan cities imitated that of the Sumerians.Steatite seals from the Indus Valley, dating to 2600 to 1900 b.c.e.
and thought to have been used in trading with other nations and
cultures (© Th e Trustees of the British Museum)1100 trade and exchange: Asia and the Pacific0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1100 1100 10/10/07 2:31:04 PM