The Trade History Of Central Asia: 3th-8th Centuries

The Central Asia was a central hub in East-West cultural exchanges in the history. The history of the region’s economic and trade development not only belongs to the category of regional economic history, but also is integrated part of the history of Silk Road trade. In combination with historical documentation, unearthed Han-Hu language documents and archaeological materials, with the three regions Sogdiana, Bactria and the western region in the 3-8th century AD as the main object of study, the paper conducts in depth investigation on the commodity trading, merchant activities within the areas, as well as on the trade network which extends to the surrounding areas from the center Asia. The purpose of the study is to try to reproduce the historical features of the cross-cultural trade activities of Central Asia in the Middle Ages.Most towns of Central Asia relied on the resources of oases, and the economic foundation was oasis irrigation agriculture and livestock, leading to high economic dependence on external condition. The Sogdiana area attached much importance to business development, "seeking nothing but profits" was the most appropriate image of Sogdians. Merchants occupied a very important position in the Sogdian society. The foreign trade of Sogdiana was concentrated in the eastern section of the Silk Road, especially, remarkable achievements was made in the direction of China. The Sogdian business team went to China and obtained profits which were economic support of the entire Sogdiana area. Bactria trade can be divided into two levels, first, the general population’s economic life embodied in Bactrian Documents, most signed contract were connected with the land, vineyards trading, and daily necessities were listed in various types of accounts; second, historical records and the artifacts represented the luxury trade, the Bactria foreign trade appeared much earlier than the Sogdiana region, which had long been traded with India, Rome, sustainably developing till Tang Dynasty. Business activities of the Western Region reflected the multicultural interaction and convergence, in the terms of merchants, there were local merchants, merchants from Central Plain and Western Hu merchants. Many Sogdians naturalized in Western region to specialize in trade; in the terms of commodities, the daily necessities that common people and monks bought from the market were both locally produced and from the Central Plain, Central Asia and other more distant regions; the documentation of Tocharian B dialects reflected the effective management of the Qiuci Kingdom in the silk Road trade. The government authorities not only facilitated the Silk Road trade, but also participated in it, becoming the largest beneficiaries. The trade within Central Asian region were first of all daily necessities, food, textiles and a variety of wares, such commodities were not high in the value, but were necessities in life; the other commodities included slaves, middle and high-end textiles, which were sold well in the market; the third category of commodities referred to externally input goods, Chinese silk and herbal incense, Indian herbal incense, Byzantine and Persian glassware, jewelry, gold and silver, most of which were characterized by luxury, with little demand but high profit. Some of the luxury goods imported into Central Asia entered into transactions in Central Asia while the others kept being transported along the Silk Road to become an integral part of the Silk Road trade. The currency casted and distributed by Central Asian region was featured by imitation and innovation. Sogdiana and Bactria maintained the tradition of currency beginning at Achaemenid era, heavily influenced by Greek, Kushan, Persian monetary system. In respect of currency circulation in the Western Region, Tulufan region used cast silver coins in the 6-8 century AD, other regions mainly adopted copper coins, basically there’s no trace of so-called golden coins.