Exhibit - Relevance
How does the Silk Road affect us today?
Many items we use every day would be unavailable to us if not for Silk Road trade.
At its height during the Tang (tahng) Dynasty (618-907 CE), over 1,000 years ago, the Silk Road gave passage to raw materials and finished goods, but also to ideas, inventions, and religions. The exchange on the Silk Road between East and West led to a mingling of cultures and technologies on a scale that had been previously unprecedented. Trade is very different today from the exchange undertaken on the Silk Road. Yet, the Silk Road provided a model for trade between many cultures over an extremely long period of time. Technological advances plus increased connectivity via the internet have made it possible to trade on a truly global scale. In fact, global trade is so widespread that we often do not think about where the items we use originate. Items that would once have been considered rare luxury goods can now be acquired at any corner market.
Our quick access to goods and information has altered the global trade and information landscape, making it possible to eat a tomato in the middle of winter, obtain a product from across the globe in a matter of days, or even communicate almost instantly with anyone in the world with a broadband connection. |
