Silk Road Trade Network (1140s)

Timeline

1. 1141–1143Huai River–Yangtze River trade belt · ChinaAfter the Shaoxing Treaty, mutual markets were set up on the Song-Jin border; Southern Song compensated for blocked northern overland routes via sea lanes and the southwestern tea-horse road, sending silk, tea, and porcelain westward or re-exporting through Central Asia, reshaping the East Asian route pattern.
2. 1142–1148Routes north and south of the Tianshan · XinjiangWestern Liao controlled routes north and south of the Tianshan and the Semirechye region, providing merchants with a relatively stable transit environment; cities like Samarkand and Bukhara continued as transshipment hubs linking Persian, Indian, and East Asian markets.
3. 1145–1150Samarkand · UzbekistanTransoxiana cities received silk and porcelain from the East and spices and gems from India and the Arab world, linking with Persian Gulf ports and Mediterranean merchant ships to form core nodes of a combined land-sea Eurasian trade network.