Historical Precedents

The New Silk Road/一带一路 initiative draws upon a multiplicity of sources for both spiritual inspiration and technical planning.

## The "Old" Silk Road

The "Old" Silk Road or simply the Silk Road comprised a series of trade routes starting in China and terminating at various points in the Mediterranean, India, and eventually....

### Pre-Han

The Qin Dynasty under 秦始皇 (Qin2 Shi3huang2) is generally acknowledged as laying the foundations of the Silk Road; however, there is evidence of long-distance trade from China to Central Asia and beyond dating as far back as the 2nd millennium BCE, with remains of Chinese silk even being found in Ancient Egyptian tombs.

### Tang Dynasty/唐朝

The Silk Road reached its zenith under the Tang Dynasty. Under emperor Hou Junji the silk road remained open for four decades. The road closed for two decades when Tibetans took shut down parts of the road but it was reopened after a reconquest of the Gilgit valley. Travelers wrote about strict border control in this period as well as various government checkpoints allowing people to pass if only travelers payed a fee. Culturally the horse became a symbol of power in China because of their importance in the Silk Road. With the land route the Tang Dynasty also opened a sea route with India. To control the road the Tang Dynasty focused on dominating Central Asia with Turkic allies. During this period the Tang Dynasty welcomed foreign cultures and greatly increased Persian and Sogdian power as commerce moved through their respective territories.

### Decline

With repeated barbarian incursions, the massive disruption of the Mongol conquest, a shift from land to sea trade, and the re-emergence of a domestic consumer luxury good industry in Europe...

## Roman Infrastructure

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...aqueducts allowed for a greater population density by providing a reliable, continuously available source of water

The celebrated sociologist and political philosopher Max Weber made the provocative and heterodox but since seldom remarked-upon observation that Rome's roadways were typically regarded not as a boon by the common people, but as a disadvantage, for while they facilitated trade, they were effectively military installations, in that they permitted legionnaires to march directly and swiftly from settlement to settlement and enforce the political supremacy of the Roman state. While the Roman roads are famous for their advanced engineering and incredible durability (with many still in use to this day), it is worth noting that with the decline of Rome's political credibility and the precipitous increase of both taxation and brigandry during the late period of the Western Roman Empire, Roman subject increasingly shunned the use of...and turned again to maritime travel...

## Emergence of the Global Financial Order

...several intellectual and economic shifts occurring in Europe during the late Middle Ages...rediscovery of Justinian's *Corpus Juris Civilis* by...in Ravenna..

...fall of Constantinople and the shift of trade from the Byzantine East to Venice and the Italian peninsula....

...Venice...of double-entry bookkeeping...

...English thinker...argument for the permissibility of usury in certain situations...

...establishment of colonies...further integration of disparate regions...

...House Rothschild and the other great European banking houses...Suez Canal...

...along with the ...gold as a reserve commodity...led to the near-universal acceptance of a *laissez faire* economic orthodoxy governing international trade as well as domestic policy making by the European powers, unofficially dominated by an Anglo..naval...on the one hand, and a cosmopolitan, international...on the other...lasting throughout the 19th century up until the fallout of the First World War and subsequent crisis of capitalism...

...often overlooked that the recognition of gold as a means of...ensured the continued...of banks...a sort of economic fulcrum between currency exchange and the price of goods...

...precedent...model of political domination via trade and the action of government-sanctioned corporate bodies acting independently yet...goals of hegemony...British East Indies Company...

...often forgotten that ...territory gains of the British Empire did not originally come about as a result of direct aggression by the...but rather indirectly: ...incursions by corporate...and then subsequently annexed only after Parliament... In this fashion, ...British...able to...

## The Marshall Plan

One of the major inspirations for China's OBOR initiative is the US-led Marshall plan in the aftermath of World War II. ...

## New Silk Road as a Soft Power Initiative

...co-opt the "brand" of the original Silk Road, with its romance and lengthy history...

...increased prestige of Chinese know-how and leadership...

## Implications

...

...an emerging ... that American hegemony has not been so much a positive development built upon the foundations of European colonialism and...but rather a period of *decline* of Western domination; a provisional, improvisational ...by declining Great Powers to maintain the preeminence of...and achieve...a period of decadence (in the original sense of the word).

...

Seen in this context, the (re)emergence of an ethnic Chinese...represents a new chapter...