The Silk Road and the Iranian political economy in late antiquity

Iran, the Silk Road, and the problem of aristocratic empire

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2817367
AutoresRichard E Payne (University of Chicago, autor de correspondencia)
Año2018
Volumen81
Número2
Páginas227-250
Fecha de publicación2018-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaBulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0041-977X • E-ISSN: 1474-0699
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0041977x18000459
OpenAlexW2884341673
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas9
Referencias citadas47

The Iranian Empire emerged in the third century in the interstices of the Silk Road that increasingly linked the markets of the Mediterranean and the Near East with South, Central, and East Asia. The ensuing four centuries of Iranian rule corresponded with the heyday of trans-Eurasian trade, as the demand of moneyed imperial elites across the continent for one another's high-value commodities stimulated the development of long-distance networks. Despite its position at the nexus of trans-continental and trans-oceanic commerce, accounts of Iran in late antiquity relegate trade to a marginal role in its political economy. The present article seeks to foreground the contribution of trans-continental mercantile networks to the formation of Iran and to argue that its development depended as much on the political economies of its western and eastern neighbours as on internal Near Eastern factors

Ancient history · Archaeology · China · East Asia · Economics · Economy · Empire · Geography · Nexus (standard · Political science · Politics · Position (finance · Ancient Near East History · Byzantine Studies and History · Eurasian Exchange Networks · History · Law