Why Asia’s historic Silk Road should have been called the ‘Horse Road’
It was China’s desperate need for good warhorses that spawned history’s most famous trade network, animals it paid for in silk and then tea
For centuries, the most important luxury good exchanged on the Silk Road was not silk, spices or ceramics, but made of flesh, bone and thunder: horses.
History’s most famous trade network should really have been called the “Horse Road”, argues David Chaffetz, an independent researcher and member of the London-based Royal Society for Asian Affairs. Contrary to common belief, he says, the route was not primarily motivated by a desire to sell silk westward, but to acquire horses eastward.
The stark environmental reality was that China lacked the vast grasslands necessary to breed and maintain large herds of high-quality horses. Meanwhile, the hotter, wetter climates in its southern regions often resulted in higher disease rates and poorer stock, and rotted the horses’ hooves.
On the contrary, the tribal confederations of the Eurasian Steppe – from the Xiongnu to the Uygurs to the Mongols – had societies based on horses, where herds numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Their horses were notably larger and faster, with incredible stamina and hardiness; Han horses were generally smaller, coarser and less suitable for battle.