У статті йдеться про формування, зміст та
розуміння поняття «Великий Шовковий шлях». Автор доводить, що трансконтинентальної торгівлі
шовком між Китаєм та країнами Близького Сходу
і Європи в сучасному економічному розумінні у давнину не існувало. Торговельні зв’язки на так званій
«трасі Великого Шовкового шляху» були спорадичними, нерегулярними та залежали від багатьох
зовнішних чинників. Більш-менш стабільні торговельні операції між Китаєм та Заходом сформувалися лише у пізньому середньовіччі.
Interregional long-distance trade in silk certainly existed
in ancient and medieval times, but the transcontinental
and regular «Great Silk Road», whether overland
or even maritime, is a myth, a phantom. Its existence is
not confirmed either by written sources or by archaeological
data. A concept of the Silk Road implies at least knowledge
of macro-routes and their final destination, as well
as transcontinental connectivity. The latter, if it existed in
antiquity and medieval times at all, was much more occasional
than regular and intentional. As a rule, such trade
involved many middlemen. The «Silk Road» and the trade
in silk, even a trans-regional one, are quite different notions.
The transcontinental overland trade existed in but
a few short-lived historical periods; it was neither confined
to silk nor was it even a road. The «silk roads» were only
one of many long-distance continental and transcontinental
trading itineraries that existed in the Old World in
premodern times. It is also important to remember that
transcontinental trade was limited only to high-value,
low-volume goods. The exotic appeal of long-distance trade
in luxuries combined with a striving for political correctness
often results in distorted and exaggerated opinions
on premodern commerce in general. Not only silk and
other luxury and prestige goods, but also people, religions,
languages, scientific knowledge, inventions, innovations,
new technologies, know-how, chemicals, minerals, metals,
plants, medicine, cultural transmissions and artistic styles
and fashions, cuisine, and musical instruments moved
along its numerous itineraries, but on the negative side,
epidemic diseases and epizootics were also disseminated
across Eurasia along with them. Finally, it is worth stressing
again that the long-distance Eurasian trade not only
directly or indirectly stimulated movements of people and
created ethnic diasporas. Frequently it was just members
of these diasporas who brought new knowledge and technological
knowhow and contributed to their practical applications
in the new milieus. That was the main achievement
of Eurasian trade, with no continuity between the
trade in silk in the ancient and medieval times.
