Supply Chain Insights from the Silk Route

Silk Route, is the ancient trade route, linking China with the west, that carried goods and ideas between Rome and China. Silk went westward, and wool, gold, and silver went east. Nestorian Christianity and Buddhism (from India), also traveled the Silk Route.” – Encyclopedia Britannica

This ancient trade route connected China and Japan & Korea in the east and Eurasia (mostly Venice) in the West. It was primarily an over-land trade route in the early years with many intermittent stops and evolved to include the maritime routes in the later years. The significance of the route is that the Silk Route and another similar route, the Spice Route, were the two main trade connections between the East and the West, ten centuries ago. Pioneer stories of the early silk salesman, including the chinese are legendary. They made the world a smaller place hundreds of years ago.

In recent years, China has promoted the belt and road initiative, a modern trade route. Understanding the old silk route, provides insights to the scope and the future of the new initiative.

Connectivity Is Everything

Two major industrial areas of China, the Pearl River delta in the Southeast and the Yangtze River delta in…