An Analysis Of The Economic Exchanges Between The Roman Empire And The Han Dynasty

Between the 2nd century BC and the 2nd century AD,there appeared two united and powerful countries in the east and west of the Eurasian continent,namely.Roman Empire and Han Dynasty.Until now,some subjects have still been discussed by the scholars at home and abroad,such as whether the two countries communicated with each other by the Silk Road,what were the questions of economic exchanges,how to further understand the relationship between the Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty,and so on.Therefore,through the time clue from the 2nd century BC to the 2nd century AD and the space clue of the Silk Road of ancient traffic artery in this paper,some questions of the economic exchange between Roman Empire and Han Dynasty are analysed,such as silk,iron,glass,coin and wool textile,etc.,so as to obtain some new conclusions and enlightenments.Firstly,the social backgrounds of Roman Empire and Han Dynasty as well as their basic communication ways are briefly reviewed.According to the discussions on the natural environment,social environment and productivity level of Rome Empire and Han Dynasty,it is shown that civilizations of Roman Empire and Han Dynasty independently develop and individually mature,however,they occasionally have indirect or direct communication,they are skillfully connected by the ancient Silk Road and then collide and promote each other.Therefore,it is feasible and meaningful to explore the economic exchange questions between Roman Empire and Han Dynasty.Secondly,the studies on the questions of economic exchanges between Roman Empire and Han Dynasty are summarized,and the economic questions between the two are analysed from the perspective of Silk Road.Specifically,according to the historical data and works,the silk and iron from Han Dynasty to Roman Empire as well as the glasswares and coins from Roman Empire to Han Dynasty are further explored,then the reasons and manifestations of their communication are analyzed.As for Rome,it is thought that the Chinese silk,the way of silk production and Chinese irons were gradually understood by the Romans rather than immediately.The reason why Rome had similarities strange understanding of silk was that they first knew the tussah and then the silkworm.Furthermore,for the irons,the Romans firstly knew the Indian iron and then the Chinese iron.As for China,the Chinese glasswares of Han Dynasty found in China were closely related to the Roman glasswares,which was affected by Roman glasswares via India.Moreover,as one of the ancient coins,the Roman coin was likely to appear in China through a comparison of historical records and archaeological findings.Finally,from the perspective of content and route,this paper carries out a comparative analysis and evaluate for the questions of the economic exchanges between Han Dynasty and Roman Empire from the 2nd century BC to the 2nd century AD.Drawing on the methods of historical comparison,global history and empire studies.this paper summarizes the enlightenment of the economic exchange questions between the Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty.The first point,although the Roman Empire was thousands of miles away from the Han Dynasty,there were still other economic exchanges between them,such as fur textiles except for silk and glassware,under the efforts of merchants,travelers,monks,etc.Next,the ancient Silk Road was an important channel for the economic exchanges between Roman Empire and Han dynasty in their exchanges.Later,the role of the maritime Silk Road was worthy of more attentions.The last one,it is known that the intermediate countries and regions between Roman Empire and Han Dynasty,such as India,Kushan Empire,Parthian Empire,etc.,played an important role in the exchanges through the comparative studies on the questions of economic exchanges between Roman Empire and Han Dynasty,which has a certain reference significance for the construction of the Silk Road economic belt.