Roads connect. People, industries and nations. The first time the phrase “The Silk Road” was used in English was in a book called The Story of the Road, written by the geologist John Gregory in 1931. The Silk Route had been mentioned in English a little earlier, but it wasn’t given much importance. It was considered a topic of interest for Russian geographers, but not for anyone else.
The Silk Road is a story about people, trade and countries. About money and prosperity. In whatever language we tell it. But by the time English became a prominent language, the road was no longer in use, so in the English language the story remained untold.
In his classic, The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith wrote in 1776, “China has long been one of the richest, that is, one of the most fertile, best cultivated, most industrious, and most populous countries in the world. It seems, however, to have been long stationary.” To the West this was true. Since the days of Marco Polo, Europeans had travelled to China by sea, not land. And it remained that way for many years. When did Westerners start to take an interest in China? And more particularly the Silk Road? As is very often the case, they took an interest when they realised there was profit to be found.
