The modern silk road: trade in Persian opium across Central Asia in the long nineteenth century

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article focuses on an overlooked chapter in the history of commercial relations between Iran and China. The article shows how Persian opium was taken to Central Asia before it was distributed across the Han interior for much of the nineteenth century. Historical caravan routes and long-established networks of commercial interests served to facilitate this cross-continental exchange. The article argues that such overland trade was important for unleashing globalizing processes that are often discussed in the context of the history of opium, capitalism, and commercial relations in the Indian Ocean world. This article, in brief, decentres the history of modern trade and economy in Asia by discussing the role of non-European traders, commodities, supply chains, and networks in the development of the globalized commercial and economic order in Asia.