Dominic Barton offers an interesting look at trade ties and new plans for shipping routes created in the paving of the “new Silk Road.”
From the Financial Times:
Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen, the German historian and geographer, coined the expression “Silk Road” 130 years ago to designate the well-worn path between China and the West via Damascus.
He chose silk as symbolic of the exotic and highly prized goods China allowed to flow from its centers to barbarian lands.
Today, no single commodity could claim exclusive naming rights. The “new Silk Road” — shorthand for the revitalized trade between the Middle East and China — carries steel, telecom equipment, oil, humans and financial capital, and more besides. [Full text]
For more on “the new Silk Road,” refer to this past CDT entry.
