What are the negative effects of silk trade?
1 Answer
Disease, bandits, wealth inequality.
Explanation:
The Silk Roads were known for often spreading disease all throughout Asia and even into Europe. When one merchant had a disease or illness, they usually spread it to other merchants while interacting during trade, which allowed for disease to spread very easily. The Silk Roads contributed a lot to the Black Plague.
Bandits and thievery were a big problem as well. Bandits would raid merchant caravans and outposts, and often murdered the merchants as well, which made traveling the Silk Roads alone very dangerous. There was also no law enforcement to patrol the roads to promote safety; this would eventually be introduced with the Mongolian conquest of Asia.
Another one is wealth inequality and consolidation of wealth within the hands of a few merchants and leaders. Those who controlled trade along the Silk Roads often benefited very much and became very wealthy. This caused massive wealth divides in many different empires such as in China and created conflicts between the lower and upper classes over the balance of wealth distribution.
