Unravelling the history of relations between the East and the West along the great silk and spice routes, this book is on the cultures linked by trade. It is one of a series which promotes this history covering the earliest Chinese explorations to the flowering of cities and civilizations founded on the exchange of ideas and the development of trade. The history of humankind, its cultures and civilizations, is inextricably linked with the development of trade. Cities grew up around the markets it took place in and empires were built on the wealth it created. Across Asia, the paths of the silk and spice routes brought together the many different peoples of these empires and cities. When meeting to trade, they not only exchanged precious goods but also the ideas and beliefs that shaped each of their cultures - ideas expressed in their lifestyles, their arts and even in the goods they had to sell. By these means, cultures slowly changed, amalgamated and developed. - from Amzon