Mural guide
A laden caravan enters an inland market, where merchants weigh goods and examine patterned silk beneath timber stalls.
Coins, note plates, weights and export porcelain: trade and trust told through objects
Caravans traversing the Silk Road, banknotes pioneering trade: tracing how ancient trans-regional merchant syndicates engineered the world's earliest commercial credit and trust networks.
Commerce
Caravans traversing the Silk Road, banknotes pioneering trade: tracing how ancient trans-regional merchant syndicates engineered the world's earliest commercial credit and trust networks.
Silk RoadHan to Ming dynastyZhang Qian's mission west, the Han Protectorate of the Western Regions, and Tang Chang'an as a meeting place of Eurasian merchants.
Merchant Guild CommerceMing dynasty to Republican eraShanxi merchants rising by the grain-for-salt system and Huizhou merchants by Huai salt, bound into groups by home place and clan.
Currency EvolutionShang dynasty to presentMoney over the ages, from Shang cowries and Qin banliang coins to Ming silver.
Jiaozi BanknotesNorthern Song to Ming dynastyThe official jiaozi of Northern Song Yizhou, backed by iron cash: the world's earliest government-issued paper money.
Shanxi Remittance HousesQing dynasty to Republican eraShanxi remittance houses sent money between cities by draft and branch without carrying silver, 'remitting throughout the realm'.
Contractual Credit CultureWestern Zhou to presentLand deeds, partnership and hiring papers, from the Qiu Wei vessel inscription to Turpan contracts and Huizhou documents.
Marketplace HubsSong dynasty to presentFrom Northern Song Bianjing, with shops opened along the streets, to Jiangnan market towns of shops fronting workshops.
Salt & Transit MonopoliesHan dynasty to presentState monopoly of salt and iron from Emperor Wu of Han, salt monopoly under Tang, and customs duties as sources of state revenue.
Tea-Horse Frontier TradeTang to Qing dynastyState-run trade of central tea and silk for frontier horses, also used to keep the border stable.
Lineage Trust FundsNorthern Song to modern eraFan Zhongyan's charitable estate at Suzhou, whose field income supported kinsmen, later followed by Jiangnan clans.