Trade and Expansion in Han China: A Study in the Structure of Sino-Barbarian Economic Relations

Trade and Expansion in Han China: A Study in the Structure of Sino-Barbarian Economic Relations reframes the Han empire’s celebrated “Silk Route” moment within a far larger, more intricate economy of exchange and power. Ying-shih Yu argues that trade—in forms ranging from market transactions to “gift” and “tributary” exchange—and expansion—military, political, economic, and cultural—were mutually constitutive processes that shaped the Han world. Western outreach to the “Western Regions” and...