3 ms·

While it is true that vikings traded and travelled down there - the famous Varangian Guard of Byzantium is a notable example. It does make Asian representation

by gelert 6y ago

While it is true that vikings traded and travelled down there - the famous Varangian Guard of Byzantium is a notable example. It does make Asian representation less likely. Trade with North and West Africa was purely maritime whereas to travel and trade across what is now Russia land travel was required, even if rivers made up most of the distance. This drastically slowed down travel time making it much more likely those Asian merchants would sell their goods on to an intermediary rather than travel all the way to Scandinavia and then on to Britain. On another tack I suppose it also doesn't really make sense for an Asian merchant like that to go on to Britain if they were in Scandinavia - I doubt they'd get better deals on goods or more demand for their goods. And they wouldn't return that way. Whereas African merchants would happen upon Britain first and would stop on their way back if they actually did travel all the way to Scandinavia.

bluGill 6y ago
To add to that an Asian merchant would need to know a very large number of languages to go that far on land. The African merchants traveling by ship need to know their home language and whatever language is spoken where they trade. If you stop at a port along the way you aren't there to trade your goods, just a few supplies: possibly food, or alcohol and prostitutes (note that I always use the oxford comma!) which can be done with simple gestures. When you cross land you travel through too many villages to risk not knowing them all (or having a guide who does). The cost of land travel as well means that almost nothing is going to be traded long distances. Any merchant from Asia is guaranteed to be talking directly to the powerful king - if there isn't a powerful king (which England was just starting to get) there isn't enough wealth to make anything worth bringing that far. This does leave the curiosity. The person who doesn't fit in back home: so he travels far and lives as an exotic figure, moving around often enough before the locals figure out why he isn't welcome back home.

by gelert 6y ago

bluGill 6y ago

To add to that an Asian merchant would need to know a very large number of languages to go that far on land. The African merchants traveling by ship need to know their home language and whatever language is spoken where they trade. If you stop at a port along the way you aren't there to trade your goods, just a few supplies: possibly food, or alcohol and prostitutes (note that I always use the oxford comma!) which can be done with simple gestures. When you cross land you travel through too many villages to risk not knowing them all (or having a guide who does). The cost of land travel as well means that almost nothing is going to be traded long distances. Any merchant from Asia is guaranteed to be talking directly to the powerful king - if there isn't a powerful king (which England was just starting to get) there isn't enough wealth to make anything worth bringing that far. This does leave the curiosity. The person who doesn't fit in back home: so he travels far and lives as an exotic figure, moving around often enough before the locals figure out why he isn't welcome back home.